You know when Ken Russell does "The Devils of Loudun" it won't be like anyone else's version of "The Devils of Loudun" and it certainly won't be another "Mother Joan of the Angels" and although the opening credits tell us that what follows is based on fact and that the events portrayed actually happened I'm pretty sure they didn't happen quite the way Russell shows them.
This is a piece of pure cinema, stunningly designed, (by Derek Jarman, no less), and photographed, (by David Watkin); a feast of mounting hysteria totally in keeping with its subject and with 'realism' conspicuously absent from almost every shot as Sister Jeanne's fantasies and accusations come to dominate. Considered both blasphemous and obscene at the time of its release it now looks like something of a near-masterpiece, the kind of film Powell and Pressburger might have made but were never allowed to.
Like Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" it's about what happens when lust and religion collide and of the terrible aftermath of such a collision. In 17th century France, in the town of Loudun, during the plague, a handsome, if randy, priest Father Grandier, (Oliver Reed, excellent), is accused of being in league with the Devil by hunchback nun Sister Jeanne, (Vanessa Redgrave, embracing hysteria as if it were going out of fashion).
The thing is, Grandier may be guilty of committing 'sins of the flesh' but is actually in all other respects a good man and it is Sister Jeanne, her nuns and the powers-that-be who are really tainted by evil. Of course, it won't appeal to everyone; this is a brilliant, challenging work, funny and disturbing in equal measure and beautifully played by Russell's stock company. Essential viewing.
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