Häxan (The Witches) / Camera Lense, Devil’s Eye and Hapless Women… - NOSPR

Benjamin Christensen, the Danish director, actor, producer, screenwriter, and set designer, was as multifaceted in his creativity as in his cinema. Versatile, uncommon, exceptional. He studied medicine, sang opera, acted on stage, and even became... an importer of French champagne. When he finally turned to film, he entered not timidly but with striking force, embracing it as both art and industry. His career path traced a wide arc, from Denmark and Sweden to Germany, and onwards to the Hollywood dream factory. In 1922, his monumental work Häxan (The Witches) reached cinema screens worldwide. Commissioned by the Swedish company Svensk Filmindustri, the production involved a vast budget and access to the most advanced film technology of the time and extended over nearly three years. The scale of the film proved commensurate with the scope of its subtitle, A Lecture on the History of Culture in Moving Pictures. The subject was a singular one: the history of black magic and Satanism in the Middle Ages, then carried forward into a context contemporary to the director. Universal history, the history of art, iconography, and psychiatry – all appear in the masterfully directed seven-part treatise. One cannot overlook the outstanding work of the cinematographer Johan Ankerstjerne, with certain highly evocative shots deliberately styled after the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. The film, which might have seemed destined for success, was not appreciated by audiences and was censored by the Church. In all likelihood, the work was ahead of its time. Viewed today, it discloses an additional dimension: the perennial oppressiveness of culture towards women. And the director himself appears on screen in the guise of the devil...

Anita Skwara