Director – Ken Russell – 1971 – UK – Cert. 18 – 106m 41s (cut)
*****
UK DVD release date 19/03/2012, cert. 18, 107 mins plus extras, £19.99. Reviewed for Third Way
40 years after its 1971 theatrical release, the late Ken Russell’s key work reaches UK DVD in its original UK X Certificate version with a host of invaluable DVD extras. Although a more complete (2004 restoration) director’s cut exists, the nature of the excised material makes the current cut as complete as is ever likely to be released on DVD. In terms of controversy, the film has everything – sex, religion, politics and torture – and Russell’s original cut didn’t hold back in any of these areas. This presented headaches for not only the distributor Warner Bros. in terms of a mainstream US release but also the UK censor who questioned, as the BBFC’s secretary John Trevelyan succinctly put it, “whether artistic quality justifies total freedom.”
The plot concerns seventeenth century France where Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue) is attempting to increase the Catholic Church’s hold on the nation by persuading decadent monarch Louis XIII (Graham Armitage) to knock down the walls surrounding cities that enable their functioning as self-governing entities. With Louis resisting this concession as regards the city of Loudun, Richlieu exploits that city’s ‘demon possessed’ convent under its Mother Superior Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave) to produce an orgiastic sideshow as a diversion for getting rid of promiscuous priest Father Grandier (Oliver Reed), the city’s protector who is determined that the walls of Loudun should remain intact.
Reed and Redgrave give arguably the performances of their careers, while the supporting cast are terrific. Derek Jarman’s set designs brilliantly realise Russell’s vision of both Loudun as a modern city and its convent interior as a public lavatory where a rape takes place. Peter Maxwell Davies’ eerie, experimental score lends an unsettling atmosphere.
It’s easy to see how an uncritical approach could reduce the film to a mashup of blasphemy and gratuitous nudity; however, Russell’s achievement deserves better understanding. Full marks, then, to the British Film Institute and all concerned with the production of this superb, two disc DVD release. The accompanying booklet’s informative essays include current BBFC member Craig Lapper extensively detailing the Board’s history in dealing with the film. A compelling audio commentary (featuring Ken Russell himself, broadcaster Mark Kermode, The Devils‘ editor Michael Bradsell and filmmaker Paul Joyce) throws considerable light on numerous aspects of the production. Bradsell’s eight-minute home movie footage of the Pinewood set with its own commentary brings home the feeling of cast and crew that they were making something special. In Joyce’s documentary Director of Devils, Kermode shows and discusses clips from the excised scenes, including the notorious Rape of Christ sequence wherein nuns writhe over a statue of Jesus and of which Russell wrote to Trevelyan, Christ must be debased & be seen to be debased. Given that the film is ultimately about not nuns cavorting nude but the Catholic Church extending its power base, Russell’s comment here seems fair.
As the perfunctory US trailer puts it, “The Devils is not a film for everyone.” The longer UK trailer covers more ground as it contextualises the history and attempts to justify the film as a serious, groundbreaking work of artistic integrity. Forty years on, The Devils has stood the test of time well. A rare jewel in the crown of British cinema, it repays serious study to anyone with more than a passing interest in either the machinations of political/church history or the tightrope spanning sexuality and Christian spirituality. This lovingly compiled DVD release is a fitting tribute.
DVD reviewed in 2012 for Third Way magazine.
Trailer: