A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Devils”. (From the 2026 London Film Festival). (1971 {2026 Restoration}, 3.5*, 18).
Aka Ken Russell’s The Devils
The late Ken Russell sure knew how to antagonise people! When The Devils was first released in 1971, it was met with vitriol and anger. The famous film critic Roger Ebert gave the movie zero stars, due to its graphic scenes of “violence, torture, and sexual deviance”; the LA times critic Charles Champlin wrote that the film was not just “anti-clerical”, but “anti-humanity”; the indomitable champion against all things indecent in the UK, Mary Whitehouse, organised national marches against the film; it was banned outright in many countries (for example, Norway and Finland) or refused a distribution licence in many others, which was basically the same thing.
Now, in a sparkling 4K restoration, it looks great, but still has the shock value to see where the establishment was coming from.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
The torrid tale, based on a true story, of a 17th-century priest Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed), accused of bewitching a convent of nuns led by Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave).
Certification:
UK: 18; US: NC-17. (From the BBFC web site: Contains strong violence and sexualised nudity.)
Talent:
Starring: Vanessa Redgrave, Oliver Reed, Dudley Sutton, Max Adrian, Gemma Jones, Murray Melvin, Michael Gothard, Georgina Hale, Graham Armitage, Christopher Logue, John Woodvine.
Directed by: Ken Russell.
Written by: Ken Russell. (Based on the play by John Whiting and the novel “The Devils of Loudun” by Aldous Huxley).
Running Time: 1h 51m.
Review:
Positives:
- The film has a glorious look, thanks to some stunning sets by Derek Jarman in his debut as a production designer. The wonderfully tiled sets resonate down through time, being immediately recognisable, for example, in the design of Wuthering Heights in Emerald Fennell’s latest film.
- Oliver Reed plays a character who is a spectacular man, making all women in the city of Loudun lust after him. And indeed Reed himself is a magnificent man, in the prime of his style and swagger, seemingly having testosterone and pheromones leeching out of his skin (together with, no doubt, a lot of alcohol).
- Vanessa Redgrave delivers an unsettlingly unhinged performance as the crooked-neck, hunchback nun Sister Jeanne. She certainly goes the whole mile with it.
- The rest of the cast are an assortment of well-know faces from the time: Dudley Sutton, a Film and TV regular; Gemma Jones, famous to today’s audiences for playing Bridget Jones’s mum (I couldn’t get over how much she looked like Saoirse Ronan!); and TV comedian Brian Murphy as the chemist in chief.
- The film has a number of moments played for comedy that work well. I particularly liked King Louis XIIIth (Graham Armitage) crow shooting… where the crows turn out to be protestants dressed as crows. And Michael Gothard, who I best know as the assassin from For Your Eyes Only, is marvellously over the top as the bible bashing witch-hunter general, Father Barre.
- Although horrible to watch, the ‘stake’ scene is brilliantly done in terms of the prosthetic effects for the time.
Negatives:
- Where the film really goes off the deep end is in the frenetic orgiastic scenes in the nunnery. I am not religious. But I respect the views of those who are religious, whether they be Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or, yes, Christian. And the scenes at the imagined crucifixion and, particularly, when the statue of Jesus gets dragged down and defiled… well, they go beyond the pale in causing offence. And I was offended on my Christian friends behalf.
- I know this was a time when we were just coming out of the flower-power/free love era, “Hair” was still probably playing in the London West End, film and TV was pushing boundaries in terms of nudity…. but Russell just loads the screen with tits for titillation’s sake. There is little if no equivalent male nudity.
Baron De Laubardemont; Michael Gothard as
Father Barre and John Woodvine as
Trincant. (Source: BFI Distribution).
Summary Thoughts:
It’s a really interesting film to visit for the first time and I’m glad I did. And the 4K restoration makes it look fantastic on the big screen. As a piece of film-making it is certainly impressive at least 4 stars worth), but I can’t not punish its needless excess.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AMPO7caesw.
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