Well memory maybe playing tricks on me regarding Cinerama. I think I saw the dreadful Krakatoa East of Java there in Cinerama. It did have a very large auditorium and one of those curved screens and I saw The Devils one matinee afternoon along with two OAP ladies who sat through the whole film without moving. It also had a habit of showing non mainstream films . I remember seeing Bergman's 'Cries and Whispers' at the Odeon Merrion. Leeds was pretty good at one time for rather nice screens. But it certainly was a great place to watch 'The Devils".

The Devils has just jointly won Best Special Features at this year's Cinema Ritrovato awards, specifically for its documentation of the various controversies surrounding the film.

For anyone who doesn't have the disc yet, Warners did an interesting thing with the logo. The distinctive era logo "A Kinney Company" is gone from the beginning (but is still there in some form during the end credit sequence), while the newer WB logo isn't the latest moving one but the still frame from a slightly earlier era, seemingly around the early 90s:

So it looks as if WB split the difference in wanting "A Time Warner Company" on there but not wanting the very latest logo on the front of the film.

On the film itself, it looks absolutely stunning on DVD finally in its correct aspect ratio. Something that I had missed on previous viewings was the wonderful kaleidoscopic light playing across many of the characters from the stained glass windows in the church, which had not really come through on my VHS tape before.

Or perhaps the master was completed some time ago and WB has been sitting on it?

I would say the latter. Though, that logo has been displaced by newer ones since '01-'02 and I would expect (or hope) that the master was completed some time more recently than that.

http://www.closinglogos.com/page/Warner+Bros.+Pictures

When I saw the semi-restored version on the big screen in 2004, the quality of the SD master was so good that I assumed it was HD before I found out for certain. So it may well be the case that the master was created when the "rape of Christ" footage came to light (i.e. around 2002-3).

The age of a master doesn't necessarily say anything helpful about its technical merits.

Thought I'd share this with everyone. There's a new book recently released entitled, Raising Hell Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils. The author of the book also recently conducted a lengthy, 40 minutes interview with Guillermo Del Toro where he expresses his admiration for the film.

Looks as if the BFI will be screening the director's cut of The Devils as part of their upcoming "Uncut" series of banned and censored films...

I prefer the term "semi-restoration". The true director's cut is almost certainly irretrievably lost.

Well, I completely agree with that sentiment. But, unfortunately it seems as if the official term dubbed to this version is "Director's Cut". By calling it such, it seems as if it has only added to the confusion about the different versions, with many thinking the "Director's Cut" is the version Russell first presented to the BBFC, which is of course inaccurate. I personally would've preferred "2004 Reconstruction".

BTW, I found it interesting that WB not only let the BFI allow this version to be shown once, but twice as part of this upcoming series. Maybe they are finally starting to loosen up with the film, and maybe here in the States we'll be able to see a release similar to that of the BFI from a company like Criterion. (Not that I don't already own the BFI release, just that I hope those without region free players will be able to witness Russell's magnum opus.)

They've authorised several screenings over the last eight years - I saw it myself in November 2004, and that certainly wasn't its only outing. It played at last year's East End Film Festival, and again in March to tie in with the DVD release.


As I understand it, the problem is that Warner UK and Warner US have very different attitudes towards the film. Warner UK was all set to release the 2004 semi-reconstruction on DVD in 2005, which was when Russell & co. recorded the commentary that ended up on the BFI disc. It never appeared, and rumours that Warner US pulled the plug are probably true.

Warner US has always hated the film, from the day they first saw it. They cut it to ribbons in the US without Russell's authorisation, and that version's the only one that's ever been officially available over there - even a release of the UK cinema cut (i.e. the one on the BFI DVD) would be a huge leap forward.

What I was trying to say is that while a few screenings have occurred, they have been over a really long period of time. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe in addition to the 2004 screening, the only other screening was at the East End Film Festival, until this year, when the BFI was allowed to show the film on the same release date as their DVD. Now, they are allowed to show the film again on two other separate dates. My point is simply that being able to show the film three times over the span of a few months is rather surprising, given how much WB hates the film.

And yeah, it doesn't surprise me at all that it's Warner US that has the problem with the film. That's the one problem that's going to make it much more difficult for a US-based company like Criterion to release the film.

It's a shame that the film has been surrounded by such controversy. People really need to see this film, and its message has become more relevant today than it was in 1971.

Playing tonight at Lincoln Center in NYC. Says the format is digibeta and runtime 111 minutes, so unless WB cops out at the last moment like they have on other occassions, it seems as if Lincoln Center will be playing the UK theatrical cut. I strongly urge all those in the area to check out this film, as this not only is a great opportunity to see the film on the big screen, but also to see a much longer version of the film. (I know the BFI released this same version, but for those without region free players this is a rare opportunity.)

some more screening of the Director's Cut happening this month in London too as part of the BFI Uncut season

As with many of their titles, Warners' North America distribution arm has retired their 35mm prints of THE DEVILS, which is a huge shame for those
who haven't seen it in celluloid.

Pardon my ignorance on the subject, but does this mean that there simply are no longer any 35mm prints to publicly screen at festivals, special screenings, etc.? What I mean is that let's say a miracle happens and WB decides they want to put the film out on Blu-Ray, it would be necessary to go back to the original 35mm print to restore it. Does WB, and other studios in general, still keep an archival print for means such as this?

I assume they still have archival materials - after all, the print that formed the basis of the 2004 semi-restoration and the BFI DVD was either absolutely pristine to begin with or didn't need much digital cleaning.

But as far as I'm aware an HD master doesn't currently exist, so they'd need to scan it from 35mm again - and if by some miracle they decided to put out the 2004 version on Blu-ray they'd need to dig out the additional 35mm footage, scan it to HD and cut it into the rest of the film, because Russell and editor Michael Bradsell only ever assembled it on SD video.

Oh, the prints are still there. I saw one about 3 years ago. The problem is that they simply don't want to ship them out anymore, so they've been relegated to their archives indefinitely.

It's a shame that an HD master doesn't exist in any form, only because I highly doubt WB would ever want to invest in it at this point. At least all of the necessary footage to go about creating one still does, however. I guess our only hope would be for a third party like Criterion or the BFI to do all of the dirty work, which is still unlikely with WB's position on the film.

Essentially, WB no longer rents out 35mm prints of their catalog titles, unless it's connected to a special event type screening such as the Warner Archive-affiliated screenings you sometimes see at places such as the Cinefamily or when there is a guest appearance scheduled, related to the film being screened.

Additionally, they have substantially raised the rental / licensing fees for repertory programmers in the last couple years, as a further deterrent.