The Devils backdrop
The Devils poster

THE DEVILS

1971 GB HMDB
July 16, 1971

Father Urbain Grandier’s unorthodox views of sex and religion make him a polarizing figure in 17th-century France. His outspokenness has amassed a passionate following of nuns and a respected reputation for protecting the city of Loudon from corruption. Grandier’s influence is then undermined following a sexually repressed nun’s accusation of witchcraft.

Directors

Ken Russell

Cast

Vanessa Redgrave, Oliver Reed, Dudley Sutton, Max Adrian, Gemma Jones, Murray Melvin, Michael Gothard, Georgina Hale, Brian Murphy, Christopher Logue
Dramma Horror Storia

REVIEWS (1)

MC

Marco Castellini

The fame of the corrupt and libertine friar Grandier excites the curiosity of the superior of a convent who decides to propose that he settle in her convent as a spiritual father. Grandier's refusal unleashes the fierce anger of the nuns who abandon themselves to the most frenetic scenes of hysteria and madness. Some adversaries of the powerful friar take advantage of the situation to accuse him of witchcraft, thus instigating a trial that will lead him to the stake. Based on a famous novel by Aldous Huxley "The Devils of Loudun", a provocative film that, upon its release, caused a scandal at the Venice Film Festival and aroused the indignation of the entire Italian clergy, becoming a sort of "political case". A story that boldly juxtaposes the sacred with the profane, a great demonstration of direction and style by Ken Russell for a historical, intriguing, and suggestive film like few others. It is not a true horror film, but it has some "strong" sequences, scandalous and at the limit of the bearable, typical of this genre. To be rediscovered in its original version, it is easy that on television it passes horribly censored.