And The Banned Played On

Was it the scene in which the monk, possessed by a powerful love potion, pursues a giggling harlot around the kitchen table? Or perhaps the wonderful scene in which a coven of women, flushed from moonlight frolics with demons, queue up to kiss the Devil’s bum? Something upset the censors mightily about Häxan, Benjamin Christensen’s silent dramatised documentary about witchcraft. The film was banned in every European country outside its native Sweden on its release in 1922.

But as Sue Clark, the spokeswoman for the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), observes, any controversy attached to a film raises awareness of it and can serve to make it more interesting to audiences. In 1969 Häxan was restored to its original running time and rereleased as Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages, with commentary by Wiliam Burroughs and a jazz score. The original version is screened at the Barbican on Sunday, accompanied by a new score by Geoff Smith. It will also be released on DVD in late July.

Häxan’s longevity has probably as much to do with its forbidden status as with its merits – evidence that the act of banning a movie can often result in a broader audience than the film could ever have hoped for otherwise. Full Story

Related: religion, wicca, pagan, spells