The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)

[colinr0380]

It should not be underestimated just how much The Devils acted as the explosive starting point for the whole 'nunsploitation' genre, as much as Visconti's The Damned was for the 'Nazisploitation' genre. It is still an extremely powerful piece of work even now, and whilst a lot of the nunsploitation films that followed it are rather straightforwardly fixated on the more purely exploitative 'titillating forbidden and sexual' aspects of the idea of what goes on behind convent walls and underneath the wimples, Russell's film is actively trying to deal with how sexuality and religious feelings are intertwined together, and how both strongly held driving forces that underpin the morals and desires of individual human beings at a fundamental level can be somewhat cynically exploited (twisted, managed, circumscribed) by other factions who do not have quite such deep attachments in order to achieve their particular political goals.

(Though having said that, a lot of the other less high minded nunsploitation films do also have to keep that repression and rebellion element inside them as part of their core DNA to more or less of an extent, which perhaps makes the nunsploitation subgenre one of the more surprisingly political ones!)

That is particularly important in the way that the Father Grandier begins the film as a somewhat jaded and cynical figurehead towards his role in the church, and it is only when his reputation is destroyed and he is ironically found to be heretical on the worldly plane that he finds his purpose and can take a stand for some greater principles in the face of certain death either way. So Grandier starts out with all of the trappings of status of a trusted and ordained religious leader, but none of the faith and principles underpinning it and just going through the motions of piety, and comes to belatedly discover the significance of them on an individual level in the face of the rest of the society having rotted institutionally and going to Hell around him.

The only film in this genre that really comes close to being quite as provocative in its content that comes quickly to mind is Flavia The Heretic, and that is because it uses its historical setting to throw Jewish and Muslim parties into the mix as well, as the somewhat unreliable 'allies' that the repressed nun turns to as potential aides to help liberate her from her bonds of piety.

[colinr0380]

A relatively minor thing, but one BBFC cut was the word "cunt", which seems to have been overdubbed as "slut", which I suspect will still be the case whatever additional material is in this restoration. The Devils wasn't the only film the BBFC cut that word out of, before they passed it for the first time two months later in Carnal Knowledge.

To quote what John Trevelyan allegedly said to Ken Russell, "I don't think the British public is quite ready for 'cunt'", although, as you say, he changed his mind—or, more likely, bowed to the inevitable—not long afterwards.

I always find amusing, and a little poignant, the Stephen Murphy sequence in the BBC's 1995 Empire of the Censors documentary which talks about how Trevelyan kind of saw the writing on the wall for the direction that cinema was going in the early 1970s and whilst trying to go with the flow of liberalisation to a certain extent in testing the waters for the new permissiveness (The Devils and the controversy about the private cinema club screenings of Andy Warhol's Flesh getting raided by the police being a couple of the big Trevelyan situations) seemed to get out whilst the going was good! Murphy, despite his relatively brief tenure as BBFC Director from 1971-1975, ended up having to deal with navigating through some of the biggest controversies in all of cinema history with Straw Dogs, The Devils, A Clockwork Orange, Last Tango In Paris, The Exorcist, Emmanuelle and so on all seemingly pummelling him from crisis to crisis without respite!

[MichaelB]

I always find amusing, and a little poignant, the Stephen Murphy sequence in the BBC's 1995 Empire of the Censors documentary which talks about how Trevelyan kind of saw the writing on the wall for the direction that cinema was going in the early 1970s and whilst trying to go with the flow of liberalisation to a certain extent in testing the waters for the new permissiveness (The Devils and the controversy about the private cinema club screenings of Andy Warhol's Flesh getting raided by the police being a couple of the big Trevelyan situations) seemed to get out whilst the going was good!

