Review of The Devils (1971) by Stuart K — 23 Apr 2012

After Ken Russell hit it big with his controversial dramas Women in Love (1969) and The Music Lovers (1970), he went one step further with this true life tale of an apparent demonic possession in 17th Century France, it was too much for Warner Bros.

and censors at the time, and even now, it's still an extreme film and it's in your face and up front with it's sexuality and graphic violence. That's Ken for you. In 1634, Father Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed) has been placed with temporary custody of the walled city of Loudun after the Governor's death, but he uses his powers to sleep with and later marry Madeleine (Gemma Jones).

In Loudun's convent, Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave) has explicit and blasphemous sexual fantasies about Grandier, but when she learns of Grandier's clandestine marriage, she tells Baron de Laubardemont (Dudley Sutton), who misinterprets the news that Grandier has used witchcraft to bewitch Sister Jeanne and Loudun's convent, and insane religious witch hunter Father Pierre Barre (Michael Gothard) is sent to Loudun to perform an over the top and depraved exorcism of the convent.

Ken was lucky to get a film like this made when he did, (you'd have no chance making it now), and it has brilliant performances throughout, especially from Reed proving he was maybe the best British actor of his day, and it has the very best of Ken's visual excesses with excellent set design as well.

Truly one of a kind and absolutely brilliant.