Witchcraft through the ages

In this rare film of the silent era, Danish director Benjamin Christensen employs dramatic and documentary techniques to present a historical and psychological chronicle of witchcraft through the ages. A world of violence and eroticism is evoked in depictions of historical witches, demons, black sabbaths and examples of modern superstition. The central sequences, set in the Middle Ages, combine fantasy and reality to tell the story of Marie, an elderly seamstress accused of witchcraft and subject to the harsh measures of the Inquisition. (Circulates)