The Devils 1971 Blu Ray
Oswald Lemus
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.
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.
In 17th-century France, Cardinal Richelieu is influencing Louis XIII in an attempt to gain further power. He convinces Louis that the fortifications of cities throughout France should be demolished to prevent Protestants from rising up. Louis agrees, but forbids Richelieu from carrying out demolitions in the town of Loudun, having made a promise to its Governor not to damage the town.
Meanwhile, in Loudun, the Governor has died, leaving control of the city to Urbain Grandier, a dissolute, proud and popular priest. He is having an affair with a relative of Father Canon Jean Mignon, another priest in the town; Grandier is, however, unaware that the neurotic, hunchbacked Sister Jeanne des Anges, the abbess of the local Ursuline convent, is sexually obsessed with him. Sister Jeanne asks for Grandier to become the convent's new confessor. Grandier secretly marries another woman, Madeleine De Brou, but news of this reaches Sister Jeanne, who becomes jealous. When Madeleine returns a book by Ursuline foundress Angela Merici that Sister Jeanne had earlier lent her, the abbess attacks her and accuses her of being a "fornicator" and "sacrilegious".
Baron Jean de Laubardemont arrives with orders to demolish the city's walls, overriding Grandier's orders to stop. Grandier summons the town's soldiers and forces Laubardemont to back down pending the arrival of an order for the demolition from King Louis. Grandier departs Loudun to visit the King. In the meantime, Sister Jeanne is informed by Father Mignon that he is to be their new confessor. She informs him of Grandier's marriage and affairs, and also inadvertently accuses Grandier of witchcraft and of possessing her, which Mignon relays to Laubardemont. In the process, the information is pared down to just the claim that Grandier has bewitched the convent and dealt with the Devil. With Grandier away from Loudon, Laubardemont and Mignon decide to find evidence against him.
During the chaos, Grandier and Madeleine return. Grandier denies bewitching the nuns and condemns Sister Jeanne, but he and Madeleine are arrested nonetheless. The nuns are returned to the convent, where Sister Jeanne attempts to hang herself, but is cut down before she dies. After being given a show trial, Grandier is shaven and tortured. The judges sentence Grandier to death by burning at the stake. Laubardemont has also obtained permission to destroy the city's fortifications. Despite pressure to confess to the charges, Grandier refuses, and is taken to be burnt at the stake. His executioner promises to strangle him rather than let him suffer death by fire, but Barre starts the fire himself, and Mignon, visibly panic-stricken about the possibility of Grandier's innocence, pulls the noose tight before it can be used to strangle Grandier. As Grandier burns, Laubardemont orders for explosive charges to be set off and the city walls are blown up, causing the revelling townspeople to flee.
After the execution, Barre leaves Loudun to continue his witch-hunting activities elsewhere in the Vienne region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Laubardemont informs Sister Jeanne that Mignon has been put away in an asylum for claiming that Grandier was innocent, and that "with no signed confession to prove otherwise, everyone has the same opinion". He gives her Grandier's charred femur and leaves. Sister Jeanne kisses and masturbates with the bone. Madeleine, having been released, walks over the rubble of Loudun's walls and out of the ruined city.
Meanwhile, film scholar Thomas Atkins attests that, while The Devils contains overt themes regarding religion and political influence, the film is more concerned with "sex and sexual aberrations".[6] He interprets the film as being centrally thematically interested in sexual repression and its cumulative effects on the human psyche.[7] Commenting on the Sister Jeanne character, Atkins writes: "There are any number of examples of tormented visualization involving the Mother Superior... What more stunning visual metaphor for the psychological suffocation of the Mother Superior than to stuff her deformed body into a tiny lookout space from which she watches her fantasy lover? The mere confinement of mass in congested space creates an understanding of the annihilating pleasures of her sexual drive."[8] Atkins likens Sister Jeanne's erotic fantasy sequences to "eroticism from a deranged consciousness".[9] Filmmaker Alex Cox concurs with this point, stating that The Devils "could have been a turgid tale of human rights versus intolerance", but instead became something "much more: an intense, at times surreal, at times hideously realistic story of sexual obsession and oppression".[10]
The color white is featured significantly, specifically in the design of the cityscape, which largely consists of overtly white stone structures. Atkins insists that through this use of blank white, Russell establishes a "leitmotif of whiteness which resists and dissolves natural relationships";[8] Adam Scovell further notes that the "horrifying white-clean aesthetic" of Russell and Jarman's vision of Loudun appears to be inspired by Sister Jeanne's exorcism being compared to a "rape in a public lavatory" in the Huxley novel.[11]
Some extraneous elements incorporated into the screenplay were not found in either source, including details about the plague, which were supplied by Russell's brother-in-law, a scholar of French history.[1] Upon studying Grandier, Russell felt that he "represented the paradox of the Catholic church... Grandier is a priest but he is also a man, and that puts him into some absurd situations."[14] In Russell's original screenplay, the role of Sister Jeanne of the Angels, the disabled Mother Superior, was significantly larger, and continued after Grandier's execution.[15] However, in order to shorten the lengthy screenplay, Russell was forced to cut down the role.[15]
United Artists announced the film in August 1969, with Solo to produce under a three-picture deal with the studio, and Russell to direct.[1] Filming was set to start in May 1970.[16] However, after United Artists executives read the screenplay, they "refused to touch it", abandoning plans to fund the production.[13] At the time, production designer Derek Jarman had already constructed some of the sets for the film.[17] It was subsequently acquired by Warner Bros.,[13] who signed on in March 1970 to distribute the film.[1]
Oliver Reed, who had worked with Russell previously on Women in Love, was cast as Urbain Grandier, the philandering doomed priest.[18] Richard Johnson, who had portrayed Grandier in a stage production of The Devils, had originally been attached to the project in 1969, but eventually dropped out of the production.[1] Reed agreed to do the film for a percentage of the profits.[19] Gemma Jones was cast as Madeleine de Brou, Grandier's wife.[20] Sister Jeanne des Anges was originally to be played by Glenda Jackson, who had starred opposite Reed in Russell's Women in Love, as well as in Russell's The Music Lovers (1971).[1][15] However, Jackson turned down the role saying: "I don't want to play any more neurotic sex starved parts."[21] Russell later claimed that he felt Jackson had actually turned down the role because it had been truncated from his original screenplay.[15] Jackson was replaced by Vanessa Redgrave.[22]
Max Adrian was cast as inquisitor Ibert (in his second-to-last film performance),[23] while Dudley Sutton, who had become a cult figure for his performance in The Leather Boys (1964), agreed to appear in the film as Baron de Laubardemont.[24] Sutton recalled that all of the "respectable actors turned it down. They thought it was blasphemous, which it is not."[24] In the role of Father Mignon, a priest who attempts to usurp Grandier's power, Russell cast Murray Melvin, despite the fact that he was decades younger than the character, who was intended to be in his eighties.[25] Michael Gothard, an English character actor, was cast as self-professed witch hunter Father Barre.[3] Russell cast Christopher Logue, an occasional actor who was mainly known as a poet and literary scholar, as the vengeful Cardinal Richelieu.[26]
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