The Devils (film)
The Devils is a 1971 historical drama horror film written, produced and directed by Ken Russell, and starring Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed. A dramatised historical account of the fall of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest accused of witchcraft after the possessions in Loudun, France, the plot also focuses on Sister Jeanne des Anges, a sexually repressed nun who incites the accusations.
For the 2002 French film, see Les Diables.The Devils
Ken Russell
- Robert H. Solo
- Ken Russell
Michael Bradsell
- 16 July 1971 (United States)
- 25 July 1971 (United Kingdom)
111 minutes[a]
- United Kingdom
- United States
English
A co-production between the United Kingdom and the United States, The Devils is in part adapted from the 1952 non-fiction book The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley, as well as John Whiting's subsequent 1960 play The Devils. United Artists initially pitched the idea to Russell but bowed out after reading his finished screenplay, as they felt it was too controversial in nature. Warner Bros. agreed to produce and distribute, and filming largely took place at Pinewood Studios in late 1970.
The film's graphic portrayal of violence, sexuality and religion ignited harsh reaction from censors, and it originally received an X rating in both the United Kingdom and the United States. It was banned in several countries, and heavily edited for exhibition in others. Although critics largely dismissed the film for its explicit content, it won awards for Best Director at the 33rd Venice International Film Festival, as well as from the U.S. National Board of Review. Although a restoration of Russell's director's cut of The Devils was given its first theatrical release in the UK in 2002, this version has not been made officially available on home media, and releases of edited versions of the film on DVD and streaming services remain scant.
Film scholarship primarily focuses on themes of sexual repression and political corruption. The Devils has been recognized as one of the most controversial films of all time by numerous publications and critics, and remained banned in Finland until 2001.
Release[edit]
Box office[edit]
The Devils was one of the most popular films in 1972 at the British box office,[42] earning theatrical rentals of approximately $8–9 million in Europe. It was also popular in Italy. With an additional $2 million in the United States and Canada from a limited release, its worldwide rentals total roughly $11 million.[2]
Critical reception[edit]
The Devils received significant negative critical reaction upon its release due to its "outrageous", "overheated", and "pornographic" nature.[43] The film was publicly condemned by the Vatican, who, though acknowledging that it contained some artistic merit, asked that its screenings at the Venice International Film Festival be cancelled.[44] Judith Crist called the film a "grand fiesta for sadists and perverts",[43] while Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a rare zero-star rating, sarcastically mocking it as overly self-important.[45] Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker that Russell "doesn't report hysteria, he markets it."[46] Vincent Canby, writing for The New York Times, noted that the film contains "silly, melodramatic effects", and felt that the performances were hindered by the nature of the screenplay, writing: "Oliver Reed suggests some recognizable humanity as poor Father Grandier, but everyone else is ridiculous. Vanessa Redgrave, who can be, I think, a fine actress, plays Sister Jeanne with a plastic hump, a Hansel-and-Gretel giggle, and so much sibilance that when she says 'Satan is ever ready to seduce us with sensual delights', you might think that Groucho Marx had let the air out of her tires."[47]
Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times lambasted the film, writing that its message is "not anti-clerical—there's hardly enough clericalism to be anti anymore—it is anti-humanity. A rage against cruelty has become a celebration of it... you weep not for the evils and the ignorance of the past, but for the cleverness and sickness of the day."[48] Ann Guarino of the New York Daily News noted that the film "could not be more anti-Catholic in tone or more sensationalized in treatment", but conceded that the performances in the film were competent.[49] The Ottawa Citizen's Gordon Stoneham similarly felt the film had been over-sensationalized, noting that Russell focuses so much on the "baroque effects, and concentrates so much on the Grand Guignol aspects of the affair, the narrative is never firmly in focus."[50]
Bridget Byrne of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner alternately praised the film as "brilliant, audacious, and grotesque", likening it to a fairytale, but added that audiences "have to grasp its philosophy, work out the undercurrents of seriousness, close the structural gaps for [themselves], even as [they] are transported by a literal orgy of splendor."[51] Writing for the Hackensack, New Jersey Record, John Crittenden praised the film's visuals as "genius", but criticised Reed's performance while asserting that Redgrave was underused.[52] Stephen Farber of The New York Times noted the film as an ambitious work, conceding that the "ideas in Russell's film may seem overly schematic, but his terrifying, fantastical nightmare images have astonishing psychological power."[53]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Devils holds an approval rating of 70%, based on 33 reviews, and an average rating of 8.20/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Grimly stylish, Ken Russell's baroque opus is both provocative and persuasive in its contention that the greatest blasphemy is the leveraging of faith for power."[54] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[55]
Censorship history[edit]
The explicit sexual and violent content, paired with its commentary on religious institutions, resulted in significant censorship.[1][56] Commenting on the controversial nature, Reed stated: "We never set out to make a pretty Christian film. Charlton Heston made enough of those... The film is about twisted people."[57] The British Board of Film Censors found the combination of religious themes and violent sexual imagery a serious challenge, particularly as the Board was being lobbied by socially conservative pressure groups such as the Festival of Light at the time of distribution.[58] In order to gain a release and earn a British 'X' certificate (suitable for those aged 18 and over), Russell made minor cuts[59] to the more explicit nudity (mainly in the cathedral and convent sequences), details from the first exorcism (mainly that which indicated an anal insertion), some shots of the crushing of Grandier's legs, and a pantomime sequence during the climactic burning.[60] Russell later said:
Legacy[edit]
The Devils has been cited as one of the most controversial films of all time[90]
by such critics as Richard Crouse, among others.[91] Filmsite included it in their list of the 100 most controversial films ever made,[92] and in 2015, Time Out magazine ranked it 47 on their list of the "50 Most Controversial Movies in History".[93]
Following his transition into experimental filmmaking, Jarman produced the Super 8 short film The Devils at the Elgin (1974). Described by Sam Ashby as a "hypnotic, nightmarish monochrome that loops some of the more religious iconographic moments" from Russell's original, the film was captured from a screening of The Devils at the Elgin Theater in New York City. Jarman noted that Maddeline's escape from Loudun in the original film's ending gave the impression that "she walks into a blizzard of ashes" when rendered on Super 8 stock. When screening The Devils at the Elgin at festivals or his studio, Jarman would synchronize the film to a cassette tape recording of Nico's cover version of the Doors' song "The End".[94]
Film historian Joel W. Finler described The Devils as Russell's "most brilliant cinematic achievement, but widely regarded as his most distasteful and offensive work."[95] In 2002, when 100 filmmakers and critics were asked by Sight and Sound to cite what they considered to be the ten most important films ever made, The Devils featured in the lists submitted by Kermode and Cox;[96] for the magazine's 2012 poll, the film appeared in the lists submitted by Kermode and Lucas, as well as those submitted by filmmaker Abel Ferrara and fellow critics Vic Pratt, Billy Chainsaw and David Sorfa.[97] In 2014, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro publicly criticised Warner Bros. for censoring the film and limiting its availability in home video markets.[98]