The Devils (Special Edition) [DVD] [1971]

Whichever version of Ken Russell's 'The Devils' you see, you're in for a gripping, unsettling experience..My first encounter with it was in the early 1990's when the fledgling Sky Tv was showing it ! It was the US version - shorter even than the UK cinema version - and, dreadfully, both panned and scanned AND squeezed to fit the then standard 4:3 television screen size. Compared to this BFI release, it wasn't a great edition, but even that version is mad and turbulent. I lent a tape of it to my then girlfriend, who returned it ashen-faced (she was a bit of a goth so it's hard to tell) with a whispered "What a film that is !".My next run-in with it was in 1995 as part of BBC 2's 'Forbidden' Season, in which, alongside some excellent documentaries and trivia, Alex Cox presented a short series of controversial films, many restored, including 'Pastor Hall', 'Performance', 'The Night Porter' and, in pride of place, the UK cinema version of 'The Devils'. With lots more naked nuns and painfully realistic torture in place, and even shown in widescreen - albeit the compromise 1.85:1 ratio that tv channels used to broadcast Scope movies in - it was like watching a different film. It was still brilliantly distressing, but now more fleshed out (literally! ); more grue to it's spew. It was still missing the 2 minutes or so hacked out by the rotters at the BBFC in 1970/71 - without which action, the film wouldn't have been passed for release at all ! - but it was an even more unforgettable watch.As far as I'm aware, this BFI version is the same one Cox presented - along with resonant praise - in 1995. In the meantime, much of the slashed frame-age has been located, but the nasty entities at Warner Bros, who own the rights to 'The Devils', won't let it be restored back in. Boo ! Hiss ! There's EVEN MORE - if that's possible - flailing naked nuns and horrible meanness chained up so we can't see it.Mark Kermode was heavily involved with this release, but must be spitting communion wafers that Warner Bros won't allow the 'lost' censored footage he sourced so painstakingly back into 'The Devils'. I like Kermode: he waffles on about this and that, but his heart's in the right place - and he's on our, the audience's, side - something he shares with 'The Devils' creator himself.It's galling - and pretty stupid, if you ask me - that WB also ordered this footage not be shown in a documentary : 'Hell On Earth' - an extra on this dvd - when we all taped it off Channel 4 when it was originally broadcast and have seen it anyway. Makes no sense !So, 'The Devils' is jaw-dropping, eye-watering, effulgent, and occasionally, disgustingly vivid, whichever version you see. The debate still rages, even now - even now dear Ken is transgressing the longest, weirdest opus of all - about what was cut, what wasn't, what was shortened, what was cut then returned, what was cut then substituted, what was cut then partially reinstated after appeal, what was cut and stayed cut ..But it all kind of adds to 'The Devils' mystique and notoriety. This IS the best version available for the home, and if you can take it, see it."What a film that is !" just about sums it up.

The Devils (1971) directed by the British enfant terrible, Ken Russell, was one of a couple of controversial films to have been submitted and to have challenged the BBFC during the early 1970's. The other films being Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange' (1971) and the other, Sam Peckinpah's 'Straw Dogs' (1971).This is Oliver Reed's best ever film as he plays the part of Father Urbain Grandier, a priest, a womaniser and defender of the independent city of Loudun in 17th Century France, which is also set against the background of the bubonic plague. There are similarly powerful performances from Duddly Sutton who plays Baron de Laubardemont as well as Venessa Redgrave, playing the part of a hunchback nun who fantasises about having sex with Father Grandier who she believes to be a Christ like figure.However, plots are a foot to ultimately destroy the walled fortress of Loudun so that it comes into line with the rest of France, as well as an impregnated young girl Philippe Trincant (played by Georgina Hale) and her father Louis Trincant (played by John Woodvine) are seeking revenge on Father Grandier for his cavalier and immoral actions and on abandoning her to have a bastard child .On hearing the news that Father Grandier has married Madeleine (played by Gemma Jones) another young woman who had earlier approached Sister Jeanne to join the sisterhood of the nuns at Loudun, Sister Jeanne goes into meltdown with insane jealousy and starts to implicate Father Grandier as being an incubus and to have the devil within him. This is seized upon by the Baron to engage a professional witch-hunter and exorcist to deal with the obstacle of Father Grandier from defending his city by subjecting him to physical torture, whilst cleansing and exorcising "The devils" from the nuns, who were otherwise due to be slaughtered.To this day the film 'The Devils' remains in a censored release even after 47 years from its original debut. That said,this BFI 2 disc release is deemed to be the most complete version of the film that you're ever likely to get to see, and represents the final BBFC's UK 'X rated' version, after the various cuts that they wanted removing from the film.The quality of this BFI release is very good. The 2 disc release offers the opportunity to see several of the more-controversial scenes in an accompanying documentary called 'Hell on Earth' made by Paul Joyce, which sadly had to be cut out of the main film to get its official 'X rating.' In addition you also get a 40 page booklet with major contributions made by Mark Kermode, Sam Ashby, Michael Bradsell and with particular fascination the chapter from Craig Lapper discussing the passage of the film through the BBFC and the various scenes that were highlighted as a cause of concern, and what needed to be cut out if the film were it to obtain its desired certificate for general release. There are other extra's to lap up as well so you're more than getting your money's worth.If you love the cinema, like to own major pieces of work then you should seek out and buy this particular release. This is still very much a powerful film to experience and this looks fresh today as it was when it first came out.

The saddest part of this monumental film is that it remains cut of a few vital parts, now implied or severley shortened. A well researched history of an event in the 1634 France of Cardinal Richelieu during the height of suppression of the Huguenot protestants, it centres on the total dangers of mixed powers and collusion of church and state, and the terrible consequences of the ultimate corruption that unfailingly ensues. The discussions by researchers include the cut scenes from a reel thought lost but later discovered in an archive. Sadly the film studio that owns the rights has not yet released the director's 2004 extended/partially reconstructed version because of the highly controversial nature of these scenes. Of note is the strong view that comes through - the film depicts events of severe blasphemy but is not itself blasphemous. With sets that look contemporary (as they would to the protagonists living at the time) this is considered Ken Russel's masterpiece based largely on Huxley's the "Devils of Loudun". The lost point is because this is a cut version (albeit the best 1971 X-rated film, much better than the knackered version shown in the USA-cuts probably symptomatic of that very religion and state conflation that characterises the USA), and only because of that reason.