The Devils

...too 'controversial'?... I remember a scene where a nun (Vanessa Redgrave?) masturbated using a crucifix - the packed Swiss audience in the sold-out cinema let out a collective gasp...

* Ken Russell doesn't report hysteria, he markets it - New Yorker, 1976
* A garish glossary of sado-masochism ... a taste for visual sensation that makes scene after scene look like the masturbatory fantasies of a Roman Catholic boyhood - Alexander Walker

. . . . . .

http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/s...hreadid=132798

Looks promising.

...it was Kino Rex, on the Bahnhofstrasse, in Zurich, back in the days when this or that movie (e.g. "Harold And Maude", "Topaz") could still pack an 800-seat house for the 9 p.m. show on a Saturday night...

. . . . . .

I'm very intrigued by this film, and if it indeed turns out to be the completely uncut version, I'll most probably pick it up when it's released. It has so much clout among the Euro-cultists that I can easily sell it (for profit, I suspect) if it turns out to be shit. By the way, Hendrik, what's your opinion on Salò?

"...By the way, Hendrik, what's your opinion on Salò?"

...erm... surely now, you're not 'elevating' Russell's The Devils to the same level as Pasolini's Salò ?...

. . . . . .

Most of you guys have probably already read this, but here's the thread in question detailing the latest bad news on the (aborted?) restoration of THE DEVILS. Can't this movie, and its fans, ever catch a break?

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=106477

For what it's worth, I prefer THE DEVILS to SALO as well. The latter is okay but to my mind doesn't compare to the richness of Ken Russell's finest movie.

Not until it belongs to some company other that WB.

Look people, I haven't seen The Devils yet, so I wasn't trying to compare it to Salò (which I admire greatly without enjoying it at all); I just wanted to get Hendrik's opinion on another (unjustly?)infamous film. My question has now been answered in this thread and in another one at DVDTalk concerning Gaspar Noé's Irréversible...

If it's of any interest, the lost bits of The Devils have been found and restored. They are due to be shown on a documentary on the UK Channel 4 on November 25th.

More info at this link:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/...sing_hell.html

word is though the docu will be shown only once on UK television and no luck whatsoever of inclusion on the DVD, if and when the DVD will ever materalizes. Maybe with the soon-to be release special edition of "Tommy" this might jumpstart a resurgence of Russell's other films to get proper DVD releases:

"The Devils" - 111min version
"The Boyfriend"

Lets not forget THE MUSIC LOVERS. MGM has the rights to it.
I sure hope that is relased someday.

THE DEVILS has been released for rental or sale on iTunes, of all places. It is 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and looks AMAZING compared to all the bootleg versions I've seen. The movie runs over 108 minutes, so it isn't the 103-minute R-rated cut. Still no official DVD release anywhere, but it has obviously been remastered for the iTunes version to be as good as it is.

 

Here are some pictures - perhaps this was the transfer that was created for the DVD that has yet to surface?

 

Edited by Chuck Pennington - 6/18/10 at 7:51pm

If it's 108 minutes, sounds like it's still missing the "Rape of Christ" segment.  Does it still carry an R rating at iTunes?

This just made my weekend.

It says it is Rated R at iTunes, but from what I've read online "The Rape of Christ" sequence was never in ANY version of the movie. There was a 108-109 min X rated US cut, and then an 111 min UK X cut, and then a 103 min R-rated US version.

 

What I'd like to know is what is different between the US and UK X versions. I have the bootleg DVD from the UK broadcast and viewed it once, and now I've seen the full 2.35:1 version from iTunes. Nothing stuck out as different to me.

 

Some more images for you guys. One would never know how carefully composed the 2.35:1 frame is from that cropped UK broadcast or the 4x3 other cropped releases.

 

That UK broadcast DVD -- as bad as the image is (but as valuable as its existence has been in the interim) -- is heartbreaking when they pull the image back to 2.35:1 at the beginning of the end credits.

Will itunes allow you burn this one to a DVD...or does DRM get in the way? 

 

 

 

Truly...I've watched that bootleg available on amazon.com once.  As far as weird religious films go, it's epic and quite fun to watch, just like the original Wickerman. WB should really do a DVD-R of this film, at least...  Let the customer decide what they want to see and not see!!  

It has DRM and you cannot just take that file and burn it to a DVD. You have to know how to get around the DRM. :-)

 

Maybe it will be a Warner Archive release at some point.

