A special presentation of the 1922 silent horror film Häxan , featuring a live score performed by Australian composer and producer Madeleine Cocolas Denmark | 1922 l Silent Film l Horror/Documentary | M Häxan (aka Witchcraft Through The Ages ) is a 1922 Swedish/Danish silent horror essay film, that explores the history of witchcraft through a series of dramatised sequences. Featuring design and costuming that astonished in its day, and remain remarkably affecting over a century later, Häxan ’s power has not at all diminished with age; and is rendered even more effective in its pairing with a live score from Madeleine Cocolas. Based on director Benjamin Christensen’s own studies of the 15th century text Malleus Maleficarum , a German guide for inquisitors, Häxan suggests that witch-hunts often stemmed from misunderstandings of mental or neurological disorders, triggering mass hysteria. On release, Variety called it “a pictorial history of black magic, of witches, of the Inquisition, and the thousand and one inhumanities of the superstition-ridden Middle Ages”, noting that "wonderful though this picture is, it is aboutely unfit for public exhibition”. Madeleine notes that when she first watched Häxan, she was genuinely shocked. “It took me a few attempts to get through the entire film,” she says. “The physical and emotional distress of the women in the film is incredibly affecting, as is the empathy the film gives to these women. However, the film is also darkly and wickedly humorous. So I revelled in the hysterical nuns, the naked orgies, demonic satan and sanctimonious priests, and put together a soundtrack that spanned arpeggiating synthesisers, organs and angelic vocals. This one is for all the witches out there.” Presented by Sydney Opera House
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