Devils (The)
- Director: Ken Russell
- Writer: Aldous Huxley; Ken Russell
- Producer: Roy Baird; Ken Russell
CGiii Comment
It may well be a masterpiece...but, the music is appalling.
It does show the inspiration behind most of Jarman's work.
Doubtful as to whether it still has the ability to shock - it now veers almost towards a gruesome pastiche.
Reed does a fine job...but, Russell, that fine eccentric, manages to throw all his toys at the screen and it works a treat.
This was Russell's heyday - seldom has a director caused such a storm and threw a startling amount of imagery at the screen and how, even in the current climate, it still sticks in your mind.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Cardinal Richelieu and his power-hungry entourage seek to take control of seventeenth-century France, but need to destroy Father Grandier - the priest who runs the fortified town that prevents them from exerting total control. So they seek to destroy him by setting him up as a warlock in control of a devil-possessed nunnery, the mother superior of which is sexually obsessed by him. A mad witch-hunter is brought in to gather evidence against the priest, ready for the big trial.
Cast & Characters
Vanessa Redgrave as Sister Jeanne;
Oliver Reed as Urbain Grandier;
Dudley Sutton as Baron De Laubardemont;
Max Adrian as Ibert;
Gemma Jones as Madeleine;
Murray Melvin as Mignon;
Michael Gothard as Father Barre;
Georgina Hale as Philippe;
Brian Murphy as Adam;
Christopher Logue as Cardinal Richelieu;
Graham Armitage as Louis XIII;
John Woodvine as Trincant;
Andrew Faulds as Rangier;
Kenneth Colley as Legrand;
Judith Paris as Sister Judith