The Devils on DVD

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."