Devils

One of the most controversial films in the history of world cinema returns in an uncensored and digitally renewed version. Ken Russell's Devils is a baroque, explosive and consciously Cabotine attempt to confront the historical event known as the “Possessions of Loudun”, which Aldous Huxley described in his book “Devils of Loudun” in 1952, and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz interpreted in the 1944 short story “Mother Joan of Angels” (which was then filmed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz in 1960).

Ken Russell, who identifies himself as a devout Catholic and at the same time fills his films with sexual excesses on the verge of repeatedly testing the patience of censors, described Mother Joanna... as a film “profoundly un-Christian” and proceeded to make his version, a kind of prequel to the film The Bachelor and focused on the body-spiritual duel between Father Urbital. Grandiain Grandier (Oliver Reed) and the prioress of the Ursuline Convent of the Possessed, Jeanne des Anges (Vanessa Redgrave).

Filmed as a frenetic symphony of dynamic colours and incessant movement by the eminent cinematographer David Watkin, Ken Russell's film treatise is sensual and philosophical at the same time — taking religion seriously and throwing the gauntlet of both secular modernity and dogmatic past. Another visionary of British cinema, Derek Jarman, was responsible for the scenography of the film, boldly combining medieval and modernist iconography.

The discussion after the session will be moderated by Michał Oleszczyk (Faculty of Arts Liberales University of Warsaw)

[Michael Oleszczyk]