Ken Russell’s The Devils is a historically informed dramatisation of the fall of Urbain Grandier, a local Catholic priest in the French region of Loudun who was punished for allegedly summoning evil spirits to possess a convent of nuns. 

Hunchback nun Sister Jeanne lusts after Grandier, and when he refuses her advances, she accuses him of witchcraft. Grounded in the tension of the competing forces of Church and State, the film is a rage against repression; not just sexual suppression but political corruption and gendered subjugation. 

Starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave in career-best performances, The Devils was widely condemned upon its original release and deemed so blasphemous as to warrant public denouncement from the Vatican. After a brief European release in 1972, the film never traversed cinemas in the ardently Catholic Ireland of the time. 

Speaking on the scarcity of means to watch the film, Kevin Coyne from the Irish Film Institute said, “At least half a dozen versions exist, all censored to some extent, while theatrical screenings have been perfunctorily refused and few efforts made at release on physical media of a film not even submitted to the Irish censor for an inevitable ban.”

Mark Kermode has been at the forefront of the restoration project that is allowing audiences to finally see the film as Ken Russell had intended. Notably, there is the inclusion of a scene which cuts between naked nuns romping in the cathedral and Grandier breaking bread and taking communion. A jarring juxtaposition conveying a political message that Russell argued was the crux of the film, it was removed in the original release. 

With forbidden lust, Louis IX drag, and lesbian nun orgies, the film is extremely queer-coded, not only in the themes and subject matter but in its history of censorship. Shunned for taboo sexuality and defaming the Church, The Devils’ reception recalls the importance of free speech and defiant storytelling.  

An allegory of political powers using religious hysteria to manipulate the masses for the betterment of their own agenda, it is no wonder the film is resonating so strongly today. There is no feature from the devil in the film, only devilish people. 

The Devils will be shown in Irish cinemas from October 30.