Ken Russell's controversial film is brooding and powerful. The Devils depicts the downfall of charming priest, Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed). At the beginning, he is concerned with earthly pleasures--sex, power, vanity--but as the film progresses and the Church and government tighten their grip on Grandier, he reveals despite his faults, he was not completely bad. The film is famous for having graphic scenes depicting violence and nudity, including scenes of torture and hysterical "possessed" nuns masturbating and having an orgy. These scenes were certainly shocking, but they were often overly self-indulgent. Really, the film is the most interesting whenever Reed is on screen. The other performances were fantastic all around, with Vanessa Redgrave as the neurotic Sister Jeanne and Michael Gothard as the over-the-top "rockstar" witchhunter/exorcist. The art direction and sets are gorgeous, and curiously, completely removed from 17th century setting. The film punches hard showing the extent that man is willing to go to corrupt political and religious institutions to his will, and comes highly recommended if you've got the stomach for it.
9/10
How did you manage to see this one? My impression was that it's pretty hard to track down.
ReplyDeleteI purchased the BFI Region 2 restoration of the X-rated British cut (still missing a couple scenes), but it's actually a really fantastic restoration. I ordered it from the UK Amazon site and had it shipped overseas to the US. Cost me about $17.
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