Okay, wow, what did I just watch?
Well, watched about a week ago at this point.
During the week of October 11th to 17th, theaters across the US projected The Devils onto the silver screen for the first time in decades. And for the first time ever this was the full directors cut of the movie as originally debuted in 1971, after all subsequent editions of the film were heavily edited to remove some of what were considered some of the most salacious scenes in cinema at the time (and in some ways even now…).
Here’s a decent breakdown of the history for those interested.
Going in, I was only vaguely aware of all this. I had just been hanging out with some friends a few weeks ago and had one bring the movie and the then upcoming re-release up in conversation and thought, “Oh hey, that seems like a cool thing to go see!” So I coordinated the night to go with some of my more Cinema Learned fellows and went off with little more than a trailer to go by.
So I sat down, popcorn in hand, seat reclined, ready to watch what I thought was going to be a horror movie set in a nunnery.
And then the movie opened with the French King performing a bad ballet rendition of the birth of Venus.
Oh… okay…?
I’m not going to do a blow by blow plot summary, those exist elsewhere. I am going to highlight my favorite bits though.
The set design of this movie was inspired. The first image we see of the principle setting, the town of Loudun, is a striking facade of pure white tile blending into an overcast sky as a black robed priest intones a eulogy as the camera zooms back to reveal a plinth held up by four skull faced Madonna’s. This carries out through the rest of the movie, from the stark black columned church interiors to the while rectangular tiles of the nunnery, all immaculately realized.
Oliver Reed, playing our “protagonist” Urbain Grandier, is an absolute force of nature. A storm of charisma. By the halfway point of this movie, I completely understood why this entire town wanted to know him biblically, by the end when he gets his grand monologues, I might have died for the man.
Then there’s the… Nun orgy of it all. And yeah, that was one hell of a nun orgy, made all the more awkward and disturbing by the intrusion of a French nobleman and his… “boy” who arrives to play a merry prank on our cavorting wives of God. The scene in general is far from titillating, coming off as deeply unnerving and depraved than sexy. I am not a religious man and have little respect for the Catholic Church, but seeing a multitude of women haul down a crucifix of the big J to grid themselves across it was still deeply uncomfortable.
If I have one complaint against the movie, it would probably be the score. Not that is isn’t extremely appropriate and effecting, but my gods is it shrill and jarring past the point of tolerance.
And this isn’t exactly a complaint, but one of our principle villains is just… I mean look at this man
Every time this guy was on screen it just ejected me from the movie for some reason. His acted his character with aplomb, but just looks so out of place here. I don’t know, maybe there is something lost in the decades since this movies release I just didn’t get.
All and all, even though I am still trying to sort out exactly how I feel about The Devils, I am glad I got to see it and be part of this moment in film history. I have peppered my more cinema obsessed friends for more recommendations, and will probably be seeking out a lot more strange and infamous movies in the near future.
The Devils (1971) 4K directors cut get a Thumbs Up.
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