Part of Shocktober and Ken Russell x4
An enduring masterpiece of cinema starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, Ken Russell’s THE DEVILS is a prescient epic of obsession and corruption — and a defining work of art from seminal filmmaker Ken Russell. Ken Russell’s THE DEVILS is the uncut and unfiltered theatrical experience that Russell always envisioned — and the first time the film will be presented restored.
“THE DEVILS is a righteously furious movie, a piece that works as a display of carnal depravity so intense that the censors chopped it up before releasing it, but also one that’s so subversively smart. It’s the kind of film that you’re unpacking thematically while watching nuns hump a statue of Jesus Christ. In other words, it’s a lot of movie, and now we can finally experience all that Russell wanted us to experience. Get thee to an arthouse.” —Brian Tallerico, rogerebert.com
“The restoration…is a stunner, in particular sharpening the film’s stylized black-and-white-and-blood-and-mud color palette to glistening effect, and the film, well, remains like nothing you’ve ever seen before…. The great joy of THE DEVILS remains how ripe and camp and sensual and funny it is, qualities indulged at full tilt by Russell (not a director who even knew the meaning of ‘half’) in all aspects from performance to production design to orgy choreography.” —Guy Lodge, Variety