The Devils (film)
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| The Devils | |
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| Directed by | Ken Russell |
| Produced by | Ken Russell Robert H. Solo |
| Written by | Ken Russell Aldous Huxley (book) John Whiting(play) |
| Starring | Oliver Reed Vanessa Redgrave Dudley Sutton John Woodvine Gemma Jones |
| Music by | Peter Maxwell Davies |
| Distributed by | Warner Brothers |
| Release date(s) | 16 July 1971 (U.S.) |
| Running time | 111 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
- For the 2002 musical project, see The Devils (band).
The Devils is a 1971 film directed by Ken Russell and starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, based on the novel The Devils of Loudun (1952) by Aldous Huxley and the play "The Devils" (1960) by John Whiting also based on Huxley's book. Derek Jarman was responsible for the film's production design.
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[edit] Reaction
Since the time of its release, the film has caused enormous controversy. In the UK, it was banned by 17 local authorities, and everywhere attracted many scathing reviews. Judith Crist called it a "grand fiesta for sadists and perverts", while Derek Malcolm called it "a very bad film indeed", however, it won the award for Best Director-Foreign Film in the Venice Film Festival, while the National Board of Review, USA, awarded Ken Russell best director for The Devils and his next film, The Boy Friend. 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.
[edit] Plot
Set in 17th century France. Reed plays Urbain Grandier, a dissolute and proud, but popular, well-regarded priest in the fortified city of Loudun. Needing to control the city and crush its Protestantism, Louis XIII (Graham Armitage) and Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue) conspire to have Grandier accused of witchcraft and of corrupting the local convent, headed by the deformed Sister Jeanne (Redgrave). She is a neurotic, sexually obsessed with Grandier. She inspires many into baseless attacks on Grandier as an incubus and witch. After being tried by the lunatic inquisitor Barre (Michael Gothard), in an hysterical atmosphere of religious extremes and outrageous behaviour, Grandier is condemned and burned.
[edit] Cast
- Vanessa Redgrave - Sister Jeanne
- Oliver Reed - Urbain Grandier
- Dudley Sutton - Baron de Laubardemont
- Max Adrian - Ibert
- Gemma Jones - Madeleine
- Murray Melvin - Mignon
- Judith Paris - Sister Judith
- Catherine Willmer - Sister Catherine
- John Woodvine - Trincant
- Christopher Logue - Cardinal Richelieu
- Kenneth Colley - Legrand
- Graham Armitage - Louis XIII
- Brian Murphy - Adam
- Georgina Hale - Philippe
- Andrew Faulds - Rangier
- Michael Gothard - Father Barre
[edit] Censorship
The film's combination of religious themes and imagery combined with explicit sexual content was a test for the British Board of Film Censors that at the time was being pressured by socially conservative interest groups. In order to earn an 'X' certificate, Russell made sacrificial cuts of some of the nudity, although the studio had lopped off several scenes prior to submission — notably a two-and-a-half-minute sequence of crazed naked nuns sexually assaulting a statue of Christ, was cut out at the studio's insistence, before the film was submitted to the BBFC, who cut out a further 89 seconds. All of this material was presumed lost or destroyed until critic Mark Kermode found the complete "Rape of Christ" sequence and several other deleted scenes in 2002. The artist Adam Chodzko made a video work in which traced and interviewed many of the actresses who had played the nuns during the orgy scene. Although some material may have been lost forever, the NFT was able to show The Devils in the fullest possible state in 2004. This uncut version premiered at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film in March 2006. Its fate in the USA was even more stringent, with a further set of cuts made to even more of the nudity with some key scenes (including Sister Jeanne's crazed visions, exorcism and the climactic burning) shorn of the more explicit detail.
The British version remains the most complete one in circulation, although there are long promised plans to release the uncut version on DVD.
