Jon Mirsalis on Piano Danish director Benjamin Christensen based this extraordinary study of witchcraft on the records of numerous trials from the 15th to the 17th centuries. Christensen, fascinated and disturbed by modern notions of hysteria, explores their relationship to the historical obsession with witches in Häxan. He interprets stories found in the trial records in painstakingly recreated settings and costumes, using professional and non-professional actors, and brings the subject up-to-date in contemporary sequences. Christensen's presence is felt throughout, and he also cast himself in the role of the devil. Film historian Georges Sadoul writes, "Treatment of this theme could have been both ridiculous and pornographic, especially in the explicit depiction of the Witches' Sabbath. But Christensen's style is more reminiscent of Bosch, Breughel, Callot and Goya. In the Inquisition scenes, fantasy gives way to realism and both the costumes and composition of the images make one think of Dreyer's Passion de Jeanne d'Arc." Technically, the film is astounding, and its radical theme touched off inevitable controversy. It was later re-cut and released under the title Witchcraft Through the Ages, a film which bears little resemblance to the complete, tinted print we present tonight.