This pseudo-critique of the Catholic church has as much depth as a piece of artistic social rebellion as someone running into a church and screaming obscenities at the top of their lungs when no one else is around. Possibly amusing to the perpetrator, but no one else. Director Ken Russell strings together every possible image and/or action that could offend a devotee without any real substance behind it. Further diluting this "expose" is the setting of 17th Century France when it is clear the modern church is its target, yet never clearly laying out what point, if any, it wants to make about the modern church. This self-indulgent mess will most certainly ruffle the feathers of the more prudish viewer, however everyone else will be laughing their pants off at the absurdity of it all.
After the governor of the fortified city of Loudun dies, Father Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed, GLADIATOR) promises to carry on the work of the politician to create a place where Catholics and protestants can live in peace. Grandier is a philanderer and proud. He flippantly disregards a woman he impregnates. Then he meets Madeleine (Gemma Jones, BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY) and falls hopelessly in love. Defying church doctrine about priests marrying, Grandier conducts a private wedding between himself and Madeleine. Meanwhile, the power-hungry Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue, THE AFFAIR OF THE NECKLESS) plots to bring down Loudon's walls and Grandier, so that he can inflict total Catholic rule over the country.
The flamboyant King Louis XIII (Graham Armitage, THE BOY FRIEND) is uninterested in breaking his promise to keep Loudun as is, so the Cardinal enlists Baron De Laubardemont (Dudley Sutton, THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN) and maniacal inquisitor Father Barre (Michael Gothard, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY) to drum up ridiculous charges against Grandier. They base their accusations around the ramblings of the hunchback leader of an order of nuns named Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave, JULIA), who is sexually obsessed with Grandier. They finally charge Grandier with witchcraft and of corrupting the local convent.
Russell's over-the-top style never reaches the level of "art" in which it intends. The almost futuristic set design is well done, but combined with the on-the-nose satire, excess and over-acting, it just adds to the comedy of this failed exercise. The tone jumps wildly from taking itself way too seriously to not taking things seriously enough. Priests warding off crackpot doctors with a stuffed alligator is hilarious, but not if you want to be taken as something profound. As I always say, if you're going for camp, you have to go for it all the way or it will be disastrous. Why this film entertains instead of offends is that every frame seems to have been done with a devious grin as if Russell is giggling with pride at his own rebellious audacity. In focusing all his energy on pushing buttons left and right, he loses sight of tonal continuity, subtlety and meaning. If the meaning is to provoke than his sights are no higher than that of the shlock exploitation horror director. Therefore, in the end, the joke is on him, because it's all too silly to believed.
This sense of abundant pleasure at just how provocative the whole thing is comes out the most in the performances and character development. Reed's booming Shakespearian performance is Shatner-like in many places. When it comes to the obvious satirical moments, Reed delivers them with eyes raised up and to the side with a big ole grin. Well, maybe not literally, but the effect is the same. Redgrave's masturbating mother superior is such a caricature that she comes off as a joke at every turn. Her awkward giggle is a real hoot. Armitage's gay king is so clichéd that you'd think you're watch BOAT TRIP. Outside of the slimy "comic relief" doctors, the most ridiculous character is Father Barre. There's some point trying to be made with the hippie-looking manipulator, who uses his position to indulge his ego-filled fetishes in sadism, but I dare you to figure it out.
From Sister Jeanne raping Jesus in a fantasy to convent orgies to tortures involving giant syringes filled with boiling water used to "cleanse" naughty nuns to trials featuring KKK dressed priests, it's so dumb and obvious that you can't do anything but laugh. The film doesn't enlighten us about church abuses during the 17th Century, because nothing can be taken seriously at any moment. As a critique of the modern church, everything is so exaggerated that it never cuts close enough to anything true. Russell doesn't seem to know if he wants to make a satirical drama like the more dramatic NETWORK or the more comedic DR. STRANGELOVE or an absurdist art piece like Alejandro Jodorowsky's EL TOPO. The first two films work because of their slight exaggerations and subtlety. If you're not in the know, they can be taken at face value. THE DEVILS never rises much higher than the sophistication of a teen's secret sketchbook. EL TOPO is absurd, but there are truths underlying the craziness on various levels. EL TOPO's goal is to provoke thought not just a knee-jerk reaction. Watching EL TOPO shows so clearly, why THE DEVILS doesn't work.
The idea of a wayward priest falling in love and engaging in a forbidden marriage that makes him a better servant of God is a brilliant critique of Catholic dogma. Too bad that's lost in the juvenile rush to get to the next sex scene. I guess you could call this premature ejaculation art. Now that's funny.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
