The Devils (1971)
Originally rated X, this film combines historical, comedic, and surrealistic elements to tell a tale of politics and witchcraft. Hysteria occurs within the city when Father Urbain Grandier is accused of witchcraft by a sexually repressed nun.
24 June 1939, Hendon, Middlesex, England, UK
28 November 1910
25 September 1932, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, England, UK
1931, Wood Green, London, England, UK
6 April 1933, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England, UK
24 April 1936, Manchester, England, UK
4 December 1942, Marylebone, London, England, UK
13 February 1938, Wimbledon, London, England, UK
10 August 1932, St. Pancras, London, England, UK
1 March 1923, Isoko, Tanganyika [now Tanzania]
26 April 1940, Islington, London, England, UK
February 09, 2015
The set design, by future director Derek Jarman, is probably the most successful element of the film.
December 18, 2005
Ken Russell at his excessively visual best and dramatic worst.
May 09, 2005
It's a see-through movie composed of a lot of clanking, silly, melodramatic effects that, like rib-tickling, exhaust you without providing particular pleasure, to say nothing of enlightenment.
May 24, 2003
Russell is at his most spectacular in this magnificent tale of God, diabolism and desire, and by Reed's own admission the performance was among the best he ever gave.
March 12, 2015
Bruegel couldn't have captured the insanity better.
January 26, 2006
No matter how thickly Russell piles on the masturbating nuns, tortured priests and dissolute dauphins, there's no getting round the fact that it's all more redolent of a camp revue than a cathartic vision.
February 09, 2015
Whatever the moral perspective, it keeps you gripped right to the end.
January 01, 2000
It's like a David Lean remake of Pink Flamingos.
August 03, 2010
Never letting up its energy, 'The Devils' is eye-ride.
January 08, 2003
Quite frankly one of the greatest films ever made. Period. No qualifiers are necessary.
August 14, 2008
Reed carries the film with an admirably restrained portrayal of the doomed priest. Redgrave, on screen only sporadically, is stunning as the salacious sister.
October 07, 2005
Twisted genius.

