FESTIVALS:
1971 Venice
1999 Casa de Cultura (Brazil)
2010 Fantasia International (Canada)
2013 Austin Fantastic (USA), Razor Reel (Belgium)
2014 New Horizons (Poland)
The Devils is the most iconoclastic film ever released by a major Hollywood studio. Director Ken Russell’s urgent masterpiece is overwhelmingly sublime, confronting standards of representation with its many disorienting contrasts: the sacred and profane, the spiritual and material, the sexual and repressed, the beautiful and abject. Russell’s many sensory assaults invite a passionate response, but his layers of history, literary theory, and intellectual critique fuel the picture just as imperatively. Drawing from history’s most infamous, well-documented case of demonic possession that occurred in Loudun, France, in 1634, the British director warns that religious dogma, including sexual repression, can be weaponized by political forces and abused to seize power. In achieving this, The Devils contains an unhinged formal presentation marked by a heightened, Rabelaisian grotesque reality, shown in sensationalistic detail from sexual fervor to demented acts of torture — and often commingling them with religious icons. But along with Russell’s visual excesses, based on actual historical accounts, the film is a vivid affront to the integrity of the church and state. More than its images of medieval exorcism or nuns writhing in demonic ecstasy, it is how Russell critiques and questions the institutions held dear by Western civilization that earned the film its notorious reputation and censorship. What becomes undeniable after watching The Devils is that the viewer has just witnessed the personal vision of a filmmaker unlike any other, and its story, both onscreen and off, remain among the most fascinating and troubling in film history.
– Brian Eggert, Deep Focus Review, 26 May 2023.
Few British films before or since have made the kind of impact that The Devils did over forty years ago, and the fact that it remains controversial today is a remarkable tribute to Russell’s power as a filmmaker. The confluence of talent that assembled at the Pinewood studio lot was legendary and included come of the finest British cinematic talents of that generation…
I’ve made no secret of my affinity for historical dramas, just look back at my review of City of Life and Death, or even my rather forgiving review of Kinski Paganini for evidence of that. For that reason alone, my interest was piqued about the opportunity to see Russell’s version of the events that occurred at Loudon in the 17th century when the conniving Cardinal Richelieu was at the peak of his attempt to consolidate the Catholic church’s power in France. The story runs the gamut of corruption, both political and religious, and paints a not so pretty picture of the church’s practices in days gone by.
The Devils is based on a true to life story, documented by Aldous Huxley in his book The Devils at Loudon and playwright John Whiting in his stage work, The Devils. The local priest, Urbain Grandier, was accused of making a pact with Satan and contributing to the demonic possession of the entire convent of Ursuline nuns within the walls of Loudon. As a result, he was tried and convicted of commerce with the Devil and burned at the stake. According to Huxley, the entire event was a contrivance of Richelieu, who sought to destroy small, self-governing localities like Loudon in order to corral power centrally with the King of France, who he held in sway. The conspiracy drove the city into a fit of madness, and the public exorcism of the Ursuline nuns of Loudon became a tourist attraction and the stuff of blasphemous legend.
The story in and of itself is quite compelling, and apparently the description of the public exorcism itself was pretty graphic in nature in the texts, but there is nothing like a good film to truly bring history to life. Ken Russell’s production of The Devils is one of the great historical dramas, and he managed to take an interesting and outrageous story and breathe emotional life into it without compromising the spectacle.
One integral part of The Devils‘ success on screen was the art direction of a young Derek Jarman (Caravaggio, Jubilee), who did his first film work on Russell’s masterpiece, and what a spectacular job it was. Jarman created what is among the first post-modern architectural cities on the backlot at Pinewood, and it is striking from the very first frame. Shining white stone towers and walls protect Loudon from the outside world, and the outside world from Loudon, and the design of these buildings is unforgettable. Jarman’s work on The Devils is truly among the finest art design I’ve ever seen. Between his sets and Shirley Russell’s costume design, Ken Russell had every advantage going into this production.
All that Russell needed to put his grand plan into play was a cast that could understand and bring life to these characters who’d been dead for hundreds of years. Oliver Reed as the libertine priest Urbain Grandier is a pulsating mass of powerful charisma who commands the screen even from afar throughout the film. Playing in opposition to him is the legendary Vanessa Redgrave as the nun Sister Jeanne of the Angels, whose forbidden sexual obsession with Grandier collapses inward on itself in a black hole of corruption and opens the door for Richelieu’s agents to destroy Loudon and its sovereignty.
These two powerhouses turn in career best performances, and form the core of an acting company rich with talent and understanding for Ken Russell’s vision. While Reed’s performance as Grandier at times both massively powerful and remarkably tender, Redgrave’s performance is absolutely fearless and every bit as commanding as Reed’s. Her Sister Jeanne is a wretched, hunchbacked creature, for whom the sisterhood is an escape from a society in which she would only be a burden to her family and a person to pity and mock. Her ability to commit to the excesses that Russell’s film demanded is equal in every way to Reed’s contribution to the film, and both are spellbinding.
The controversy that met this film before it was even released is no surprise, even in this mildly truncated version that matches the original UK cinema release it is quite shocking. The fact that a major studio, Warner Brothers, put up the money to produce it at all is perplexing, but I suppose Hollywood believed itself to be a braver place back then.
In spite of the artistic license taken, and the spectacle of The Devils, Ken Russell always insisted that he stuck to the facts, and I tend to believe him. It is these kinds of stories that often go untold because they are too outrageous to be believed, but whatever position you take on the validity of the facts, the power of The Devils cannot be denied. This is a film that demands your attention, it demands your submission, and it rewards both with a sublime experience unlike any other.
– J Hurtado, Screen Anarchy, 21 March 2012.
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