One of THE most excruciatingly difficult cinematic experiences out there. It probably wasn't beneficial for my mental health to watch this and Under the Skin in the same evening. I hated Vanessa Redgrave's character so much that I might honestly hate Vanessa Redgrave now, haha. Kidding, kidding, but wow, what a deplorable human being Sister Jeanne was (albeit a product of her environment). Then again, what character in this film wasn't a deplorable human being and an abuser of their faith - aside from maybe Urbain Grandier during the latter half of the film (as well as his wife, though her role was relatively minimal)? I've always thought it to be true that, while religion isn't an inherently bad creation,…

Given any chance to do so, and any means, we shall make a hell of our own earth, with our own lives, our own bodies and the bodies of others. We are the devils. All dogma contains within it necessarily its own blasphemy, all orthodoxy contains its heresies. A union of church and state produces something that is neither, but far greater in both appetite and execution than either. A thirst so powerfully strong, it gave more than it could give, the air turned to ash, the streets choked with bodies, bodies themselves run through with pestilence, riven with war and torture, a chalice of deprivation overflowing, and yet this is never enough. More and more fall so that more…

***One of the best 150 films I have ever seen.***

Cardinal-Duke of Richelieu and of Fronsac (1585 - 1642) was a French clergyman and statesman that ultimately became a cardinal in 1622 and the chief minister of King Louis XIII in 1624. During his rise to power in both the Catholic Church and the French government, he looked after the destruction of domestic factions. This ultimately led him to apply a corrupt establishment that transformed France into a centralized state. He advocated for the destruction of fortified cities and with a government of their own in order to seize total control of France under the vision of Church and State being unified while crushing the Protestants that rebelled against the…

"...find some good man. [pause] They exist."

Do they? Finally crossing this movie off my list: I was waiting for a full uncut domestic release or a 35mm screening, and the latter came first. I don't care what was cut, 35mm was the way to see it. The Derek Jarman design of this movie alone warrants its inclusion in the pantheon of debauched, excessive masterpieces such as Holy Mountain, Fellini Satyricon, Caligula, Passolini's Life Trilogy, to name a handful.

I was expecting this to be sacrilegious, but what I wasn't expecting is that despite all of the superficial offenses, at the core is a damnation not of religion but of men and their corrupt institutions. So corrupt are men, church…

"The Devils – while not its sole raison d’etre – is unashamedly provocative and fights the war on good taste on multiple fronts (sex, religion, death violence). Although never outright banned, it’s very easy to see why Russell’s film raised the hackles of censors. Why show one nun naked when you can show fifty? Why show fifty nuns naked when you can show them rutting on a statue of Jesus as well? And why not shoot that with cacophonous organ music and dizzying zooms in and out? Russell is not interested in making a delicate meal and there is an admirable honesty in that. Fittingly for the setting, The Devils sits besides Chaucer and Bosch for all out assault, a…

i found it very interesting as a historical document because it captures some of the most relevant controversies of the modern era: the debates on catholic dogma introduced by the protestant waves on issues such as voluntary celibacy or the increasing centralization of power in the french kingdom are an important part of the core of the film, as well as the "witch hunts" (or the hunt for "heretics", as in the case of urbain grandier) seen as political montages, stagings created to eliminate dissent and consolidate a model of nation. russell portrays the emissaries of power, both state and ecclesiastical, the drivers of the plot as ridiculous people, involved in grotesque acts that the film isn't afraid to show…

That was a nice little bit of unbridled insanity, yeah?

The movie looks gorgeous, the films well directed, well scored, and Oliver Reed gives an amazing performance here, he ended up being a lot more sympathetic than I expected going into it. I expected him to be more of a piece of shit and while he certainly is for a good chunk of the movie, as the film progresses he becomes much less of a sleazeball. I love how his true colors show once he's faced with inevitable death, he is a really well written character and one of the best parts of the movie. The nuns all give delightfully insane performances, and there is never a dull moment with…