Line #17 Film/TheDevils


1	[[quoteright:267:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thedevils.jpg]]
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4	->''"Ken Russell has really done it this time. He has stripped the lid off of respectability off the Ursuline convent in Loudon, France. He has exposed UsefulNotes/CardinalRichelieu as a political schemer. He has destroyed our illusions about UsefulNotes/LouisXIII. We are filled with righteous indignation as we bear witness to the violation of the helpless nuns; it is all the more terrible because, as Russell fearlessly reveals, all the nuns, without exception, are young and stacked."''
5	-->-- '''Creator/RogerEbert'''
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7	''The Devils'' is a 1971 biographical horror film by English ''enfant terrible'', Creator/KenRussell. It tells the [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory semi-true story]] of Urbain Grandier (Creator/OliverReed), a priest living in 17th-century France who is forced to defend his town of Loudon from the Roman Catholic church, whose leaders want it torn down. The Church decides to instigate a conspiracy against Grandier, framing him for demonic possession of a local nun, Sister Jeanne (Creator/VanessaRedgrave), who is sexually obsessed with Grandier, and the perfect target for the Church's manipulation.
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9	Because the film contains scenes like [[ItMakesSenseInContext nuns raping a statue of Jesus]] before [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex having a massive orgy]], the film was condemned by virtually every MoralGuardian at the time of its release, and cut to ribbons on various cinema releases. The film remains unreleased on DVD and [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes its US rights holders]] (Creator/WarnerBros) [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes have yet to release it]]... though strangely, they had no problem directly referencing it in, [[UnexpectedCharacter of all things]], ''Film/SpaceJamANewLegacy''. Its reputation may have inadvertently led to the rise of the [[ExploitationFilm “nunsploitation” genre]] in the decade after its release.
10	----
11	!! Tropes:
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13	* AllWomenAreLustful: Virtually all the ladies are hormone driven, and the subject of their lust is almost always Urbain Grandier. The "nun orgy" is a particularly notable example of this.
14	* AnachronismStew:
15	** The entire set design, such as the convent done up entirely in white tile.
16	** A topless nun is shown onscreen next to King Louis (in disguise as Duke Henri) when the "duke" is carried into the nun orgy. She has visible bikini lines.
17	* ApothecaryAlligator: Grandier tosses one out the window during the plague sequence.
18	* AsceticAesthetic: The walled city of Loudon, as well as much of the interior of the convent, are all sterile white spaces and harsh vertical and horizontal angles. By contrast, most of the scenes outside these two sets are rocky wildernesses.
19	* BerserkButton: Sister Jeanne does ''not'' take kindly to the news that Grandier has married Madeleine.
20	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: After causing all the chaos and destruction, Sister Jeanne finally gets to have sexual contact with Grandier... Sort of.
21	-->'''[[WebVideo/BrowsHeldHigh Title Card]]''': AND NOW, THE MOST OBVIOUS JOKE I COULD POSSIBLY MAKE.
22	-->'''[[WebVideo/BrowsHeldHigh Kyle Kallgren]]''': She got to bone him after all. ''[pauses for applause]''
23	* CampGay: Louis XIII.
24	* ChickMagnet: Every woman who sees Grandier wants him. It's not so much that they lust after him, but that they seem to instantly fall ''in love'' with him, to the point that Grandier almost seems bored with all this devotion.
25	* ColdBloodedTorture: Grandier is subjected to horrifying torture, having his legs crushed in an effort to get him to confess. He doesn't.
26	* DepravedBisexual: Sister Agnes; in her first scene, she proclaims Grandier is "the most beautiful man in the world". Later, she voyeuristically watches Sister Jeanne pleasuring herself followed by whipping herself as penance. She's visibly aroused as she watches this.
27	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The walls of Loudon are demolished, possibly killing quite a few people in the process. Grandier is tortured and eventually burned alive. The possession is revealed as false, but no one cares. The one man who believed Grandier was innocent is committed to an asylum, and the "exorcist" who tortured the nuns disappears to do more evil. Madeleine survives and is released but has lost ''everything'' and is clearly traumatized, and walks away from the ruined city into the wilderness, while the landscape is covered by spikes with bodies broken on wheels, showing the costs of the Wars of Religion.]]
28	* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Grandier's speech as he's slowly being burned alive to the cheers of the crowd watching his death. Even in his last moments, he stood by what he believed in.
29	* ExploitationFilm: As many critics have pointed out, it's hard to tell whether Ken Russell is genuinely interested in the supposed themes of religious faith and corrupt churchmen behind his fascination with lurid hypersexuality and shock value.
