Ken Russell's The Devils (1971)
February 20, 21, 26 and 28, 2015
Grand Illusion CinemaSeattle, WA
Ken Russell's controversial, searing masterpiece in a very rare multi-show run on 35mm, featuring what proved to be an even rarer 110 minute print. All four shows sold out.
By pure fluke, we discovered that Warner Bros. was making prints of the film available again for the first time in decades. Less than a year later, it was locked up in their vault again.
In seventeenth-century France, a promiscuous and divisive local priest, Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed), uses his powers to protect the city of Loudun from destruction at the hands of the establishment. Soon, he stands accused of the demonic possession of Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave), whose erotic obsession with him fuels the hysterical fervour that sweeps through the convent. With its bold and brilliant direction by Ken Russell, magnificent performances by Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, exquisite Derek Jarman sets and sublimely dissonant score by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, The Devils stands as a profound and sincere commentary on religious hysteria, political persecution and the corrupt marriage of church and state.