The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)

[colinr0380]

Mark Kermode on the road to this new cut of the film. This does keep reminding me of just how key this film is to understanding Derek Jarman's subsequent work as well, particularly his debut feature, 1976's Sebastiane, which makes for a great matched pair of historical films dealing with hypocrisy and curdled desire turned vengeful. You can arguably see elements of it coming through in the purposeful anachronisms and bombed out ruins of Jubilee as well.

[AllanMacInnis]

Boostershane:

I was curious about that scene. Reading through this thread, a few commenters mentioned watching the original Russell “directors cut” 20 years ago when it was reassembled by Ken and editor Michael Bradsell. I noticed in the re-release I watched, Grandier prays and splits the bread open twice. The first is before the rape of Christ in its usual spot I’ve always seen it in (I own the Spain released bluray). The second is when it’s added to the rape of Christ sequence. (I will rewatch my version after this week so I can thoroughly compare the two versions, but) I was curious if that was how Russell intended it? Or was that the best they could do 30 years after rediscovering original footage? Or did Ken just want to add back the full rape of Christ sequence and didn’t want to touch the previous scenes even if he had recycled footage in the edit?

I have seen two "bootlegs" which represent those sequences, one on a 20-something year old DVD that came out with some of the reinstated material (no thighbone). More recently, a blu that is also Spanish (but is it the one you mean? With the rape of Christ reinstated?). The replicated shots/ continuity errors are not present in either (I haven't checked the DVD but am sure I would remember it; I checked the blu ray last night after seeing the restoration, and the repeated shot certainly is NOT there). I'm rather annoyed with this, am ready for "the final cut." I am glad the film is in the world and thought it otherwise terrific but they seem to have added an error here, not made in the "previous" restoration.