 

There had been talk that the footage had been restored to the film in this thread:

 

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/282871/any-word-on-ken-russell-s-the-devils

 

Unless I hear otherwise, it sounds like this is the same version that has circulated in America since the mid-80's, which is the previous U.S. X-rated cut.  (the film was cut for an R to 103 minutes, but the previous 108 was resubmitted and given an R 'round 1981)  If you look carefully at the closing credits on this version, while the majority of the text has the film visible behind it, the MPAA card has an opaque black backing - the new rating copyright was superimposed in the lab over the old one.

 

Tim Lucas at Video Watchdog once had a great breakdown of all the cuts in a back issue.  I don't have it handy, but I think what went down was that the film was first submitted to the BBFC at 111 minutes, and rejected for further cutting.  I suspect that this version did have the "Rape of Christ" sequence in it, since it runs about 3-4 minutes.  This would mean that yes, it was never in any publicly seen edition of the film, but that it did figure into a planned final edit.  So then we have the 108 minute version that, as you point out, is essentially the same in both the U.K. and the U.S.  Then WB pulls the X-rated cut out of circulation, recuts it to an R at 103 minutes, and reissues it in a double feature with THE EXORCIST.  Then finally, there is the partial restoration mentioned above. 

 

(FWIW, in doing a search under "Ken Russell The Devils Restoration", I found nine different threads, some albeit in the "Archived Threads 2001-2004" section.  It would be marvelous if they could be merged into one simple thread)

 

 

Agree.  I sure wouldn't mind reading through those threads...especially if it could be made less cumbersome.  Second the motion.

Warner Archive would be a great way to pick it up.  I'd pay the $20 for that. 

 

Now, if they would lower the price on some less epic titles I want (Under the Rainbow, Outlaw Blues, Carny, etc) I'd actually buy a title from that library. 

I've been following the Warner Archive thread all along, with the hope that I'd eventually see the words "The Devils" in someone's post -- and hopefully NOT a bad news post.  Now you gotta wonder if it's about to appear in the lineup...or maybe not, and this is their solution to satisfying the demand while not making a big thing out of it.  (What do I know -- I'm just rambling.)

Edited by Chas in CT - 6/19/10 at 11:50am

Quote:

In the documentary that aired in the UK, it is stated by several people that the "Rape of Christ" sequence was removed from the film by Warner before it was submitted to either the ratings board in the US or the BBFC in the UK. There are bits of other footage in the documentary that was recently found (Vanessa and the charred bone, and the rather graphic pantomime that was to be included during Oliver Reed's execution), but it isn't clear if this material was cut before or after being submitted to some board. What's odd is the "Rape of Christ" footage is all 2.35:1, but everything else is cropped down to 1.78:1 and has narration or credits over it, preventing anyone from trying to make their own hybrid with ALL of that recently found footage.

 

Call my crazy, but I don't think there is anything all that shocking in the movie. It is shot in such a way that one still needs to read into what exactly is happening. I didn't quite get the whole enema scene thing until I read some more about the movie online. With the whole "Rape of Christ" sequence and the other footage restored, I don't see this getting an "R" even today, but I don't see there being a big outcry over it either. Even without the graphic bits, the theme of the film is the same, and isn't that the main thing that might offend the religious?

 Thanks for the heads up, guys! This is pretty incredible news. I never even bothered checking iTunes for this. I've been waiting for a widescreen version of this since...umm...1996! Wow, time flies.

Well, I've been keeping my eye out for this one for sometime.  If it's out on iTunes at least there is hope.  I understand Ken Russel made a comentary for it, I hope it is included.

A restored complete set of Ken Russell, including The Devils, would be something I would buy. My prefered for a limited collection would be The Devils/Gothic/Lair of the White Worm.  I really thought after the death of Richardson we'd get Gothic fully restored.  Not sure why that didn't happen. 

The rape of Christ scene wasn't so shocking (esp by 2009 standards) Other films are more graphic today. It's the religious theme of raping Christ that causes the problem (as with "The Last Temptation of Christ" and Christ's sex life)  Mel Gibson's "Passion" was way more graphic.

 

Showing nuns lying over Christ on a fallen cross is what the uproar is all about. Not so much the theme of the film (which of course the government/church doesn't like) But what LInda Blair did with the cross in "the Exorcist" was way more worse than anything in "The Devils" and yet that film gets many releases in new and expanded editions.

 

Having met Ken Russell, I would believe it's not the films but the relationship with the director and the studio that is holding up the release of many of his films