'The Devils' (1971) - Ken Russell.

Ken Russell, that gleefully unconventional, divisive, gloriously impish L'Enfant terrible of British cinema, certainly outdid his already vast, theatrically-inclined reach with his outrageous, audacious, frequently outlandish, iconoclastic, 'The Devils' This damning, passionate, rabble rousing, majestically mad masterpiece of theological terrorism is charged with an uncommonly mesmeric intensity. Russell's humane, iconoclastic, darkly erotic, persistently provocative, brutally uncompromising feature film is the wickedly confrontational, extraordinarily potent exploration of man's malign ability to corrupt the innocent for his own edifications is brought to vivid technicolor life by cinema's most inimitable celluloid conjurers!

This disturbing, censor-baiting film's indomitable spirit of righteous indignation at the profane abuses of power remains no less compelling today, not only a searing testament to Russell's incendiary filmmaking prowess, but the blood n' thunder contributions of pyrotechnically gifted Thespians, Oliver Reed & Vanessa Redgrave are of such an unfiltered vivacity, their bravura performances have lost none of their ability to shock the viewer out of their complacent, Netflix over-indulging ennui! 'The Devils', like its mercurial mastermind, Ken Russell, is a miraculous one-off, and we shall, in all likelihood, never again see such bold, voluptuous, starkly beauteous filmmaking idiosyncrasy! And it would be entirely remiss of me to not draw attention to maestro, Derek Jarman's appropriately divine, extraordinarily vivid set design.

'Resonating angrily from the blackened pages of history like some unearthly primal scream, Ken Russell's magisterially mad masterpiece 'The Devils' remains a Stentorian, soul-strippingly raw film of uncommonly unfiltered vivacity from a truly unique visual artist!' - Weirdlingwolf.

 

 

 

'Careful, luv, my blood is about 98% proof!'