The Devils review – Ken Russell’s 1971 possessed-nuns tale is a frenzied aria of confrontation and hysteria - 英雄联盟赛事

Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave deliver career-defining portrayals in this motion picture originally prohibited for indecency, which exposes the brutality inherent in authority.

"I could never be Satan’s boy. I haven’t the humility." These words come from Father Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century French clergyman accused of sorcery, portrayed with flair by Oliver Reed in Ken Russell’s caustic 1971 masterpiece. Now fully restored and re-released in its uncut form after decades of suppression, it emerges from an era when films shown in mainstream cinemas still retained the ability to startle, insert that shock into polite cultural discourse, and spark meaningful debate over whether such shock—or conversely, a prohibition—was warranted.

The Devils draws from a factual incident of politically orchestrated mass frenzy, adapted by Russell from two literary sources: Aldous Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun and John Whiting’s theatrical work The Devils. Naturally, it is indecent; indecency serves as the glowing sulfurous paint Russell applies to his canvas. It addresses indecency—yet the indecency does not lie in the eroticized depictions of the crucified Christ or frolicking naked nuns; rather, it is the brutality of power that is portrayed as indecent. The notion of martyrs or heretics being burned alive has long been an accepted reality recounted in G-rated history lessons, a punishment that persisted well into the European Enlightenment. Russell reveals what it might truly resemble, which involves a provocative assault on propriety. Continue reading...