As someone who cares about the preservation of movies, there is one masterpiece that I have assumed that we would never fully get in its intended form: Ken Russell’s The Devils. If you don’t know him, Ken Russell was a stone cold freak, responsible for the transgressive Women in Love, Altered States, and the twistedLisztomania (a movie wherein Ringo plays the pope and there’s an extended dream sequence where the titular composer’s giant foam penis is guillotined). If Ken Russell has a masterpiece it is doubtless his 1971 film The Devils, a movie so depraved, sexual, violent and sacrilegious that it was condemned by the Vatican, lambasted by critics and banned in many countries. But thanks to a new 4k restoration of the film appearing first at Cannes, we’re finally gonna see this blasphemous thing in theaters again as the filmmaker intended more than 50 years later.
The Devils was adapted partly from the book The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley and the subsequent stage adaptation The Devils by John Whiting. Though technically based on real historical events, it is not a film that prioritizes historical accuracy and instead centers on bombast, spectacle and transgression, a running theme in many biographical films by Ken Russell.
Starring Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed (who had previously worked with Russell on Dante’s Inferno and Women in Love), the film tells the story of Urbain Grandier, a historical 17th century priest who was accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake in what is historically known as The Loudun possessions. It is a movie about both sexual depravity and repression as well as the abuses and manipulation of power. It is at times campy and often in poor taste, horny and violent in ways that still hold the power to shock.
The film was the subject of censorship even prior to its release, with several scenes involving depraved sex acts being excised. One was infamously known as “The Rape Of Christ” in which a statue of Christ is assaulted by a clutch of rampaging, naked nuns.
Since its initial release in 1971, The Devils has had an appropriately tortured history. It has been released, officially and unofficially, in various states of censorship too granular to recount on television, in theaters, and in home release. The highest quality home release was a 2012 DVD by the British Film Institute of the still-censored UK cut of the movie. Many like-minded film nerds I know have held on to that disc or a rip of it for dear life since it came out.
A transfer of roughly that quality has appeared occasionally on streaming services like Shudder, FilmStruck, and its successor The Criterion Channel, but nothing approaching a high definition home release of the film has ever been close to hinted at. This is a pity, because it is a gorgeous film at times. Particularly noteworthy is the deeply elaborate set design, itself the work of Derek Jarman who would go on to be perhaps the greatest queer filmmaker of all time. It is impossible to watch The Devils, even in its incomplete form, and not think of Jarman’s later work such as Sebastiane, his adaptation of Shakespere’s The Tempest, and his painterly Caravaggio.
Derek Jarman's later work on Caravaggio (top) and The Tempest (bottom). Credit: Kino Lorber, The British Film Institute
Thankfully, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The Devils is getting a full 4k restoration from the original camera negative, and it is cut to the exact specifications of Ken Rusell himself thanks to the new label Warner Brothers Clockwork. It’s set to release at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, this month, in the Cannes Classics section. Following that, the film will be released in limited engagement in theaters in America on October 16th, with international dates to follow. There is no word yet as to a home release, but I would not doubt that one will follow.
Warner Bros. Clockwork via Boxofficepro.
