The Devils – 1971 | 111mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Ken Russell, of the inflamed and zealous vision, captures the hysteria of an early 17th century witch-hunt with The Devils, as adapted from John Whiting’s play and Aldous Huxley’s novel.

The late lamented Oliver Reed exercises a powerful charm as Father Grandier, a priest made governor of the fortified French town of Loudon. Grandier falls foul of Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue) and King Louis XIII’s (Graham Armitage) establishment when he refuses to remove the city walls around the self-governing Loudon, straight away the authorities set about finding an excuse to remove him as the town’s governor. The womanising Grandier doesn’t take his vow of celibacy at all seriously so a reason for his ejection isn’t difficult, but a mother superior, bitter due to her unfulfilled desire for Grandier, supplies the determined evidence against him to fanatical witch-hunter Father Barre (Michael Gothard). The hot-blooded Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave) claims Grandier possessed her with demons, and sexually abused both her and the Ursuline nuns in the town’s convent. She is naturally taken at her word, and after the inquisition Grandier is tortured, tried, and executed before the entire town for consorting with the devil. The rest is a near comic frenzy of fire, screams and naked nuns, vividly choreographed against Derek Jarman‘s splendid sets.