The Devils

[DB7]

BFI to bring Ken Russell’s controversial masterpiece The Devils to DVD for the first time

15 November 2011 – The BFI is thrilled to announce that it will be releasing one of the ‘most-wanted’ British films of all time, Ken Russell’s bold and brilliant religious drama The Devils (1971), on DVD for the first time.

Forty years ago, The Devils caused outrage amongst audiences and critics after one of the longest-running battles with the BBFC was resolved, and the film was finally seen in cinemas. Now recognised as a landmark in British cinema history the film will at long last get its DVD premiere on 19 March 2012, in the original UK ‘X’ certificate version.

Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave give magnificent performances in what remains Ken Russell’s most dazzling and controversial film – for which he won the prize for Best Director, Foreign Film at the Venice Film Festival. Based on John Whiting’s stage-play and Aldous Huxley’s novel, the film charts the seventeenth-century events that took place in the French city of Loudun. Reed plays priest Urbain Grandier, and Redgrave is Sister Jeanne, whose erotic obsession with him fuels the hysterical fervour that sweeps through the convent.

Derek Jarman designed the striking, highly memorable sets and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies composed a supremely well-matched score for Russell’s arresting depiction of the breakdown of civilisation.

Film critic and expert Mark Kermode, who has written and broadcast extensively about The Devils, will be contributing to the special features. He comments:

‘Ken Russell is one of Britain's greatest living filmmakers and The Devils remains his most incendiary work – an extraordinary and impassioned depiction of the unholy marriage of church and state which is as relevant today as it was when the film was first released.’

[didi-5]

The full version? That will be very interesting to see. And the promise of special features also sounds good

[dremble wedge]

The full version? That will be very interesting to see. And the promise of special features also sounds good

I don't think it's the full version, it's the original cinema release version rather than the director's cut which has been shown recently.

[didi-5]

Ah ... good point, I read it wrong. It would be interesting to have the full version as an extra but I guess that won't happen.

[dremble wedge]

According to this website Warner Brothers wouldn't allow the BFI to release the director's cut. I wonder if they'll see how it sells and then release it later? Or are they just waiting for Ken to pass away?

[julian_craster]

An ideal title for the BFI FLIPSIDE brand, I think....

[Richard_in_wales]

A seriously strange film, none the less I enjoyed it at the time.

[m35541]

According to what I've read, not only have Warner refused to let the BFI release the 'restored version' they have also refused permission for the Rape of Christ sequence to be shown as part of Mark Kermode's documentary, Hell on Earth, which will be attached as an extra and this has had to be edited out for the DVD release even though it was shown when the documentary aired on TV.

[Grant]

Warner Brothers bah! keeping British classics under lock and key for no good reason.

[Sgt Sunshine]

Released today.......Bought yours yet....?

http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_21668.html

Cheers
Sgt S

[didi-5]

Amazon posted my copy today ...

[Sgt Sunshine]

Amazon posted my copy today ...

I'll get me Oyster Card out & pop round tomorrow, after 9.00

[didi-5]

I'll get me Oyster Card out & pop round tomorrow, after 9.00

LOL. Buy yer own

[Sgt Sunshine]

LOL. Buy yer own

....
Its on the list.....of course
Cheers
Sgt S

[didi-5]

I watched this great film again over the weekend on this new DVD release. I haven't changed my opinion of it. It is a towering piece about politics and religion. It contains Oliver Reed's greatest performance as Father Grandier - he's simply exceptional in every single frame in which he appears. The film looks sumptous with Derek Jarman's set designs. And yet it is the most OTT and eye-popping film you will ever see, with purposefully loud performances from those further down the cast and an eccentric yet brilliant mad nun from Vanessa Redgrave. It is one of the top five best films ever made, not just from the UK. And yet it is a film I can only watch sparingly, with some scenes which linger in mind as once seen, never forgotten. Ken Russell's best film by miles.