#Love witch free#
Although the group preaches a doctrine of free love, sex magic, and erotic renewal, female members are held to different standards than males, and Elaine and her fellow female witches are initiated into their craft through sex on the altar with the group’s aged high priest, who routinely likens the women to goddesses and spouts other cliches about their “wild” and “untamable” natures. We are told that her experiences with magic began back in San Francisco with a sect of witches who practiced an erotically tinged magic somewhat akin to LaVeyan Satanism (a sect of the American occult founded by Anton LaVey and based in California). But Elaine’s submission is self-interested – she only coddles a man, cooks for him, or has sex with him because she views those activities as stepping stones to reciprocity, a relationship where Elaine receives her partner’s devotion and affection, coddled in turn.Įlaine’s somewhat dated views of femininity are further complicated by her own sexuality and induction to witchcraft. They’re very easy to please as long as we give them what they want,” Trish is horrified by Elaine’s seemingly outmoded view of female submission. Both women chat about relationships and when Elaine states that “Men are like children. A central tenet of Elaine’s guiding philosophy is expressed during a tearoom lunch with her new landlady, Trish. Elaine’s strategies of conquest are both practical and compulsive: they are necessary for her survival as a woman in a world built for men but also function as tools to aggressively go after what she wants. Although she is partially motivated by trauma, Elaine is also a beautifully adorned predator: she pursues men with rapacious need until they can no longer provide the love and adoration she seeks and she enjoys doing so. Yet Biller does not tie Elaine’s self-objectification to either a lack of agency or individuality.
#Love witch mod#
She utilises both in order to play to the archetype of woman as seductress and high-femme caregiver, armoured with her expertly applied eyeliner, swinging mod makeup, luxurious hairpieces, short dresses and sensuous lingerie. This is explored through the twofold nature of her coping mechanism: she both internalises the common hetero-patriarchal theme that places the burden to change in order to please a romantic partner on women’s shoulders and weaponises her physical appearance and sexuality. The audience first meet Elaine (Samantha Robinson), a witch obsessed with fantasies of courtly love and on a quest for eternal devotion, as she is settling into a small Northern California town with the intent of rebuilding her life after an abusive marriage and her ex-husband’s mysterious death.Įlaine’s trauma is intimately linked to the desire that drives her: being loved by a man. Her story of betrayal is riddled with foreboding asides on the nature of male-female relationships and she reveals that she is on the run from unnamed trouble in San Francisco. When lighting a cigarette she inadvertently jostles the contents of her handbag, revealing a single tarot card – the Three of Swords, a harbinger of sorrow and heartbreak. The woman in the driver’s seat is dressed in all red, with matching lacquered nails, handbag and cigarette case, and a voice-over begins to tell the story of her mistreatment at the hands of a man she once loved.
Anna Biller’s The Love Witch (2016) opens with the image of a solitary vintage car driving down an isolated California road.
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