Maleficarum A Masterpiece Of A Genius

From time to time Jac receives notifications from some academia organizations when his name appears in some thesis, academic papers, published books. One such notification led him to a doctorate thesis that analysed his famous film about Haiti, which led him to meet the author, which led him to get invited in September of this year to screen a film and give talks at a Florida university. Amy will be there as well.

Last night Jac received another notification about an academic paper which is a compilation of Christian Lanciai reviews of films that were made in the last 100 years. Not all films made in a century, but a selection of notable films for each year. One film for the year 1926 it the famous Battleship Potemkin, one of the four films selected for 1988 is The Last Tempation of Christ.

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Martin Scorsese getting it all wrong with Nikos Kazantzakis resulting in blooming
speculation
Christian Lanciai Film Reviews

Jac was happy to see that his film Maleficarum was one of 10 films selected from 2011. He feared that the critic would demolish the film, he glanced at one of the first reviews in the 985 pages book, the fore mentioned Battleship Potemkin by none other than the father of cinema, Serge Eisenstein. The review was not very kind, even tough it says that:

Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Mutiny on a Russian battleship 1905 with consequences both tragic and heroic
Of course it is still impressive after almost a hundred years, for its amazing sense of details, its tremendously dramatic impact, its highly strong pathos and its wonderful cinematography all through, but still there is room for some objections.
Christian Lanciai Film Reviews

Jac prepared himself for a negative critique. When you object to anything in a film by the god of film language and cinema itself, then no one is safe, or is anyone?

After reading the review, Jac could not believe his eyes nor his brain, he had to read it again and again. It is not often he’s referred to as a genius.

The source of this review is the 985 pages book titled Film Reviews by film critic Christian Lanciai, the reviews themselves were published individually in different places over the years. Maleficarum’s review was first published in May 11, 2015.

Here’s the review.

Maleficarum (2011)
Inquisition standard in Lima, Peru, around 1700, probably a true story, made like a documentary.
This is a very remarkable film for its total restraint in depicting a story of extreme outrage. It brings associations directly to the Danish director Carl Th. Dreyer and his films, especially “The Day of Wrath” 1943, but maybe more specifically to “The Passion of Jeanne d’Arc”, since this is also a close-up of the martyrdom of woman, in this instance even doubly so, since there are two.
The story in itself is the ghastliest possible, the two young ladies prosecuted by the inquisition for forbidden love being tortured one by one while the other one is forced to look on in increasingly
accelerating cruelty to extract a forced confession of witchery. When the confession finally is accomplished, they are subjected to no less severe punishment none the less in a total judicial murder, just because of the greed of the church to obtain the property of the one young lady who from her parents has inherited the greatest fortune in Peru – this is somewhere around 1700.
The film is accompanied all through by the most intimately pleasing chamber music, mainly guitar, which enhances the grotesqueness of the terror proceedings even more.
The director Jac Avila from Bolivia is also the writer and the producer of the film, and it is definitely a masterpiece, with the vital contribution of Amy Hesketh as the main victim – her acting is quite comparable with Maria Falconetti’s in “The Passion of Jeanne d’Arc”. Still, the torture scenes, that never cease to get worse and seem more endless each time, must make this film unbearable to many, and it’s impossible for anyone, I think, not to look away more often than not.
A masterpiece of a genius making a deep and lasting impression – an unforgettable film, that however you would not like to see again. The impression is too strong not to leave you almost as branded as the victims.
Christian Lanciai – Film Reviews – 11 May 2015

The comparisons to great performers and directors didn’t escape Jac’s attention. He should make a list of those comparisons to directors, writers and actors. It is a long list.

He is so happy with the review, that he is preparing a new poster of Maleficarum to use it in the many places where the film is offered, beginning with our stores.