The Devils

“Call me vain and proud, the greatest sinner ever to walk God's earth, but Satan's boy I could never be. I haven't the humility.” So I opened Shudder this morning to watch Lucio Fulci’s Don’t Torture A Duckling but noticed this was added to the streaming service and as I’ve been wanting to watch The Devils for years I chose to watch this instead and it fully lived up to my expectations. Based on historical events that occurred in 17th century France Ken Russell’s The Devils is a brilliant piece of art that explores themes of power and control through religion, sexual repression, cruelty and dishonesty. Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave give some absolutely mind blowing performances in this and really stood out. Michael Gothard was absolutely brilliant as Father Barre and was a particularly loathsome character. This film also further cemented my hatred of Cardinal Richelieu and in all honesty organized religion in general. The themes of sexual repression really hit home with me on this one as I was raised in a small town where people believe that sexuality is wicked and sinful and as a person who has embraced her sexuality and recognizes the manipulative and abusive tendencies that organized religion is full of I really felt seen by this film. I’ve met people who like this film who genuinely vilify Vanessa Redgrave’s character Sister Jeanne and after watching this I don’t really understand why. Yes, she is who enables Richelieu to accuse Grandier of witchcraft and communing with the Devil but she also is just as much a victim of organized religion as Oliver Reed’s Urbain Grandier was. To me it felt like Sister Jeanne had literally been driven to madness from the guilt and shame of having any amount of sexual thoughts that are completely ok to have and that guilt and shame is directly due to the emotional and psychological abuse the Catholic Church was responsible for. I really loved the set design and cinematography in The Devils also. The white bricks featured in this were just interesting and very memorable. The makeup in this was more interesting than I was anticipating as well. I really see why many people feel that this is Ken Russell’s best film and of what I’ve seen so far I’d say I agree. This is definitely my favourite Oliver Reed performance (and the first time I’ve found him hot lol). This is going to be going in my top 4 because I already want to watch it again and it was something that was pretty impactful to me as well. Edit: Just found out there’s an unedited cut and I’d love to know where I can watch it. I’m sad I don’t have a computer lol