Introduced by Mark Sandberg Bruce Loeb on Piano "And then came a man-Benjamin Christensen-who did not fabricatehis films but created them out of love and an infinite care for detail. He wasthought mad. But time has shown that it was he who made a pact with thefuture."-Carl Th. Dreyer, 1920 Benjamin Christensen isbest known for the 1921 film Witchcraft through the Ages. His earliest films,however, in which he also plays the leads, reveal an artist who, as John Gillettwrote, "like Sternberg ten years later saw the screen initially as an areawhich had to be painted with light°.(In The Mysterious X) the photographictexture was immensely rich°.Christensen was also the first filmmaker to realizethat a single set-up can often hold a greater atmospheric charge than a wholesequence if all its elements are carefully judged°.When Christensen made TheMysterious X, the only element which was unmistakably of its time was themelodramatic narrative°about a master spy who compromises the wife of a loyalnaval lieutenant but is outwitted by the faith and perseverance of thelieutenant's son. "With his second film, Night of Revenge(1915), he really came to grips with an elaborate storyline°.Most startling ofall is the camera style°.The story, in fact, is seen through the camera and notmerely recorded by it, not least in the climax with its veritable flurry ofcross-cutting as the avenging convict stalks the mistress of the house from roomto room. Here°melodrama is transmuted into art." (Sight & Sound, Spring1966)