It remains one of the most controversial films of all time, so why not talk about the dark, spooky, and sexy Ken Russell film The Devils for today's Throwback Thursday? 'Tis the season! Why was this banned? Well, let's talk about it! #TBT to the true story behind Ken Russell's X-rated masterpiece.
This 1971 British film is actually based on real events in history. Trust me - this story is crazy. Urbain Grandier was a 17th-century priest in Loudun, France, who was accused of using witchcraft after several nuns in his parish became possessed. Screw the exorcist - this story is terrifying!
Were these real possessions? Well, that depends on who you ask. Urbain Grandier was a guy who did not take the priesthood seriously at all. That's my nice way of saying that this "celibate" man of the cloth slept with a lot of women in his parish. Whoops!
Sister Phillippe Trincant was a young nun with whom Grandier had an affair after she started to believe he was coming on to her which caused her to have impure thoughts. She had to confess her sins of lust to him which basically let him know that she was horny for him.
You can do the math from there. But when she became pregnant he decided that he wanted nothing to do with it. He had to find a husband for her to hide the fact that he was the father.
The local police enforcement and other priests wanted to bring down Urbain Grandier once they found out about this pregnancy. They also found out that Grandier had secretly married a woman named Madeleine de Brou! This pissed off officials in town, so they began conspiring on how they would bring him down. Who would possibly stop Urbain Grandier from following his loins? A nun named Sister Jeanne des Anges, that's who!
Sister Jeanne des Anges began to make claims that Urbain Grandier was trying to put spells on her in her dreams. It sounds like she was having sex dreams, but whatever! Other nuns followed suit and claimed that Urbain Grandier was bewitching them as well.
It's like the original Salem Witch Trials! This mass hysteria ran through the nuns in Loudun like a plague. To prove that Urbain was evil, local monks performed a series of public exorcisms.
The monks found that the nuns were indeed possessed! That was all the evidence that the local authorities needed. Urbain was accused of witchcraft and put on trial, tortured, and burnt at the stake. So, yeah, the true story here is WILD.
Aldous Huxley wrote a non-fiction book about this called The Devilsof Loudun that was later adapted into a play and that play was later pitched to Ken Russell by United Artists to make into a film after the success of his sensual and gorgeous Women in Love.
Russell was on board even though United ended up halting the project because they feared controversy. Russell said "when I first read the story, I was knocked out by it — it was just so shocking—and I wanted others to be knocked out by it, too. I felt I had to make it." Luckily, the film switched to Warner Brothers who decided to distribute it.
The plot in the movie is actually pretty close to what really happened, but with much more sex. For example, in the film, Sister Jeanne des Anges is given a burnt piece of the dead Urbain's bone at the end of the film and she masturbates with it. There's no way to know if that actually happened, so let's just assume that it didn't.
Oliver Reed played Father Urbain Grandier. Vanessa Redgrave plays Sister Jeanne des Anges. Gemma Jones is Madeleine de Brou and Georgina Hale plays Philippe Trincant. Both Vanessa and Georgina did a great deal of nudity in their careers after this film.
Filming appeared to be cursed as well. The extras were referred to by Russell as "a bad bunch" who were demanding and did not behave well towards each other. Reed and Russell got into several arguments while filming in the cold Bamburgh Castle in England. Several people came down with sicknesses due to the cold, wet weather, but Russell was determined to finish the film...so he wasn't too sympathetic. It sounds like he may have been possessed to finish the film!
So let's talk about the aftermath. Initial critiques of the film were very negative because people were scandalized. Critics called it pornographic, sadistic, and gross. Even Roger Ebert gave it a very rare zero stars.
I personally agree with Russell on the matter who said himself that The Devils is a "harsh film - but it's a harsh subject. I wish the people who were horrified and appalled by it would have read the book because the bare facts are far more horrible than anything in the film."
The movie was banned in several countries - and was banned in some of those countries all the way up until 2001! - and it is still begging to be restored. I have only seen a very bootlegged copy of the uncut film. It is very rare to find a DVD copy that you can play on a US device. It is still clearly being censored by Warner Brothers, but you can see an edited version of it currently streaming on Shudder.
