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France 1634: To get the country in their grip, church and state have
united to drive out the protestants - or kill them, whatever comes in more
handy -, and unite the Catholic church under Cardinal Richelieu
(Christopher Logue). And Richelieu and King Louis XIII (Graham
Armitage) celebrate their successes as triumphs, even though outside
their narrow minds, the Black Plague slowly takes its toll. Especially
the city of Loudon, led by its priest father Grandier (Oliver Reed) puts
up resistance against plans of church and state, as Grandier neither
wants the Protestants expelled or executed, nor does he want the citywalls
torn down. and Grandier even has the city guards behind him, should need
arise ... So Richelieu and Louis XIII have to cook up another plan to
get rid of the rebellious churchman ... In Loudon, Grandier is
known as quite a womanizer, who has impregnated quite a few girls, despite
his cloth, so it is of little wonder that he has not only made friends in
the city. Plus, the Ursulian Nuns seem to all haqve fallen in love with
the attractive soft-spoken priest, especially their hunchbacked mother
superior sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave). But all of a sudden, only
one girl has caught Grandier's eye, virtuous Madeleine (Gemma Jones), and this time the love is for real (and hers, too). In a private
ceremony he marries himself to her and figures that would set everything
straight ... big mistake: Before long, sister Jeanne has learned of this, and
sells him off to Richelieu, the king, and their executor Baron
De Laubardemont (Dudley Sutton), and soon they have the splendid
idea of making Grandier the target of a witch-hunt, and thus hire
üprofessional absent minded witchhunter Barre (Michael Gothard) to
introduce his trade to Loudon ... and his first victim for questioning
(well, torturing) is sister Jeanne herself, who soon regrets having
betrayed Grandier and even revokes her confession ... but to no avail,
since Barre expects different answers, and has ways of getting them. Soon,
Barre has turned Loudon, and especially the nunnery, into a place of sin and
abandon that makes the womanizing priest look positively pale, and sex and
orgies prevail for the sole cause to get a testimony for the
sins of father Grandier ... which Barre finally gets, which leads to a
carte blanche for questining (torturing) Grandier and finally condemn
him to death on the stake in a mock trial. As their priest is burned,
the decadent citizens of Loudon cheer on, oblivious to the poitics behind
the execution, and really, the minute Grandier has finally been burned
to death, Loudon is blown up ... After Michael Reeves' Witchfinder
General had become a huge success in the late 1960's, it did spawn
a plethora of other witchhunt-movies. Of course, most of them were
formulaic (if often charming) drivel ... but The Devils was the big
exception. Directed by Ken Russell, who invariably puts his personal
visions over genre conventions or historical accuracy, the film has become
an absurd, orgiastic tale of sex and violence, full of provocations
towards the Catholic church, macabre imagery, political satire and black
humour, that had little to do with the dead-serious Witchfinder
General or any of its rip-offs (e.g. Mark of the Devil, The
Bloody Judge) ... but would of course run into problems with censors
and church (which was to be expected). The film itself manages to
unite all its diverse elements - from sex to violence to satire - with
ease, never once forgetting to entertain the audience because of some
lofty goals, and (of course) features great, often anachronistic sets and is carried by great performances (above all Oliver Reed
and his
nemesis Dudley Sutton).
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