L’AFFAIRE DES POISONS
(“The Poison Affair”)
Production: France, 1955
Director: Henri Decoin
Category: Historical/Witchcraft
1670s Paris was a hotbed of Satanism, with the Black Mass (a modern version of the old Witches’ Sabbat) being invented by the French witch La Voisin (burned alive in 1680). At the Black Mass – preferably held in a deserted or desecrated Christian church – obscene representations of the saints, the Virgin, and of the Son of Man were employed. In some cases the image of the Virgin, raddled and dissolute of mien, was equipped with breasts to be suckled, and with a vagina into which the penis might be inserted. In the case of the Christ-figures, there was sometimes a phallus, which Devil-worshippers both sucked and inserted into vagina or anus, depending upon the sex of the communicant. Occasionally, rather than an image, an actual human figure was bound to the cross and fulfilled the Christly role, eventually discharging his semen which was collected in a blasphemously consecrated chalice and used in the making of the Host. Semen, along with excreta and menstrual blood, was a standard ingredient of these Devil’s hosts, which were converted by the saying of the appropriate words, into the Body of Our Lord. The Hosts were inserted into anus and vagina, urinated and defecated upon, smeared with semen, and finally consumed. La Voisin, with her abominable crew of sorceresses and corrupt priests, specialized in ceremonies to win back, or win over, lovers; this involved the client offering her naked body as an altar and a vehicle for various obscene acts. Perhaps the most famous client of La Voisin was the beautiful Marquise de Montespan, who requested a Black Mass where it was magically ordained that the Queen become barren, and cast out by King Louis XIV, and that Louis would take the Marquise for his lover. This all came to pass, but in 1673, when she feared she might be supplanted by a rival, the Marquise and La Voisin held another, more potent Mass. They summoned a Satanic defrocked priest – the sinister and hideously ugly Abbé de Guiborg, who pronounced no less than three black rites over the Marquise’s naked and ritually sodomized body. It is said that the blood of a sacrificed child was used for the wine, and mixed with flour to make the Host. Finally an incantation was recited, calling on “Astaroth and Asmodeus, princes of amity” to grant de Montespan’s requests. In the end La Voisin resorted to poison, leading to an attempt on the King’s life. When the King learned of all this, he was so shocked that he ordered all evidence of it suppressed. L’Affaire Des Poisons is a refreshingly lurid presentation of these events, and actress Danielle Darrieux as de Montespan goes completely naked in the Black Mass scenes, which were shocking for their time.
Posted by Neuro-Toxx
