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Häxan * Benjamin Christensen (1922)

Funny, this DVD release is reviewed in the Heidnisches Jahrbuch 2010 and a few weeks later a friend got it for my birthday. It is a silent documentary from 1922 Sweden with nice classical music to cheer things up. It seems to have been a series, at least, there are ‘to be continued’s. The first chapter is text and some images, from the second part on there are scenes played by actors. The camera-work, especially the brownish colours are great and Christensen managed to bring great contrasts in his visuals. Unfortunately somewhere around 3/4 my player started to protest, first it hung and continued and eventually it just crashed, so I have not been able to see the whole of “Häxan”. Also there is a 1968 version on the disc as well (the “witchcraft through the ages” of the new DVD cover I guess), I suppose this is one of the narrated versions that you sometimes hear about. Unfortunately I could not play that part of the DVD at all… This is all too bad, because the disc is not easy to get. Hopefully my player will calm down so I can have another try or perhaps I can try to use another player… What I saw was very amusing for sure.

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