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…

This really is a remarkable film - remarkable in both execution and the fact that it ever got made. There is blasphemy and then there is the complete deconstruction of Catholic dogma, carried out in a frenetic frenzy. Ken Russell tears strips off the church and has absolutely great fun doing it. The Devils is complete flamboyance. Everything about this film is hyper stylised and over the top. It is a real spectacle! And every ounce of style is matched in substance - if anything the amount of points this film has to make can be overwhelming, but the basis of the story - which focuses on a witch hunt propelled by the pursuit of power and justified by absurdities…

***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…

The Devils is a flamboyantly farcical and blasphemous take on the true dark history of Christianity and the devilish ways human psyche reacts to sexual repression and humanly desires. If you think Scorsese's Silence is dark, try The Devils and see what dark really looks like.

The Devils recollects a sexually repressed nun's one-sided obsessions with a priest, and the chaotic witch hunt and group hysteria that comes as a result. It's laced with tonally morbid humors, elevated by its parodic portrait of easily impressionable nuns and hypocritically fanatic priests that's extremely hilarious in a dark way, especially to those without a religious affiliation. What's most impressive about The Devils is the masterful depiction of the two main characters --…

"...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…

My eighth watch of Spooktober. 
This has been on my watchlist for a while and I just haven’t had the time to see it.
But today I had the time. 
And this was one of the most disturbing film experiences I’ve had. 
You start of the film with order and end the film with complete chaos.  
But this is definitely one of my favorite films. I haven’t seen a film like it. 
Ken Russell’s direction is amazing. 
That ending shot is haunting. 
The opening shots look amazing. 
All the shots of the city look amazing. 
Yeah Ken Russell directs this film to perfection.
He perfectly captures chaos. 
And the way he shoots those final two scenes when everything in the…

What blows me away about The Devils is that there's something completely amazing at every turn; not a single scene passes without at least one "wow!" moment. It could be a powerful moment of acting, or some stunning set design, or a bit of colourful frivolity, or some daring costume choices, or something sleazy, or even some slapstick. You never know what's coming next, but it's always exactly the right thing.

With some directors' masterpiece works, you have to caveat them with a warning that it's best to already be familiar with their style and obsessions. Think of Showgirls, Body Double and The House That Jack Built, for example: three great movies that are easily misunderstood by viewers not accustomed…

From frame one itself, The Devils is in absolute control of it's oppressive atmosphere: a delusional King of France, almost naked, reenacts the Birth of Venus in the most grandiose and self indulgent way possible. We then cut to a Cardinal, bored to death waiting for the charade to end as soon as possible. He is surrounded by materialistic lords, ladies and people in higher positions of power showering their delusional king with praise of being "benevolent" as his Venus form in turn showers glitters of Gold to suggest how pious he is in donations. The Cardinal is literally pushed forward on a wheelchair by his slave-nuns, deliberately being oblivious to his King's and his subordinates many sins of pride,…