Anna Biller’s delicious debut —the stylish, technicolor-esque “The Love Witch”— is like nothing you’ve seen before. Or at least nothing you’ve likely seen in decades. A throwback and campy “horror” movie, “The Love Witch” is part softcore erotica, part ‘60s pulpy psychedelia and a hybrid of influences like “Vampyros Lesbos,” “The Wicker Man,” the films of Russ Meyer, Jess Franco and countless sexploitation movies from the 1960s and ‘70s. Even the flavored cheese of Mario Bava’s kaleidoscopic “Danger: Diabolik” creeps through.
READ MORE: The 50 Best Horror Movies Of The 21st Century So Far
Lush, sensual and cheeky, “The Love Witch” stars Samantha Robinson as the bewitching Elaine, a Wiccan enchantress who’s ostensibly obsessed with love on the surface, but her ravenous desires reveal a much darker, predatory revenge. While it has a vintage flavor, the film is 100% unique in today’s cinematic climate. Its ability to mimic that era of filmmaking, from its stilted, arch acting right down to the poorly over-lit, gauze-filtered cinematography and sumptuous costuming, boasts astonishing precision. If you were told “The Love Witch” was made in 1971 and was featured in a double bill with “Beyond The Valley of the Dolls,” you’d probably believe it.
Biller’s movie is an entrancing, sly feminist work, but it’s also delightfully subversive. As our review by Jordan Rumy makes clear, “ ‘The Love Witch’ explores female fantasy in the most diabolical of ways imaginable.” We can’t recommend it enough. On the eve of the film’s release via Oscilloscope Laboratories, Biller discussed the movies that changed her life with the Playlist. And you can see more entries from our recurring feature right here.
The film that made you fall in love with cinema
It would probably be either a Shirley Temple movie like “Bright Eyes” or a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical like “Top Hat.” I was obsessed with black and white musicals as a child.
The first moviegoing film experience you can remember
I remember going with my sister and my mom to see a Saturday matinee of “Bambi” when I was very young. It was very special to be taken to a movie by my mother, since she was always working. I remember having a lump in my throat at the end —an early catharsis!
The best moviegoing film experience you ever had
I think it was when I saw Busby Berkeley’s “Dames” on the big screen on a nitrate print when I was about twelve years old. I’d never seen any of his movies on the big screen before, and it was revelatory. That’s still one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s either that, or when I saw a double bill of “Black Narcissus” and “The Thief Of Baghdad” at the Film Forum in New York.
The film you’ve rewatched more than any other
Probably “North By Northwest.” I’m a TCM junkie, and every time that film i son, I have to watch it again. I just can’t turn away. I watched it just a couple of days ago.
The film that everyone loves that you don’t
“Citizen Kane.” It’s a good movie in my opinion, but not the greatest and not Orson Welles’ best. The artifice used in the newspaper interviews doesn’t work for me. I’ve never been into pseudo-documentaries. I think straight dramas are much more effective. I think “Touch Of Evil” is Welles’ masterpiece.
The movie that makes you cry.
“The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg” always makes me cry. The star-crossed love thing in that movie gets me every time. That film really is about the fleetingness of youth, and it reminds me of loss and death.
The movie that always freaks you out/makes you scared
The scariest movie I’ve ever seen is “Salo,” by Pier Paolo Pasolini. That film represents the purest expression of evil I’ve ever seen, and it’s made much more revolting because it is so documentary-like. That movie continues to give me nightmares.
The movie you love that no one would expect you to love
Roberto Rossellini’s “Europa 51.” People think of me as someone who is into exploitation, horror, musicals, camp, etc. But that movie touches on some of my deepest interests, which have to do with finding the spiritual within cinema. The starkness of that film is also interesting to me, and its representation of a modern day saint is in the vein of “Joan of Arc,” which Ingrid Bergman was so also uncannily well-suited for.
The movie that defined your coming of age/high school experience
“Peau D’ane,” directed by Jacques Démy. I was so inspired by that film that I attempted to make a “dress the color of the moon” for my high school prom. I bought a vintage wedding dress with a train and sewed on lots of paillettes and peacock feathers, when everyone else was wearing simple strappy dresses. Everyone laughed at me, and I was incredulous as to how awful it was. But it was one of my first attempts to create my inner fantasy world through costume.
The movie that defined your childhood
“Gentleman Prefer Blondes.” My sister and I were obsessed with that film as children. When my parents held art parties, we would rehearse the songs from it all night, then come out and perform for all of the drunk bohemian guests. She was older and dominant, so she got to play Marilyn Monroe, and I played Jane Russell, even though her voice was deeper and better for Russell’s vocal part.
“The Love Witch” opens in limited release on Friday, November 11th.