Review of The Devils (1971) by Ola G — 13 Oct 2018

In 17th Century France, Cardinal Richelieu is influencing Louis XIII in an attempt to gain further power. He convinces Louis that the fortifications of cities throughout France should be demolished to prevent Protestants from uprising. Louis agrees, but forbids Richelieu from carrying out demolitions in the town of Loudun, having made a promise to its Governor not to damage the town. Meanwhile, in Loudun, the Governor has died, leaving control of the city to Father Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed), a dissolute and proud but popular and well-regarded priest. He is having an affair with a relative of Father Canon Jean Mignon, another priest in the town; Grandier is, however, unaware that the neurotic, hunchbacked Sister Jeanne des Anges (Vanessa Redgrave) (a victim of severe scoliosis who happens to be abbess of the local Ursuline convent), is sexually obsessed with him. Sister Jeanne asks for Grandier to become the convent's new confessor. Grandier secretly marries another woman, Madeleine De Brou (Gemma Jones), but news of this reaches Sister Jeanne, driving her to jealous insanity. When Madeleine returns a book by Ursuline foundress Angela Merici that Sister Jeanne had earlier lent her, the abbess viciously attacks her with accusations of being a "fornicator" and "sacrilegious bitch," among other things. Baron Jean de Laubardemont arrives with orders to demolish the city, overriding Grandier's orders to stop. Grandier summons the town's soldiers and forces Laubardemont to back down pending the arrival of an order for the demolition from King Louis. Grandier departs Loudun to visit the King. In the meantime, Sister Jeanne is informed by Father Mignon that he is to be their new confessor. She informs him of Grandier's marriage and affairs, and also inadvertently accuses Grandier of witchcraft and of possessing her, information that Mignon relays to Laubardemont. In the process, the information is pared down to just the claim that Grandier has bewitched the convent and has dealt with the Devil. With Grandier away from Loudon, Laubardemont and Mignon decide to find evidence against him...

"The Devils" is a 1971 British historical drama horror film directed by Ken Russell. Russell's screenplay is based partly on the 1952 book The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley, and partly on the 1960 play The Devils by John Whiting, also based on Huxley's book. The film is a dramatised historical account of the rise and fall of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest executed for witchcraft following the supposed possessions in Loudun, France. The film faced harsh reaction from national film rating systems due to its disturbingly violent, sexual, and religious content, and originally received an X rating in both the United Kingdom and the United States. It was banned in several countries, and eventually heavily edited for release in others. The film has never received a release in its original, uncut form in various countries, and is largely unavailable in the home video market.

The film remains controversial since the time of its first release in July 1971. In the UK, 17 local authorities banned the film's distribution. Critics gave it equally scathing reviews. Judith Crist called it a "grand fiesta for sadists and perverts", while Derek Malcolm called it "a very bad film indeed." Roger Ebert gave the film a rare zero-star rating. However, it won the award for Best Director-Foreign Film in the Venice Film Festival, despite being temporarily confiscated in Verona. The film was granted release a few weeks later. The United States National Board of Review awarded Ken Russell best director for The Devils and his next film, The Boy Friend. Film historian Joel W. Finler described The Devils as Russell's "most brilliant cinematic achievement, but widely regarded as his most distasteful and offensive work". In 2002, when 100 film makers and critics were asked to cite what they considered to be the ten most important films ever made, The Devils featured in the lists submitted by critic Mark Kermode and director Alex Cox.

"The Devils" is a film that has been on my to see list for a long long time. Ken Russell pushes the envelope in witchhunting, herecy, devil worship, possession of evil doings, love, religion and sexual lust. It´s an intense film to say the least with great performances from Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. Russell does everything he can to add shock value for the audience in 1971 (maybe not as shocking in 2018) and once you have seen it you won´t forget it I can promise you that. I reckon he went for offending as many people as possible to get a reaction on how he thinks religion and the church "possess" people in our society and use it as a tool of power to supress and make people lose their independency. Russell tries to portray Grandier as he sees Christianity in the flesh so to speak. Grandier´s faith in God is so strong that he will not allow anyone to make him deviate from his path. The controversy surrounding this film adds of course to it´s reputation, but it´s a unique film that has its place in movie history no matter what you might think of it.

Trivia: A major sequence in which the nuns tear down and ravish a life-sized icon of Christ in an orgiastic frenzy was cut from the film and subsequently vanished. Film critic Mark Kermode discovered the footage many years later. Ken Russell was keen to reinstate the scene but found that Warner Brothers were not interested in doing a director's cut. The footage can be seen in a documentary Kermode made about Russell and was subsequently included in an uncut DVD release.