The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)

[Blutarsky]

Warner Clockwork teased on Twitter that there will be a special announcement this week on the heels of this weekend’s screenings. Could it be a Criterion announcement? (I did feel like January’s slate was weak, especially by January standards)

[Never Cursed]

Maybe they’d just put it out themselves?

[tenia]

Even the Executioner at the end tries to be sympathetic to Grandier in giving him a quick death, albeit thrawtedly so. I think in that moment with the mirror (and you could even extend this on a larger scale to the 'chorus' of nuns pressed to back up Sister Jeanne's 'possession') [...] The character played by Murray Melvin is the perhaps the most interesting one in this respect, because with his mid-level status he is caught between two worlds, seduced and appalled (but always damnedly fascinated) by events in turn.

I think the only one of Grandier's direct tormentors who doesn't show a glimpse of humanity is the exorcist, or "exorcist", a man whose zeal for righteousness carries on into gleeful rape and torture. He's also the only one whose motivation to be there is entirely religious, ie. not political or personal, and the only one of the bunch whom Grandier hadn't threatened or confronted in one way or another. The most craven of the bunch is the one whose motives are most pure, which is to say, most undiluted by doubt or contradictory impulses.

I'm not sure. He's written and played in such a way I had a very hard time believing he's believing in what he's doing, especially after the orgy and the king's ruse.
To me, he's also in on it, albeit heavily masquarading behind religious zeal.

Which makes the executioner ironically all the more down-to-earth : while all of this is a masquarade of power plays, an execution even the audience seems not to really care about, there's suddenly someone with some humane impulse... and it's the executioner !