Capital Celluloid 2015 - Day 10: Sat Jan 10

Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (Christensen, 1922): Hackney Picturehouse, 7pm


This famous silent film screens as part of the London Short Film Festival and full details of all the screenings can be found here. Tonight's ticket includes free entry to the 'Salt, Sweat, Sugar' night on the Hackney Attic  dancefloor till 1am.

This is part of a Filmphonics season at Hackney Picturehouse, a series of live score screenings at Hackney Attic that bridge the gap between sound and moving image, curating diverse nights that include silent films brought to life by live scores, special screenings of films about music, experimental collaborations and edgy live performances.

Chicago Reader review:
A silent curiosity made in Denmark in 1922, with an episodic, rhetorical structure that would have appealed to Jean-Luc Godard. Director Benjamin Christensen apparently intended his film as a serious study of witchcraft (which he diagnoses, in an early pop-Freud conclusion, as female hysteria), but what he really has is a pretense for sadistic pornography. The film has acquired impact with age: instead of seeming quaint, the nude scenes and scatological references now have a crumbly, sinister quality—they seem the survivals of ancient, unhealthy imaginations.
Dave Kehr


Here (and above) is an extract.

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