The Devils is one of those films that forces you to ask why it is you watch movies, and I frankly don’t know what to do with it. Ken Russell constructs this like a man possessed, his filmmaking on fire such that every howling image lands with provocation and gusto. Some of these compositions are so inventive and charged that I could barely breathe as I watched; it is not an exaggeration to call it one of the grand masterpieces of film production in cinema history. Derek Jarman’s production design, his first work in cinema, turns the walled town of Loudun into a gleaming, white-tiled asylum. Jarman and Russell are visionaries in the way they carefully build a visual language of black and white only to tear it asunder with red blood and pink flesh.
Contained within that technical mastery are some powerful stories: A womanizing priest named Grandier (Oliver Reed), who rules Loudun, creates a sexual furor bordering on bewitchment among the residing nuns, most especially Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave). Meanwhile, a group of civic and religious bureaucrats connive to wrest control of Loudun from Grandier. The film’s characterization is searing and occasionally nuanced; Grandier is both a true cad and a true believer; Jeanne is a bundle of contradictions.
And yet I found the film tough to get through. I wouldn’t go quite so far as Roger Ebert, whose sarcastic 0-star review mocks it as a self-important parade of torture and orgies dressed up as brave truth-telling, but I do find it to be an edgelord, try-hard piece of art, displaying contempt for everything it encounters. A little bit of punk-rock fury aimed at all pillars of the establishment is okay, especially when you’re a magician of a filmmaker, but The Devils left me with the same gross aftertaste as Texas Chain Saw and Trainspotting: It pushes its buttons of dour cynicism so hard it circles back to uninteresting for me. It features some filmmaking for the ages, but is just a bit too frothing for me to give it anything more than an academic thumbs-up.
(N.B.: Although The Devils is inspired by a documented historical “witch craze” incident, it is essentially not a witch film, but I included it here because I watched it in prep for the podcast about witch movies. Also: after decades of censorship, a 4K restoration of Russell’s uncut version opened in North American theaters for a currently-active one-week run.)
This review appeared in Goodie Bag: Witch Movies
Is It Good?
Good (5/8)
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