Review: Ken Russell's The Devils

Finally available uncut after decades where only various edited versions were available, 1971's The Devils - now known as Ken Russell's The Devils to make clear this version is complete - is both as much as product of its time as one could hope for and as searingly modern as any 2026 release.

 

Based on actual events, much of its lingering power comes from its strident politics and not the lurid excesses lopped out by various censors. First time viewers may struggle to work out exactly what was removed. The most notorious scene (known as the "Rape of Christ") is such a barrage of images and activity that any individual cuts seem pointless - especially as the scene itself is the opposite of gratuitous.

 

When he's not appearing in campy stage performances, King Louis XIII rules over a France where the religious wars have ended and Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue) seeks to conquer the few remaining towns where Catholic and Protestant live in peace.

 

That's bad news for Loudon, where due to a mix of circumstances the local priest, Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed) has become the defacto local leader. In public he's fiercely protective of his town and its right to self-determination, a popular leader with the backing of the community; in private he's, as they once said about Shaft, a sex machine to all the chicks.

 

This is a bit of a mixed blessing, as while he settles down into a legitimately loving relationship with widow Madeleine (Gemma Jones), one of his past conquests - whose father is the local magistrate - is less than impressed.

 

Also unimpressed is the head of the local nunnery, the hunchbacked sister Jeanne (Venessa Redgrave). Erotically fixated on Grandier - as are most of the nuns, who are a swirling cauldron of barely repressed sexuality - when he snubs her request to become the convent's confessor she accuses him of sorcery. For the forces looking to tear down Loudon's walls, most notably the Baron de Laubardemont (Dudley Sutton), her accusation is all that they need.

 

Populated by a collection of over-the-top grotesques and with starkly modernist sets by Derek Jarman, this is rarely a realistic take on actual events. But there's no denying the emotional power of what's on the screen, as the flawed but decent Grandier is slowly pulled down into the mire by a web of schemers driven by a lust for power - or just plain lust - to destroy the closest thing to a good man the town has.

 

Much has been written about The Devils over the years, almost all of it by better and more insightful writers than me. Suffice to say it's still a powerful and thoroughly engaging film, its camp excesses perfectly in tune with Russell's vision. 

 

Both of its time and timeless, seeing this on the big screen is a must - for who knows if we'll ever see its like again?

 

- Anthony Morris