The Burroughs-Ponty Connection

… and that would be witchcraft:

The original satanic footage here is from a 1922 silent film which was re-released in 1968 with a soundtrack by Jean-Luc Ponty and narration by Burroughs. Either the 1922 original or the 1968 re-release was titled Superstition: Middle Ages and Now.

4 thoughts on “The Burroughs-Ponty Connection”

  1. Have a look.

    People fear globalisation. They turn inward looking: Fear dominates.

    One meaning of this is : just turn back to the middle ages.

    One other example/ proof. People rely more and more on their local tribe, their region. ” Graafschappen zijn de basis”.

  2. OK. Silent music motion pictures.

    Have a look at the great guitar player Bill Frisell, http://www.billfrisell.com/ .

    Some +/- 10 / 15 years ago he recorded and performed – all over the world, each time in a different way – music.

    Fond de scene ( ” backdrop”) : Buster Keaton’s motion pictures.

  3. wow. just when I thought this could be a good film, the whole mood changes and that weirdo priest pops up – quentin robert de namenland style. wtf?

  4. Criterion put out a DVD of this film that has both the original 104 min version (“Haxan”)from 1922 and the 76 min. version (“Witchcraft Through The Ages”) from 1968 with Burroughs and Ponty. There is another version with a soundtrack performed on a theater organ, which I remember being longer than 104 mins.
    This is a great movie! It can be silly and sensational, but it is easily in the same class as Nosferatu, Caligari, or Der Golem. I prefer the original version – the Ponty soundtrack clashes with the medieval images and sounds a little campy. Burroughs is great, but here he is a distraction from a great silent movie. Danish, not Swedish, as a posters says on the linked site.

    Watch it high-as-balls on Halloween.

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