The Devils (1971) | Modern Trailer
Mackenzie Parker
Not an enthralling movie. It's basically a real life horror story from France in the middle ages.
It's 1634 and Cardinal Richelieu wants to unify the nation and the church, to that end he wants the walls about Loudon torn down so no Protestant rebellions can hide behind them. Grandier, a Catholic priest and local big cheese, opposes this. Richelieu sends his minions. They hear about the visions (erotic dreams) the abbess has been having and conclude she needs an exorcist, so Laubardemont brings in Philip Barre. The exorcism, basically interrogation / torture, leads them to conclude she is possessed by devils, and this possession is the work of Grandier, which leads to his interrogation / torture, trial and brutal execution.
When Barre appears it is a bit of a shock. With his long blond hair and round lensed eyeglasses he looks like a modern day, or at least a 70's era, rock star. Totally incongruous when everyone around him has dark hair.
And oh yeah, the Black Plague has reappeared in Loudon and we have men pushing carts around town collecting bodies (bring out your dead) and dumping them in a pit. Just so you know where and when we are.
I sometimes wonder why women would become nuns. The Abbess answers this question while speaking to Madeline:
Most of the nuns here are noble women who have embraced the monastic life because there was not enough money at home to provide them with dowries. Or they were unmarriageable because ugly, a burden to the family. Communities which ought to be furnaces where souls are forever on fire with the love of God are merely dead with the grey ashes of convenience. Here is a book written by the founder of our order, Angela Merici. When you've studied it, come back and I shall question you.
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| Flintlock pistol with iron stock |
Looking for information about the pistol used in the movie, I found this one. It looks very similar, but no information about whether it was used in the movie. The website where I found it offers this flowery description, but no real information like where it came from or who it belonged to.
Description from europeana:
All-iron flintlock pistol; part of a pair. The locking mechanism is located entirely on the outside; the pan and spring are concealed behind a housing engraved with a blossom branch. The three upper faces of the barrel are engraved with tulips on the rear. The stock consists only of an iron grip that forms an extension of the barrel; the grip is deeply incised with two pairs of oblique lines that intersect, and with two blossom branches at the bottom; the buttock is decorated with a pattern of radiating ribs. The iron fittings consist of three knob-shaped eyelets soldered to the barrel as ramrod sleeves, and a flat trigger guard engraved with a rose; the ramrod is made of steel.
The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971) Making of Documentary
Journey To The Center Of The Cinema
This video has some explanation of the story.
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