The VVitch:
A New-England Folktale is the debut fiction film
of Robert Eggers. The film is about a family of seven (William and Katherine and their children) and set in 1630s New
England. They try to lead a devout Christian life, homesteading on the edge of
a wood, after the father has been
exiled, reasons not exactly known, from a plantation. When their new
born son Samuel mysteriously vanishes
and their crops fail, the family begins to turn on one another. They are torn apart by the forces of possession, Christian beliefs and suspicion. The eldest daughter Thomasin, played by Anya Taylor-Joy,
is the sole survivor and in the end joins the witches. The film is based on
historical testimonies.
What’s
striking is the high-wire tension Eggers maintains. The dense language, some
taken directly from period journals, luxuriates in a poetic surrealism. “Did ye
make an unholy bond with that goat? Speak if this be pretence!” is just one of
the many choice phrases that, somehow, this assured cast is able to make sound
natural. Eggers has a knack for unusual framing, using negative space to add to
the unease. The picture looks as if it were shot using only available light and
if that means some moments come off dark, we’re only just as spooked as the
characters.
“When we
think of historical witches we think of persecuted herbalists, kind white
witches, earth mothers — what the Wiccan, New Age-y stuff has grown out of. But
what’s not talked about is the dark side of the early modern witch, and what
she meant to not just men, but women. The witch embodied men’s fears and
fantasies about women, good and bad, and also women’s fears and ambivalences
about motherhood in a male-dominated society. And that baggage still exists in
the unconscious of today.”
Robert
Eggers, the writer/director behind the film, confirmed with IndieWire in November 2016 that his next
film will be the remake of “Nosferatu” by F.W. Murnau.
The film
was not released in the cinemas in The Netherlands. It’s available on dvd only. I can highly recommend it.
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