Ken Russell's The Devils

Ken Russell’s 1971 The Devils remains one of cinema’s most transgressive and incendiary provocations, a feverish account of the Loudun possessions witchcraft trial in 17th-century France. Oliver Reed stars as Urbain Grandier, a wildly charismatic libertine priest who defies Cardinal Richelieu’s consolidation of power. Vanessa Redgrave’s Sister Jeanne is a sexually repressed, hunchbacked Abbess obsessed with Grandier with an intensity that ignites accusations of demonic possession among her convent’s nuns. Already a target for reprisals due to his political resistance, Grandier’s promiscuity eventually lands him on the wrong side of a powerful family.

Adapting from Aldous Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun, Russell vividly stages the mass hysteria, torture, and exorcism as history, horror, and political allegory. As Russell’s most political film, it condemns the collusion of church and state for the purposes of wielding unchecked and self-serving powers. Influential artist Derek Jarman contributed a stark, white production design which sharply contrasts with the baroque excesses and saturated colours of the film now rendered more vibrant in this 4K restoration.

Ken Russell's The Devils was infamously rated X, banned, censored, recut in many territories for decades, and is still controversial for its depictions of religious hysteria — which includes several writhing nuns defiling a crucifix — and its body horror. This director’s cut restores Russell’s original intent. Alternately hailed as a masterpiece and derided as pornography, its anti-authoritarian outrage and critique of institutional hypocrisy feel more urgent than ever.

ROBYN CITIZEN

Co-presented with Midnight Madness

Assembled from the original camera negative, this new 4K restoration presents Ken Russell’s definitive vision of The Devils by referencing the edit he privately constructed in 2004. The film’s sound has been remastered from original English Composite 35mm Mag Film, transferred at 96kHz, plus other original film elements in selected spots as needed. The Picture and Sound restoration was performed by Warner Bros. Post Production Creative Services, Water Tower Color, and Warner Bros. Sound. 

Content advisory: crude content, sexual content, coarse language, violence, mature themes