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Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils
From exclusive interviews with director Ken Russell and new interviews with cast, crew, and historians, comes this examination of the beautifully blasphemous film The Devils . Based on historical fact, this controversial 1971 film is about an oversexed priest and a group of sexually repressed nuns in 17th-century France and the ensuing trials and exorcisms that followed. Detailing the production and the personalities of two of cinema’s great eccentrics, director Ken Russell and star Oliver Reed, Crouse delves deeper to explore the aftermath of the film. Chiefly, the question asked is How can a movie by one of the most famous filmmakers in the world end up banned, edited, and ignored by the company that owns it?
198 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
3 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Richard Crouse
16 books4 followersRichard Crouse is the regular film critic for CTV’s Canada AM , CTV’s 24-hour News Channel and CP24. His syndicated Saturday afternoon radio show, Entertainment Extra, originates on NewsTalk 1010. He is also the author of six books on pop culture history including Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils and The 100 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, and writes two weekly columns for Metro newspaper. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
February 9, 2017
THE DEVILS long has remained a thorn in the side of Warner Brothers. Although it's a British film through and through, WB owns the rights (note to British film industry...find your own funding) and because of the far-right Christian beliefs of its current CEO, the studio will not okay an official DVD release of the director's cut nor provide an official restoration release for limited big-screen release.
Yet, this Ken Russell masterpiece, for all its controversy, ranks among the top of any post-war British movie list and unlike many of the 1960-1970 movies, it does not look dated. One main reason for this, as the author lucidly explains, is that Russell noted that it was a historical picture and the people of that time believed they lived in a modern world, much as we do today. Based on The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley, the film examines the destruction of the priest Grandier who makes the mistake of crossing the mighty Cardinal Richelieu during France's unification efforts of the seventeenth century.
Richard Crouse (Canada's influential film critic) is clearly a fervent fan of the movie and his thorough efforts to research and meet with cast and crew members is exemplary. While the great Oliver Reed had already passed away before this book was written, it reminded me of a huge painted portrait of Ollie as Grandier which was hanging (probably still is) on the wall of a pub in Buttevant, Cork in Ireland. The remembrances of those involved are vivid, particularly from Dudley Sutton.
"I was the tit warmer. They danced around a tree I think, and as they came running off the set I had two hairdryers and I was warming their breasts."
And that is a Ken Russell movie in all its madness. Venues in London, New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles have shown the movie to sell-out industry crowds when Russell was on hand to receive our ovations. It's a shame he died before the nanny-panny Hollywood studio would do something about a major release, but the more they hide it, the more it becomes forbidden fruit to a new generation of moviegoers.
Book Season = Winter (bye bye blackbird)
Yet, this Ken Russell masterpiece, for all its controversy, ranks among the top of any post-war British movie list and unlike many of the 1960-1970 movies, it does not look dated. One main reason for this, as the author lucidly explains, is that Russell noted that it was a historical picture and the people of that time believed they lived in a modern world, much as we do today. Based on The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley, the film examines the destruction of the priest Grandier who makes the mistake of crossing the mighty Cardinal Richelieu during France's unification efforts of the seventeenth century.
Richard Crouse (Canada's influential film critic) is clearly a fervent fan of the movie and his thorough efforts to research and meet with cast and crew members is exemplary. While the great Oliver Reed had already passed away before this book was written, it reminded me of a huge painted portrait of Ollie as Grandier which was hanging (probably still is) on the wall of a pub in Buttevant, Cork in Ireland. The remembrances of those involved are vivid, particularly from Dudley Sutton.
"I was the tit warmer. They danced around a tree I think, and as they came running off the set I had two hairdryers and I was warming their breasts."
And that is a Ken Russell movie in all its madness. Venues in London, New York, Toronto, and Los Angeles have shown the movie to sell-out industry crowds when Russell was on hand to receive our ovations. It's a shame he died before the nanny-panny Hollywood studio would do something about a major release, but the more they hide it, the more it becomes forbidden fruit to a new generation of moviegoers.
Book Season = Winter (bye bye blackbird)
January 24, 2018
It's quite amazing that Warner Brothers is still sitting on this film by not giving it a proper remastered release. It's a film of legendary status: bombastic, operatic, surreal, nasty and hilarious. Richard Crouse gives The Devils its just due, and reminds us how important 1970s film were in breaking down the walls of censorship and its candy-ass moralities. Ken Russell surely was a bastard genius.
