MOVIE REVIEW : Russell’s ‘Devils’ Made Him Do It

IRVINE — Ken Russell’s “The Devils” is set in 17th-Century France, where religious fervor merges with back-room politics and, for added fun, the plague is knocking ‘em dead in the cobblestone streets.

Clearly fertile territory for a director like Russell. All that moral tension, all that colorful misery, all that opportunity for Russell’s no-holds-barred imagery. But the director of such movies as “Tommy” and “Women in Love” isn’t satisfied with just death and ungodly deal-making.

Russell, as anyone who’s studied his pictures knows, loves sex and he heaps it on in “The Devils.” Nuns twist in lusty agony, priests relish debauchery and fantasy becomes reality.

“The Devils” (which continues UC Irvine’s “Love and Madness” series tonight) outraged church officials when it came out in 1971, and it’s not for those who flinch at hard-core visuals.

The main characters are Father Grandier and Sister Jeanne, played by Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. He’s brilliant and powerful, but horny as can be. Father Grandier moves from the pulpit to the bedroom with ease; at the movie’s start, Grandier seduces a pretty young thing he’s suppose to be teaching Latin.

Sister Jeanne also has her heated moments, but they are of a more repressed sort. She fixates on Grandier, falling into thermometer-popping swoons every few minutes or so. Russell goes wild with the dream sequences as Sister Jeanne and Grandier get hot and bothered in cemeteries and other suggestive places.

Anyway, the local magistrates and religious leaders decide Grandier is becoming too big for his vestments and decide to take him down. They focus on Sister Jeanne, who is maneuvered into confessing that her primal attraction is inspired by Satan and that Grandier is his agent. His influence has reached to the entire nun cloister, giving Russell the opportunity to show many pretty women removed of their habits and enjoying orgies.

“The Devils” is a crazed movie, but it does have flashes of sanity. Russell is really interested in examining religious hypocrisy and, although his methods are sensationalistic, he makes valid points about man’s difficulty reflecting God’s image. We’re weak vessels, Russell says, and have desires that just keep bubbling out.

The film is also interesting for Reed and Redgrave’s performances.

Grandier is a contradiction, with his cruelly handsome face and philosophical, almost poetic chatter (he may be randy, but he makes sex sound lofty, like heaven). Reed makes the most of this; his character is an intriguing enigma.

Redgrave can do more with her sad, intense eyes than most of her contemporaries, and she’s able to convey Sister Jeanne’s painful passion. She goes over the top a lot, but she’s really first-rate at writhing amid the pews.

* Ken Russell’s “The Devils” will screen tonight at 7 and 9 at the UC Irvine Student Center’s Crystal Cove Auditorium. $2 to $4. (714) 856-6379.