In pre-renaissance France, the eccentric and power-mad Cardinal Richelieu seeks total control of the nation, but is met with oppression from Father Grandier, who runs the town that prevents him from doing such. Soon, they decide to destroy him by means of setting him up on the grounds of housing devil-possessed nuns (one of whom is madly and sexually obsessed with Grandier) and being a warlock himself. A witch hunter is also brought to town to help gather information and set up Grandier for a trial in which the Cardinal can then finally seize control...
I'll just come out and say that I'm not a humongous fan of director Ken Russell, at least based on seeing Lair of the White Worm and the assorted scenes I've caught from Altered States. That being said, this is supposedly his masterpiece, and was one of the most controversial movies (which is based on real events as well) to come out of the U.K. in the 70s, if not ever. It still isn't available on DVD in most markets, and the uncut print is rather hard to find, unless you are lucky enough to attend select screenings. Fortunately, we do have a bootleg copy picked up some years ago, so that's how I managed to check the film out (lord knows nobody could rip it to youtube and have it stay up).
First thing's first: the acting here is fan-fucking-tastic. Everyone is convincing in their roles here, with the late Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave being in top form. Michael Gothard, as the demented "witch hunter" who arrives in the film about halfway through, is thoroughly evil and demented, though I wish they had given a different hairstyle for the character (he looked surprisingly like John Lennon). Still, my favorite characters were the supposedly possessed nuns, led by the aforementioned Redgrave. They embodied pure insanity and showed why sexual repression sometimes isn't the best thing like many would have you believe. The cinematography is stellar as well, giving you a real feel of dread in one of the harshest of time periods for human beings. By early 70s standards, there is some rather disturbing imagery and violent torture scenes found throughout the film as well, and it's not surprising to see why it caused such a fuss overseas when it was released (the "rape of christ" and Redgrave's hallucination sequences especially).
But alas, I've gotta be a negative nancy here and say a couple of bad things. For one, a lot of the film doesn't age as well as I would have liked. It's a VERY "British" feeling film for the most part as well, so that might not be up everyone's alley. It's also quite confusing if you're not familiar with the timeline this takes place in, and is very politically and religiously driven. If none of those appeal to you, you might wanna stick with the good ol' blood and guts stuff. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It also takes quite a bit of time for The Devils to really get going per se, but once it does, it gets pretty crazy.
Still, I did enjoy this one, even if it was losing me at times. The final act is truly something to behold, and shows how terrifying the connection between politics and religion could be back in the day, though it's still pretty bad now obviously. It's a real shame that this doesn't have a proper release, even after 40 years. I'd absolutely be down for watching this again, especially with director's commentary, and preferably uncut as well.
Tomorrow, for the final day...I've got nothing clever to lead with. So I'll just review BASKET CASE and give my eyes a rest.
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