Cinema is a screen onto which we can project our fears, torments and the monstrosities of the world. The screen protects us from what we see, but cinema has also permanently anchored our nightmares around a few powerful images (empty houses, hostile attics and basements, demonic masks, bloodcurdling grimaces, disturbing postures). Throughout the summer, the Cinémathèque québécoise will be presenting a series of films encompassing more than one hundred and twenty years of horror, reminding us that what scares us most is to make the deepest of our fears tangible and credible.
Accompanied on the piano by Roman Zavada
16 mm print from our collections
A veritable documentary on witchcraft, as described in the minutes of countless trials from the 15th to 17th centuries. In dealing with such a subject, it would have been easy to fall into ridicule or pornography. But Christensen knew how to capture the spirit of Bosch and Goya.
Benjamin Christensen
Benjamin Christensen was a Danish film director, screenwriter and an actor, both in film and on the stage. As a director, he was best known for his 1922 film Häxan (aka Witchcraft Through the Ages). His most memorable and acclaimed acting performance was in the film Michael (1924), where he played Claude Zoret, the male lover of the film's title character in a landmark gay film.
