The Devils

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Cast & Crew

Oliver Reed
Urbain Grandier

Vanessa Redgrave
Sister Jeanne

Dudley Sutton
Baron De Laubardemont

Max Adrian
Ibert

Gemma Jones
Madeleine

Murray Melvin
Mignon

Michael Gothard
Father Barre

Georgina Hale
Philippe

Brian Murphy
Adam

Christopher Logue
Cardinal Richelieu

Ken Russell
Director

Aldous Huxley
Writer

Ken Russell
Writer

John Whiting
Writer

Roy Baird
Associate Producer

Ken Russell
Producer

Robert H. Solo
Producer

Peter Maxwell Davies
Original Music

David Watkin
Cinematography

Michael Bradsell
Film Editing

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Audience Reviews for The Devils

• Oct 09, 2019

  Wonderfully profane madness. Even if the film's capacity to shock has diminished, Russel's vision remains unparalleled. You still haven't seen anything like this.
  

  Alec B Super Reviewer
• Aug 03, 2018

  Ken Russell's work here is deliberately thought-provoking as a priest (Reed) living on the edge of popular thought, and stubbornly argumentative with the powers-that-be, is therefore expeditiously accused of worshipping Satan. Hysteria follows. The finger pointed at modern society is strong with this one. Don't say I didn't warn you. Parental guidance suggested. For your parents, too.
  Kevin M. W Super Reviewer
• May 09, 2018

  For a while, the impression one gets is that Russell is not interested in discussing insanity (or its nature) but just to show it - bare naked - in a purely exploitative, surrealistic way; which is true, until everything moves so confidently towards an apotheotic display of mad depravity.
  Carlos M Super Reviewer
• Apr 27, 2011

  "The Devils," a 17th-century tale of religious fanaticism, may be writer/director Ken Russell's best film, but it could have been even better if he hadn't pushed his actors so far over the top. It's bad enough that Oliver Reed has steam coming out of his ears whenever he's onscreen and that Vanessa Redgrave is often a cringe as the twitching, hunchbacked Sister Jeanne. But the worst offender is Michael Gothard as the histrionic, witch-hunting Father Barre. Not only is Gothard engaged in a persistent contest with Reed and Redgrave to see who can screech his/her lines the loudest, but his hippie haircut and John Lennon spectacles are ridiculously out of place in a period film. It's impossible to take his character seriously, and that's a significant problem for someone who emerges as the story's top villain. Dudley Sutton and Murray Melvin are actually more effective in much smaller nemesis roles. On the other hand, the film's look is incredible (the sets, courtesy of the young Derek Jarman, are intentionally restricted to austere black and white) and Peter Maxwell Davies' assaultive score is one of the most thrilling works of contemporary classical music I've heard in a film. Otherwise, it probably goes without saying that if you have a fetish for writhing, naked nuns in heat, this will be the greatest movie you ever saw. I believe that I caught a nearly unedited version of this still-controversial film, but I did read something online about a closing shot of Sister Jeanne stimulating herself with a phallus-shaped bone fragment. Alas, the cut I saw did not include this.
  

  Eric B Super Reviewer

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