The Devils
1971 Directed by Ken Russell
Halloween Marathon Day 2 - Film 3
A rumbling cacophony for the senses- The Devils relies upon a tale of the Church State through political conspiracy. The war of religion stain France- and so the Catholic Church requires that Louis XIII demolish any fortified cities. Grandier is opposed to this however, and pushes against the will of the church.
Grandier's downfall comes from the jealousy of Sister Jeanne des Anges- a hunchbacked mother superior in the city. She seems to have fantasized many times about Grandier- washing his feet especially with her hair and seeing him as an image of Christ. But Grandier has taken a wife in secret- a blasphemy to a priest's sanctity. Sister Anges makes a false confession that Grandier has been an incubus- seducing her in the night.
Much of the film feels like a daze fit for a Jodorowsky film- as the high walls of the town are abstracted and monolithic. The colors throughout are stark. Only being of black and harsh white with splashes of the red robes of the Catholic Cardinal. Each scene within the Catholic spaces have prison bars- repeated motifs of the inherent bondage of Catholicism. Especially the nun's abbey feels more subterranean and barred in. The false confession plays into the Catholic political apparatus - and so their trial commences.
The nuns of the community are also convicted of having contracted this demonic possession like a plague. Their only atonement can only come from Grandier's trial- and so they're given the freedom to be as intensely taken by the devil as they like. What ensues is a blasphemous bacchanal like the hellscape of Hieronymus Bosch. Nunspoitation boils over to layers of nude bodies and insidious acts of lewd display. The twisted music is discordant- aching in waves of intensity to a climax that is edited out of most edits of the film that wish to censor. However it is only through Grandier's being a martyr that he's able to seek his own personal call to God- even as self destruction informs his actions.
The obsessiveness of Sister Agnes doesn't stop only from Grandier's purification then- but within her caged confines she treats his bones as holy sacrament- which she bestows with her own sexual worship. It is the only way she could have been closer to him- making a physical manifestation of her devotion. It's a religious obsession that takes on horrific ends. This experience surely deserves to be watched by more people- as the film's history is plagued by religiosity informing corporate goals. An insidious irony of how corruption takes hold.