Anyone else out there been drooling to see Ken Russell's The Devils on DVD? (You know, the one with the orgying, vomiting, possessed and naked nuns?). Well, there's finally a version to be had -- not the best of all possible ones, but certainly the best that's ever been widely available; it's in widescreen (tho' not quite the original aspect ratio), and restores the controversial "rape of Christ" scene to its rightful place in the film (tho' it's at a different aspect ratio yet again -- the proper one). Alas, the scene where Vanessa Redgrave masturbates with Grandier's charred thighbone has not been edited back in, but it's in the extras. There's a review of the Angel Digital version here; I bought mine through ObscuraDVD on eBay, for $14.99 US and am delighted with it, and will remain so until such a time as Warner Brothers gets off its corporate ass and does justice to the film. Whoever produced this edition clearly intended it as a sort of labour of love. Now for a restored version of Tavernier's Death Watch...
Another thing about The Devils: it makes me want to find Devils set designer Derek Jarman's Sebastiane (another marytrdom film, but with a highly homoerotic bent -- and it's hot enough that it even gives me an erection). Perhaps I'd watch them back to back -- I could have a martyrdom week, alongside The Passion of Jeanne D'Arc, Bad Lieutenant, and... hell, I'd even stoop to The Passion of the Christ.
If I had a TV station I'd declare it "martyr week."
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