Taking over the festival circuit currently is a beautiful and stylistic witch who uses her power for the benefit of love. Unfortunately she loves men… to death. The Love Witch aims to combine the modern trend of the empowered female witch with the style of a pure authentic cinema experience.
Art filmmaker Anna Biller is known for her classic artistic style of using actual film stock to achieve the look she desires. Previously her cult feature VIVA, shot on 35mm, has been regarded as a masterpiece of Erotic Cinema. Continuing along the journey of female centric sexual fantasy films, Biller approaches her latest film with Hitchock and murder on the mind. The Love Witch tells the following story:
Beautiful enchantress Elaine (Robinson) uses every spell at her disposal in order to make men fall in love with her. Once entranced, however, these would-be lovers reveal themselves as wholly unappealing romantic partners. The body count rises in her luscious gothic Victorian apartment as she disposes of her failures and pines ever more desperately for a worthy sweetheart.
Shot and presented on gorgeous color-soaked 35mm, Anna Biller sets out to throwback to the ’60s Technicolor erotic films while offering a stylish, fantastical examination of gender and female desire. The Love Witch promises to have used only traditional film process, which means hand cutting and no “fix it in post” mentality. She focuses on the actor’s performance and what the camera sees over special effects. When Anna Biller was asked about her film The Love Witch she responded better than we could ever explain – so here is why The Love Witch is important to her: “The Love Witch is not like other horror films because it has such strong moments of romance and melodrama, which are my attempt to get at something fundamental in female psychology and fantasy. Normally the witch figure is a siren who eats men alive and has no heart, but Elaine is a woman whose heart has been broken because she has been rejected by the man she loves. And she is a serial killer in the sense that she is literally “loving men to death.”
The film which is directed, written, produced, and edited by Anna Biller stars Samantha Robinson, Gian Keys, and Laura Waddell. Anna Biller calls The Love Witch a labor of love where she made the custom wardrobe and many of the props herself.
Through Etheria Film Night Los Angeles locals can catch The Love Witch on June 11 at The Aero Theater in Santa Monica. If you are in New York, The Love Witch will be having it’s New York Premiere at the 2016 BAM Cinemafest on June 24. Follow the important links below for more details on the events and to follow Anna Biller and her future productions.