It was a lot more prosaic than that. Trevelyan turned 65, i.e. normal retirement age, in 1968, but because things were moving so fast in terms of liberalisation, and he was personally very keen on this, he decided to stay on for a few more years, at the very least to oversee the early stages of raising the X certificate age limit from sixteen to eighteen. Perhaps naïvely, he felt that once that had happened there'd be much less need for BBFC intervention (basically, he was anticipating what ultimately happened in 2000), and therefore it would be sensible to retire then.

Of course, in retrospect he handed over a total poisoned chalice to Stephen Murphy who, bless him, simply didn't have Trevelyan's experience (especially when it came to PR skills), and while Trevelyan absolutely endorsed some of his decisions, particularly passing A Clockwork Orange uncut, he might have been better at dealing with the resulting fallout.

Murphy, despite his relatively brief tenure as BBFC Director from 1971-1975, ended up having to deal with navigating through some of the biggest controversies in all of cinema history with Straw Dogs, The Devils, A Clockwork Orange, Last Tango In Paris, The Exorcist, Emmanuelle and so on all seemingly pummelling him from crisis to crisis without respite!

Yes, with hindsight it might have been better if Trevelyan had stayed on - but he was already pushing seventy when he left, so it's easy to see why he didn't. (He was a massive chainsmoker, too, which I don't imagine did wonders for his health.) And Murphy had the sense to get out comparatively quickly, with his successor James Ferman being far more of a Trevelyan figure.

Although post-Ferman it's been very interesting that the various BBFC head honchos have been conspicuous by their anonymity—Andreas Whittam Smith and Natasha Kaplinsky had existing reputations, of course, but I'm struggling to recall any significant BBFC-related incidents in which their name hit the headlines in a way that was repeatedly true of Trevelyan, Murphy, and Ferman. Although the post-2000 liberalisation undoubtedly had a fair bit to do with it, as it was underpinned by research evidence that the British public didn't want films cut at 18 for any reasons other than unambiguous legal ones—and of course that's what Trevelyan envisaged happening in 1971.

[Roger Ryan]

I disliked and continued to dismiss nearly everything Russell touched for decades... until I finally saw The Devils a few years back. Here was a film that seemed like the perfect marriage between Russell's sensibilities and subject matter. Not only did I think The Devils was an exemplary film but it proved to be the key to a new appreciation for his other work. I recognized I was simply not allowing myself to be on Russell's wavelength when sitting down with one of his movies; once I let go of my long-held prejudices concerning his often outrageous, over-the-top style, his films became much more entertaining and the best of them became insightful and brilliantly realized.

I'm very happy we're finally getting a properly-restored version of The Devils as I think it's the most important film of the 70s that needed rescuing. When recently viewing the film a second time, I could easily spot the moment where the film needed to ratchet up the hysteria to the next level but didn't (due to the deletion of the "Rape of Christ" sequence). I trust that I won't feel the same way the next time I view the film.

[MichaelB]

I was lucky in that my first four were, in order of viewing and all on the big screen, Altered States, The Devils, Crimes of Passion, and Lisztomania (albeit the latter in dubbed Italian; I only caught up with lines like "oh, piss off, Brahms!" on a second viewing on pan-and-scan VHS). I was much too young to have developed any prejudices about a filmmaker going wildly OTT, and in any case none of those films would have benefited from more restrained and sober treatment.

(Which Russell was of course perfectly capable of as well; his own favourite out of everything he did was the exquisite Song of Summer.)

[beamish14]

I’ve never been lucky enough to see Crimes of Passion in celluloid (New World titles very seldom screen these days, and the few prints that exist are in the hands of private collectors and archives), but I have seen the other 3, plus a brand new print of The Music Lovers, The Boy Friend in Technicolor, and Tommy

[MichaelB]

I saw Crimes of Passion, or rather Les Jours et les nuits de China Blue, in Paris, when it seemed unlikely that it would open uncut in the UK.

(Although in the event the BBFC was surprisingly lenient, certainly compared with the MPAA, and in the case of one cut Ken Russell wrote a thank-you letter to James Ferman for inadvertently making the scene ruder.)

