Censored for over half a century, Ken Russell’s film returns in a landmark director’s cut reconstruction that reveals the full power of his original vision. Recently revealed at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival to huge acclaim.
Inspired by the true story of 17th-century priest Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed), accused of bewitching a convent of nuns (including Vanessa Redgrave as Sister Jeanne), ‘The Devils’ lays bare the collusion of church and state through a searing vision of religious persecution, collective hysteria and institutional corruption. Every scene fits and flows together perfectly to create a believable portrait of the sociopolitical climate of 17th-century France. Many believed this 4K restoration, assembled from the original camera negative and the director’s 2004 preferred edit, would never happen. It reaffirms Russell’s incendiary and enduring singular masterpiece of cinema as among the most overwhelming and uncompromising achievements in British cinema.
UK 1971 Ken Russell 114m
