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Game CloudHäxan (Criterion Collection)
Haxan is a study about how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases and mental illness could lead to the hysteria of the witch-hunts. The film was made as a documentary but contains dramatized sequences that are comparable to horror films.
Cast View all
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Maren Pedersen | Heksen |
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Clara Pontoppidan | Nonne |
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Elith Pio | Heksedommer |
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Oscar Stribolt | Graabroder |
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Tora Teje | En hysterisk kvinde |
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John Andersen | Chief Inquisitor |
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Benjamin Christensen | Djævlen |
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Poul Reumert | Juveler |
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Karen Winther | Anna's Sister |
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Kate Fabian | Gammel jomfru |
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Else Vermehren | Nonne |
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Astrid Holm | Anna |
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Johannes Andersen | Heksedommer |
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Gerda Madsen | Nonne |
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Aage Hertel | Heksedommer |
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Ib Schønberg | Heksedommer |
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Emmy Schønfeld | Marie / the Seamstress |
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Frederik Christensen | Borger |
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Ella La Cour | Troldkvinde |
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Elisabeth Christensen | En ældre bondekone |
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Henry Seemann | Borger |
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Alice O'Fredericks | Nonne |
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Knud Rassow | Anatomen |
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William S. Burroughs | Narrator (1968 re-release) |
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Ellen Rassow | En tjenestepige |
Crew
| Director | Benjamin Christensen |
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| Writer | Benjamin Christensen | |
| Musician | Matti Bye, Launy Grøndahl, Daniel Humair, Barði Jóhannsson, Emil Reesen, Ludwig van Beethoven, Art Zoyd | |
| Photography | Johan Ankerstjerne | |
Personal
| Quantity | 1 |
|---|---|
| Seen | |
| Added Date | Sep 23, 2022 21:16:59 |
| Modified Date | Sep 23, 2022 21:25:08 |
Edition details
| Screen Ratios | Fullscreen (4:3) |
|---|---|
| Audio Tracks | Dolby Digital 5.0 [English] Dolby Digital 5.1 [English] Dolby Digital Stereo [English] |
| Subtitles | English | Swedish |
| Distributor | The Criterion Collection |
| Layers | Single side, Single layer |
| Edition Release Date | Oct 16, 2001 |
Notes
Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen’s legendary silent film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages and early modern era suffered from the same ills as psychiatric patients diagnosed with hysteria in the film's own time. Far from a dry dissertation on the topic, the film itself is a witches’ brew of the scary, the gross, and the darkly humorous. Christensen’s mix-and-match approach to genre anticipates gothic horror, documentary re-creation, and the essay film, making for an experience unlike anything else in the history of cinema.
SPECIAL FEATURES
On the DVD: Digital transfer
Music from the 1922 Danish premiere, arranged by film-music specialist Gillian B. Anderson and performed by the Czech Film Orchestra in 2001, presented in 5.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray and in Dolby Digital 5.0 on the DVD
Audio commentary from 2001 featuring film scholar Casper Tybjerg
Witchcraft Through the Ages (1968), a seventy-six-minute version of Häxan narrated by author William S. Burroughs, with a soundtrack featuring violinist Jean-Luc Ponty
Director Benjamin Christensen’s introduction to the 1941 rerelease
Outtakes
Bibliothèque diabolique, a photographic exploration of Christensen’s historical sources, created in 2001
PLUS: An essay by critic Chris Fujiwara, remarks on the score by Anderson, and, for the Blu-ray edition, an essay by scholar Chloé Germaine Buckley
Blu-ray cover by Glyn Smith (pictured); DVD cover by Eva Wah
Links
| IMDB |
| TheMovieDb.org |