[ivuernis]

2004 restoration cut confirmed by Warners on twitter.

[MichaelB]

I can’t see how it could realistically be anything else. If the scissored material no longer survives (and I haven’t seen anything to the contrary), then the only two authenticated Ken Russell cuts are the UK theatrical version and the 2004 semi-restoration, with the latter obviously being the most desirable one.

[Never Cursed]

The restoration will play in theaters for a week starting October 16, and will (I think) be the first NC-17 rated fiction feature to see even a specialty-level theatrical release since Swearnet and Blue Is The Warmest Color. One wonders if they specifically requested the NC-17 rating

[kindaikun]

Kermode mentioned on the podcast recently having to loop a line from a documentary of his from around 20 years ago, and the audio engineer having to change the pitch to match his younger voice. This made me wonder whether a new edit of "Hell on Earth: The Desecration and Resurrection of 'The Devils’” is being prepared for physical release. As I recall, the BFI DVD version was already edited from the original broadcast version (losing the ‘Rape of Christ’ sequence etc.), but also, I think, had some extra material to compensate? (I’ve never seen the broadcast version so can’t compare) It’d be nice to have a ‘Final Cut’ version for the new 4k.

[FrauBlucher]

From Warner Bros. Clockwork X account

[domino harvey]

One wonders if they specifically requested the NC-17 rating

Based on its prominence/proximity on the poster, they certainly courted it at any rate

[The Narrator Returns]

Poster is by the great Sister Hyde, who’ll hopefully get to expand on it for whatever label releases this.

[Aunt Peg]

Ken Russell is my all time favourite director (Nic Roeg my close second).

I've seen most of his film on the big screen over the decades, a number of them more than once. I'm thrilled that Warners have finally let it loose so to speak though I wonder what version it will be. Clearly it will contain all surviving material but I have a suspicion that minor trims made to the film by censors may be long gone forever. But to have the Rap of Christ scene restored and inserted back into the film as well as Vanessa with the femur bone is a miracle in itself.

The only two feature films I have never seen on the big screen are The Music Lovers & Listzomania. I've even been lucky enough to see some of Ken's 60 BBC films on the big screen back in the 1980s.

[GaryC]

I've seen most of his film on the big screen over the decades, a number of them more than once. I'm thrilled that Warners have finally let it loose so to speak though I wonder what version it will be. Clearly it will contain all surviving material but I have a suspicion that minor trims made to the film by censors may be long gone forever. But to have the Rap of Christ scene restored and inserted back into the film as well as Vanessa with the femur bone is a miracle in itself.

I've not heard any indication that the cuts made by the BBFC in 1971 have ever been recovered and are likely lost forever. Editor Michael Bradsell and assistant editor Stuart Baird may be the only people left alive to have seen that footage. As far as I'm aware the cuts were mostly to torture scenes and amongst other things, the editing out of a C-word, two months before the BBFC passed that word for the first time in Carnal Knowledge.

All that I've heard is that what we'll be seeing is the version with the Rape of Christ and the shot of the charred femur which had some showings here and there - I saw it at the BFI Southbank 2012 (shown from a Digibeta copy if I remember rightly) - now restored in 4K. Russell and Bradsell re-edited the film to include the recovered footage so in that sense this restoration is a director's cut. It's not a full uncut version as that no longer exists, but it's the fullest possible.

[beamish14]

One wonders if they specifically requested the NC-17 rating

Based on its prominence/proximity on the poster, they certainly courted it at any rate

How times change. WB made a point to re-rate A Clockwork Orange and The Wild Bunch in 1993.

The other X-rated films released by them included The Girl on a Motorcycle, forum favorite Stop, and The Last of the Mobile Hot-Shots (which was possibly re-rated or edited to get an R by the 90’s). All of these films were produced when WB was purchased by parking lot conglomerate Kinney National.