Nourished by historical research
Unveiled in Competition at the 74th Berlinale in February 2024, The devil’s bath opens with a very strong sequence. A woman carries her child into the forest, climbs to the top of a huge waterfall and throws him into the void. Before having his head cut off on the block, his corpse and his head remaining exposed for all to see.
“The Lodge”: an intense thriller behind which hides a fierce critique of religion and belief
Based on research by historian Kathy Stuart, a researcher at the University of California, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala create a fascinating film, which explores the relationship with death in mid-18th century Austria, in an ultra-Catholic region. The researcher thus identified 400 cases of “suicide by proxy” in Germanic countries in the 18th and 19th centuries, involving two thirds of women. Since suicide condemns one to eternal damnation, some women have chosen to kill (most often children), before denouncing themselves to demand the death penalty, hoping to obtain, before this, absolution of their sins…
Criticism of blind faith
The subject is fascinating. But The devil’s bath cannot be reduced to this one. Fueled by anthropological research, the film gives us access to a number of little-known practices and customs of the time, carefully transcribed on screen. They all revolve around the relationship with death and the weight of religion.
As in their previous film, the horror thriller The Lodge (with Riley Keough in 2020), the Austrian filmmaker duo tackles false beliefs. With, on production, their compatriot Ulrich Seidl (Franz’s husband), whose cold outlook on reality and on faith they share (notably in Paradis, It was in 2013).
-Devoured by her faith, their heroine — inspired by the life of Eva Lizlfellnerin (c. 1736-1762), a peasant woman from Upper Austria — is prisoner of an existence she did not choose. Dreamy, sensitive, listening to nature, which she observes in detail, collecting insects, Agnes aspires to something other than her condition as a woman in a remote region…
“Vermiglio”, a sublime feminine peasant chronicle at the Mostra 2024
In this, The devil’s bath echoes the very beautiful Vermilion by the Italian Maura Delpero, a sublime naturalist peasant chronicle who won the Grand Jury Prize at the last Venice Film Festival. Otherwise, Franz and Fiala prefer to venture into genre cinema. Particularly through the magnificent 35 mm photography, all in chiaroscuro, by Martin Gschlacht (awarded the prize for best artistic contribution in Berlin). But also thanks to the atmospheric and disturbing original soundtrack, composed by Anja Franziska Plaschg. Known as a singer under the name Soap&Skin, the Austrian is also astonishing in her first role on screen, totally inhabited by this tragic character of Agnes…
Des Teufels Bad/The Devil’s Bath Horror drama Screenplay and direction Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala (based on the book by Kathy Stuart Suicide by Proxy in Early Modern Germany : Crime, Sin and Salvation) Photography Martin Gschlacht Musique Anja Plaschg Montage Michael Palm With Anja Plaschg, Maria Hofstätter, David Scheid, Claudia Martini… Duration 2h01