30	* FaceDeathWithDignity: Grandier, who suffers brutal torture and a painful death but maintains his dignity and proclaims his innocence throughout. Father Barre, who is aware of the effect this is having on the audience at Grandier's trial, attempts to undercut this, saying "What you see is not dignity, but pride!"
31	* HeelRealization: Father Mignon clearly goes through this after seeing Grandier burned to death. The Baron tells Sister Jeanne that Mignon has been thrown into an insane asylum, for saying that they burned an innocent man.
32	* {{Hypocrite}}: Sister Jeanne, who gives the other nuns a tongue-lashing (and punishes Sister Agnes) for gawking at Grandier during the funeral possession, then sneaks through a secret passage to do the same herself.
33	* IGaveMyWord: King Louis forbids Richelieu from demolishing the walls of Loudon, since he promised the Governor that he would never damage the town.
34	* IdiotBall:
35	** Grandier utterly underestimates how dire the political game in France is at the time, and is rather naïve in thinking himself untouchable – as well as missing the fact that the town's Catholic/Protestant unity would make it a target for those wanting to wipe out the Protestants.
36	** Sister Jeanne is even worse: she doesn't fathom what her revenge plot against Grandier will unleash, nor does she realize that she won't be able to control the madness that will ensue.
37	* KangarooCourt: The farce of a "trial" for Grandier. When the Baron taunts Grandier about his impending execution, Grandier objects that he hasn't even been tried yet. The Baron sneers "All right, have it your own way. Your ''trial'' then."
38	* KarmaHoudini: Father Barre, Cardinal Richelieu, the Baron. Though some of this you had to know was a ForegoneConclusion.
39	* KavorkaMan: Grandier certainly isn't ''un''attractive per se, but he's not the epitome of male beauty either. Despite this, he somehow has the ability to send chaste nuns into fits of repressed horniness.
40	* LargeHam: Father Barre.
41	* MagicFeather: The king produces a holy relic inside a small box and asks if it will calm the sisters' religious frenzy, and Barre says it will. The nuns do indeed calm down, at which point the king opens the box, revealing it to be empty. Unfortunately, this does not impede Barre's efforts in the town.
42	* MasturbationEqualsSexualFrustration:
43	** Sister Jeanne, stuck in a nunnery and filled with lust for Father Grandier, masturbates frantically, then whips herself afterwards.
44	** In the original cut of the film Sister Jeanne masturbates with Grandier's femur, given to her by Baron de Laubardemont after Grandier is burned at the stake. This scene was cut at the demands of censors.
45	* MercyKill: The executioner promises to [[spoiler: strangle Grandier by tying his noose too tightly at the stake to spare him from being burned]], clearly believing the man to be innocent. Unfortunately, the hysterical Barre [[spoiler: sets fire to the pyre himself before the Executioner is finished and has time to strangle Grandier]]. The panicked executioner is screams at [[spoiler: Grandier]] to forgive him.
46	* NaughtyNuns: In spades. Sister Jeanne has lurid sexual fantasies about Grandier, mostly involving him as a Jesus-like figure. This eventually causes her descent into madness. The other nuns are not above this kind of behavior, either. They're manipulated by the Church into stripping off ''in'' the church, desecrating the iconography, and eventually losing themselves in one enormous orgy… it's that kind of movie.
47	* OffIntoTheDistanceEnding: The film ends with Madeleine walking away from the city, going right through the hole in the smashed wall.
48	* ThePlague: During an outbreak, Grandier's grasp of the distinction between quackery and medicine makes him some important enemies.
49	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zigzagged with]] Louis XIII. He seems to openly acknowledge that the entire Grandier affair has been blown out of proportion by religious nutjobs, and even mocks the fundamentalist Barre who's brutalizing the nuns. However, he does nothing further to stop the persecutions, which ends with Grandier burned at the stake and the walls of Loudon destroyed, which he had previously and explicitly told Richelieu ''not'' to do.
50	* RedRightHand: Sister Jeanne's badly twisted spine, which also indicates the state of her soul.
51	* SinisterMinister: Grandier is about the only religious figure in the movie who doesn't qualify, and even he's no saint.
52	* TraumaticHaircut: Right before he is tortured into confessing, Grandier has his hair all cut off as well as his beard and eyebrows shaved. Creator/OliverReed went through with it for real - having grown facial hair to hide a scar he got in a bar fight. Right before Grandier's hair is cut, he asks for a mirror so he can look at himself one last time.
53	* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Based on the historical Loudon possessions of 1634, by way of being based on John Whiting's play ''The Devils'', which in turn was based on Aldous Huxley's book ''The Devils of Loudon''.

Context Film / TheDevils