A cyclist’s run-in with a witch goes badly for him as the old world meets the new in this comedy from Danish pioneer Viggo Larsen. Simple special effects enhance the wit of this mystical comedy.
Home Media Availability: Stream via the Danish Film Institute.
We’re not in Disney anymore…
Danish director Viggo Larsen was one of my favorite new-to-me discoveries last year. While he worked in a variety of genres (including an all-woman shoot-out picture, The Other Woman), comedy was the style where his wit and imagination shone brightest. A New Hat for the Madam is a deliriously fun satire and The Anarchist’s Mother-in-Law is a twisted black comedy.
The Witch and the Cyclist was intended as a showcase for special effects, with elaborate fantasies and new ways to bring them to the screen a major draw in the 1900s. While the elaborate gilded confections of Méliès were losing a bit of their appeal, raucous and exciting comedies from the Vitagraph company were impressing the world with their innovations.
Larsen kept things simple in The Witch and the Cyclist, depending entirely on reversed footage and substitution splices to create his magic, both of which were old hats even in 1909. However, even the hoariest tricks in the filmmaking book could look fresh with a bit of ingenuity and this was the case with Larsen. He didn’t invent a single technique used in this film but did he ever know how to employ them for maximum charm.
The short film opens with a cyclist pausing on a country lane and taking a nap under some trees. As he sleeps, he dreams that he goes speeding by an old beggar woman, waving her aside. Well, you guessed it, the beggar is our witch and she forces the cyclist to ride backwards back to her. The cyclist gives her a piece of his mind but that proves to be a mistake. She transforms his clothes into rags, transports his bicycle up a tree, turns herself into a stylish cyclist and then rides off.
The cyclist awakes from his dream and rides on to a pub, where he orders some refreshment. He is about to leave when his modern bicycle is turned into an old-fashioned penny-farthing. And then a children’s bicycle. And then a horse-drawn carriage. And then a toy wagon. Finally, it is a bicycle again and the cyclist once again tears off backwards. The witch is not finished with him yet, it seems.
Early special effects extravaganzas are still beautiful and appealing to look at but the did sometimes verge into the claustrophobic. More elaborate effects sometimes needed the controlled environment of a studio setting but that did come at a cost. For The Witch and the Cyclist, Viggo Larsen shot entirely out of doors, making use of wooded roads to create an open and lyrical backdrop for his zany story. The pub setting is spacious and the mirth of the background characters hint that, perhaps, the local witch has performed this kind of mischief before.
And, while the substitution splices or stop tricks (stop filming, everyone freezes, add or subtract something, resume filming, may be done in-camera or via splice) were well-known and heavily used by 1909, Larsen does use them effectively with an eye for comedic timing and a pretty smooth transition overall. (The small spaniel in the pub scene didn’t quite get the memo about holding still for the splice but what can you do?)
If there’s one thing a reader can gather from European fairy tales, it is that you must never, ever run afoul of witches, fairies or other mystical beings and their rules were frequently capricious and gave no quarter for innocent mistakes. In a world of monarchs, aristocrats and clergy who held sway over life and death, all-powerful beings who could punish impulsively and erratically were a fact of everyday life, as was the fact that commoners had little recourse, so it was unsurprising that art and entertainment mimicked reality. (The deaths of the wicked fairy and the sea witch in Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid were Hollywood and specifically Disney inventions designed for New World politics and twentieth century culture.)
The Witch and the Cyclist runs only three minutes and so isn’t exactly long on backstory but the gentleman on the bicycle certainly does not seem to be an accomplished rider. Perhaps he is a city dweller out on a holiday? He may be a citizen of the modern world but he seems to have forgotten that waving aside a beggar is one of the myriad of things guaranteed not to go well for the main character of a fairy tale. (It is also inadvisable to trade your voice to a witch, fail to check the baby shower guest list for accidental fairy snubs, or to pick flowers from gardens without permission.)
The cyclist then compounds his problem by the way he behaves toward the witch after she first shows her powers. Had he been aware of proper fairy tale protocol and begged for mercy, she likely would have sent him on a ridiculous quest and then possibly let him off. But since he was going to be rude about it… she gives him the works. Our modern vacationing cyclist made a very big mistake indeed when he chose to ride through the country without re-reading his book of fairy tales.
The Witch and the Cyclist is also an early example of the still-popular “Thank goodness it was all a dream… NO, IT WASN’T!” trope that we see in horror films. Many horror movie ingredients were silly before they were bloody (killer barbers, dismemberment, etc.) and The Witch and the Cyclist is entirely played for laughs, even if the open ending of the picture is a bit chilling. Exactly how long will the witch’s revenge last?
The Witch and the Cyclist is a grand bit of zany fun with a surprisingly dark undercurrent. Larsen’s intelligent and imaginative use of older technology, along with his fresh outdoor scenery, allowed him to construct a special effects comedy that was both refreshing and cheeky.
Where can I see it?
Stream for free courtesy of the Danish Film Institute.
☙❦❧
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Movies Silently 
3 minutes of mischief.
I feel um…energized!
Thanks. 🎥