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| From http://karlails.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/haxan_poster_final.jpg |
Dir. Benjamin Christensen
As much as it's a product of its
era, with aspects that have dated, the uniqueness of Häxan is still rich, and the ideas are (sadly) still of importance
in the current era. People who do not follow a conventional viewpoint will be ostracised.
Those who are different - minorities, those of a belief opposite from the religion
or atheist mindset with most influence, etc. - will be looked at suspiciously
by those who do not take into account the complexities of individual
personality, and not necessarily on purpose, but because of a presumed idea
they are left in the vicinity of without any sense of full knowledge of it, from
the accusers to the defenders of such groups. Women, regardless of the attempts
of feminism, are frowned upon still in certain areas when they are too
"ugly", too "weird", too independent, or even if they fit
the stereotypes put upon them (pretty, sexually open, motherly) too much to the
point they make it their own. Rationality and logic, based on scientific logic,
or if you are spiritually or mystically inclined, is abused, both science and
spirituality victims equally, when someone wants what they want done, to the
point any cockamamie concept, as shown in scenes in this film, can be used as
evidence against someone. And unfortunately, real people were murdered using
these arguments, and considering the last century, with genocide, ethnic
cleansing, and assaults against groups for their gender, sexuality, beliefs,
social standing or race, we've yet as a species gotten the message we should
have learnt from the witch burning. As much as Häxan is pure, phantasmagorical entertainment, it was made with an
important message, and when you actually connect the content to reality it is a grim reminder. Häxan does feel naive in its wonder of
its subject of witchcraft, buts its virtuous naivety that wanted to learn from
its subject, and still realised, and reminds the viewer, that what it is based
on was reality.
Separated into seven parts, Häxan is a docu-fiction silent era film
about the subject of witchcraft, the persecuted witches, the beliefs practiced,
and how the trials played out. As phantasmic cinema, it's still full of
incredibly surreal and bizarre images, and from some of the illustrations
shown, the director was likely basing it all on real concepts people believed. Women
dancing with bipedal pigs, witches riding upside-down wooden benches as well as
brooms, a whole manner of weird images. The primitive nature of the effects,
the superimpositions and costumes, adds to the raw imagination and fantastical
tone of it all, (like with Viy (1967)
the Soviet supernatural film), giving it the sense of the otherworldly. However
it's still carrying said important message. The recreations, particularly one
about an old woman who is accused as a witch only for it to affect many others,
shows the absurd and disturbing sides of humanity. That any vague notion could
find someone guilty. That even the accuser could become the accused if someone
got back at them or did so to save themselves from the pyre. Even if it's very
melodramatic, it's still rewarding to demonstrate this through drama, with
intertitles bringing additional information with them.
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| From http://www.opasquet.fr/wp-content/uploads/haxan2.jpg |
Häxan still to this day has no real predecessor or any film which
directly took from its particular melding of fiction and document. In terms of
imagery, it's not surprising a sixties recut was made with William S. Burroughs narrating it. A catalogue of perverse images
are seen, from pornographic use of a butter churn to a "Kiss My Ass"
club for Satan long before some people required it for their followers and lackeys.
But the sobering truth is still there. The last segment shows how the things women
were accused of being witchlike or possession were then contemporary mental
issues like sleep walking or hysteria, with even the latter eventually removed
from medicine for more accurate diagnosis. It shows how so much had changed,
but Christensen does leave on a note
that, while no longer violent, there may not be much difference between a
shower in a health club and a pyre that burns witches. Even now this causes one
to step back. Even if we have care for the mentally ill, the physically and
mentally disabled, the neglected or old, they're still treated as others. Even
now, more so with how images paint what perfection is, those who do not stay
within a web of conformity - act like everyone else - is seen as standing out
usually in a negative way or as weaker. We have gone beyond use of thumbscrews,
but Christensen's dramatic scenes are
as much about straw man arguments, emotional blackmail, and complete cheap
evidence to prove a point, which we still have. While as much a head-trip
still, it shows as much now the horror of the content, the true horror, is not
Satan, ridiculous and imp-like as he flickers his tongue continually and seems
to be the only being who will physically love and hold the decrepit and lost.
The fear of evil is the true horror because it can become evil itself. Human
behaviour turns out to be scarier because without the Devil actually making his
prescience known, many millions can dies under the belief of doing the just and
sanctified. Häxan is still rich for
a film over ninety years old, and proves to be more than a mere curio for this
humanitarian morality melded alongside the incredible work to realise it.
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| From http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdreviews10/haxan/haxan_PDVD_00501.jpg |
