The Devils (1971)

I'll tell you why so serious

How sad is this?

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A shocking, morbid story that approaches Satanism and corruption from a new perspective. Even though the debated subject is an interesting one, some people might prove too sensitive for these kind of movies, me being one of them. Not a very enjoyable movie when it comes to plot, but the cinematography is a lesson to any cinema lover.

As the movie started I didn't think I'd make it through the whole thing: disturbing images, religion, 17th century. Nothing I'm particularly interested in (I downloaded the movie to watch Vanessa Redgrave, and oh she should have won 20 awards for this movie! So should Oliver Reed!!). Turns out it's an epic, powerful, and in some degrees heart-warming dramatic masterpiece. As a classic Ken Russell movie, it's packed with "fun":orgies, dances, dark humors. The lines are witty, the characters are vivid, the emotions are fiery. To my surprise it is also very relatable: it's about how the system deceives and tortures the people, it's about a man who stands for the truth. The executor scene brought tears to my eyes, and I had to take a few deep breathes afterwards to cool down. Ken Russell once proved that he does not only make "music video" movies, he's truly great story teller, and oh what a story!

Directed by Ken Russell (Women in Love, Tommy), I had heard about this film a little bit in the past, particularly that it was controversial, and I knew the leading actor, then it appeared in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so I was definitely going to watch it. Basically set in 17th Century France, priest Cardinal Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed) and has radical political and religious notions and immoral sex life, these have earned him many enemies, including Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue) and his power-hungry entourage who seek to destroy his regime and take over. A group of nuns appear, Grandier's rivals are feeding on the mass hysteria being caused, as they appear to be "bewitched" by him, they are attempting to set him up as a warlock in control of this devil- possessed nunnery, the mother superior Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave) is particularly sexually obsessed with him. Mad witch- hunter Father Pierre Barre (Michael Gothard) is brought in to gather evidence against Grandier, ready for the big trial against him, he refuses to confess to being in league with Satan, or to renounce his "heretical" views, he undergoes terrible tortures and is finally defeated, being burned at the stake. Also starring Dudley Sutton as Baron De Laubardemont, Max Adrian as Ibert, Gemma Jones as Madeleine, Murray Melvin as Mignon, Georgina Hale as Philippe, Brian Murphy as Adam and Graham Armitage as Louis XIII. Reed gives a great performance as the French priest with a sexual appetite and trying to keep control from manipulators, and Redgrave is almost as good as the humpbacked nun sexually hungry for him, censorship issues over the years for the release of this film in many countries have caused running times to vary, there are many sexual scenes, but more than anything disturbing moments that are anti-religious, sacrilege and almost heresy, making this film shocking, repulsive, hysterical, compelling and fascinating in all measures, an interesting controversial historical drama horror. Oliver Reed was number 78 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, and he was number 26 on The 50 Greatest British Actors. Very good!

I loved this film, greatly enjoyed itIt's got a good story, beautiful sets, great dialogue, amazing acting by the majority of the actors, especially by leads Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. It's the kind of film that draws in and doesn't let go until its inevitable endingHaving said that, what surprises me most about this film is that it almost escaped my radar. It doesn't pop up in any of the disturbing movie sites I've seen or lists I've read of similar matter. If it wasn't for this random guy I came across surfing YT that briefly recommended this film to his viewers, I fear I would have never seen it, in my entire life, and that, to me, would've been a shame; yep, this film is that goodThough the moment the torture starts on Oliver's Grandier the movie slowly but surely descends into such savagery that may only appeal to psychos and very open-minded people (I'm one of the latter) from that point on. I mean, what was the point of seeing his blistering face as he burns to death? And his genitals getting crushed moments before this scene takes place. The only reason: to shock the audience, should've made do without it. It's not really a complaint, though, I'm open- minded, but it does make you feel like you're watching a completely different movie Still, the movie's solid, well made and enjoyable. It's actually funny, some of the stuff I found in this movie could compete with and even surpass that of Cannibal Holocaust's brutality. Yet CH's widely known, due to said brutality, and The Devils has almost sunk into oblivion, except to those that already know where it is!So try and become one of these and take a look at this powerful movieJaime A. De la Garza https://www.amazon.com/author/jaimeadlagarza