September 19, 2016
Το βιβλίο έχει πολύ ενδιαφέρουσες πληροφορίες για την πιο αμφιλεγόμενη ταινία του Ken Russell το The Devils του 1971 (και μια μικρή βιογραφία, φιλμογραφία του σκηνοθέτη και λεπτομέρειες γύρω από την συνεργασία του με τον Oliver Reed)
Λίγα λόγια για την ταινία στο blog μου https://thefilmchaser.wordpress.com/2...
Λίγα λόγια για την ταινία στο blog μου https://thefilmchaser.wordpress.com/2...
March 4, 2014
It's such a pleasure to read a book written by someone who reveres a particular film as much as I do. The Devils has always been one of my favourite films. Crouse's research and interviews have only enhanced the viewing experience for me.
June 28, 2022
A great into to a film it’s (still) pretty much impossible to see in its original form.
March 20, 2013
A very fine piece of historical film writing. Crouse's book is briskly written and well-edited, giving you just enough about the film's historical background, the particulars of its making, and its apocalyptic public reception. Nice thumbnail biographies as well of the mercurial Ken Russell and his equally protean leading man, Oliver Reed. The book's only major drawback: It left me wanting to see a film that, for reasons the book spends 200 pages enumerating, is exceedingly difficult to actually see.
December 18, 2016
I'm a big fan of Ken Russell's film The Devils, and of the book on which it is largely based, Aldous Huxley's "non-fiction" novel, The Devils of Loudon.
Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of the Devils is not a great work, but it explains why the film is so hard to see these days. If ever win the lottery, I will make Warner Brothers an offer that they cannot refuse.
Recommended for Ken Russell fans, and fans of the film.
Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of the Devils is not a great work, but it explains why the film is so hard to see these days. If ever win the lottery, I will make Warner Brothers an offer that they cannot refuse.
Recommended for Ken Russell fans, and fans of the film.
November 24, 2012
in-depth, interesting look at some of the trials on set, struggles with releasing a complete version for sale, and the historical background to Ken Russell's controversial film The Devils. details and spoilers are many so if you've not seen the film, i'd recommend doing so before reading this.
May 5, 2022
Fun! i learned a lot. i wish that it had been longer or had photos but i get that a lot of this info is scattered amongst a lot of other books solely about the director or actors.
Also, since this book is now 10 years old, I kind of wish they'd put out a new edition with like, an extra opening or something because now this movie is a little easier to find, albeit not in its complete form still. I watched it on Shudder for the first time last year (not sure which version technically as there is a 103 min version, a 105 min, and a 108 min version floating around, but the original version is supposed to be 111 minutes) and it was crazy because a lot of horror people i follow on twitter were just like, "i never thought i'd be able to see this movie." its 50th anniversary was lest year and warner brothers still won't release it in full! they put one of the nuns in the new space jam movie, though. *eye roll*
Also, since this book is now 10 years old, I kind of wish they'd put out a new edition with like, an extra opening or something because now this movie is a little easier to find, albeit not in its complete form still. I watched it on Shudder for the first time last year (not sure which version technically as there is a 103 min version, a 105 min, and a 108 min version floating around, but the original version is supposed to be 111 minutes) and it was crazy because a lot of horror people i follow on twitter were just like, "i never thought i'd be able to see this movie." its 50th anniversary was lest year and warner brothers still won't release it in full! they put one of the nuns in the new space jam movie, though. *eye roll*
Read
January 23, 2022A good book for the subway (that is, easy to pick up and put down, not too challenging, filled with vaguely interesting (and occasionally very interesting) pieces of information). The book necessarily goes into a lot of detail, some of it more compelling than others (I skimmed the tortuous recounting of the equally tortuous process of cutting down the film to qualify for distribution, but I really appreciated the author's insights into how cinema and making movies was changing as the sixties segued into the seventies and beyond). Also made me think about my own preference for films -- for better or worse, I love an immersive, operatic experience beautifully shot, thoughtfully written, and chockablock with detail.
Read
September 19, 2021A documentary of a pastor undersexed that took on a king and nuns that are over sex master baiting to a tibia of the bone of a burnt at the stake core of a pastor. All over a crop of wheat that got harvested that grew a hallucinogenic fungicide during Inquisition where a king or church was crushing a drug euchariast of ^Christians or "the religion that can't be named."
April 26, 2021
I’m so glad I saw this film now. I have the luxury of the documentary ( which this book is a great companion to) and this book to unearth the history and story behind the film; this gives me the ability to see what i may otherwise have missed. Great read.
January 7, 2024
I've been following this film and its troubled history since the '90s. For me, there were not a lot of new revelations, but it's nice to have everything located into one concise and well written book.
March 17, 2013
I have a memory (possibly unreliable) from my early teens of seeing television ads for a double feature of William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973) and Ken Russell's The Devils (1971) probably being shown at a drive-in. The part of the ad devoted to The Devils consisted largely of a crawl of text down the screen warning that the film was likely to deeply disturb some people. I was intrigued. Even if I had been old enough to see either film I would have been too terrified just because of their reputations, but I couldn't stop wondering about what horrors that film of Ken Russell's must contain. Later I would get to sample Russell's unique style of cinema through television showings of Women in Love (1969) and Mahler (1974). A few years ago I finally got a chance to see The Devils on the big screen. I did find the film very disturbing, but not because of its depictions of manic sexuality and torture so much as because it is the story of a principled man who was willing to endure torture and being burned alive rather than sell-out to the forces of oppression. It is disturbing for the same reason that the story of Jesus crucifixion is disturbing. It forces us to ask ourselves whether we have that kind of integrity. It is like the choices given to the victims in Saw (2004). Two options - both unthinkable.
But the film I saw was almost certainly not Russell's complete vision. Perhaps no film has had a rougher time with censorship than The Devils. The BBFC in Britain insisted on major cuts - including a scene involving sexually deranged nuns humping a giant statue of Christ on the cross (which has come to be referred to as the "Rape of Christ" sequence) - and then the company which financed the movie - Warner Brothers - and the American censors demanded even more cuts for the U.S. release. (These were ostensibly to obtain an R-rating, but the cuts were made and the film was still released with an X.) The version I saw was most likely the less censored UK cut. The negative for the cut scenes was found a few years ago by British film critic Mark Kermode. These scenes were shown on British television as part of a documentary and were inserted back into the movie, which has been given a few cinema showings, but Warner Brothers are insistent that the director's cut of the film cannot be released on DVD and that no cut of the film can be released on BluRay. The BFI have released the film on DVD in England, but it is still the old cut version. A shameful situation for a film which many consider to be a unique masterpiece.
Richard Crouse does a great job of telling the complex story of the making of the film, its censorship and the controversy surrounding it. The book is full of amusing anecdotes which make it a rollicking read, but it is the deeper analysis which gives food for thought. Crouse compares what happened with The Devils to the response to other controversial films of the time such as Straw Dogs (1971), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and The Exorcist (1973). The comparison to The Exorcist is particularly interesting as both films deal with religion, exorcism and sexuality, in fact the most controversial scene in each film involves the sexual use of a crucifix by someone believed to be possessed. But The Exorcist is a deeply conservative film. The authorities (the priests) are there to save us from evil. The Devils is anti-authoritarian. It shows that the authorities of Louis XIII's France, both political and religious, were corrupt and willing to use religion to manipulate the people to give up their power. Russell's film is still a profoundly religious film with great respect for Catholicism (the director's own religion), but there are no comforting "good guys" who will come to anyone's rescue. Good in the film is a matter of a hard and lonely choice made by a flawed individual.
At the centre of the sometimes hysterical responses the film has elicited is the issue of religion and sexuality. The so-called possessions which occurred amongst the cloistered nuns in Loudun in 1634 were most likely a case of mass sexual hysteria. Just because someone decides to give up the worldly life doesn't mean that they have no sexual feelings, and nothing is likely to increase those feelings so much as to make them something forbidden. Most of the time if we are told we absolutely can't have something we end up wanting it more. And there is a strong similarity between sexual fetishism and religious adoration. Whether one believes that it is reasonable for those who seek the spiritual to give up the sexual or not, the presence of the sexual within the subconscious of such individuals has to be acknowledged if we are not to dangerously lose touch with reality. To juxtapose the sexual and the religious should do no harm to the religious if it is real. If it is false, anything can harm it and anything should harm it. And, of course, perverse sexual behaviour from religious figures is not just something which happened in 1634 under the influence of "the demon Asmodeus". Russell wasn't just engaging in cheap shock tactics. He was examining issues we ignore at our peril.
But the film I saw was almost certainly not Russell's complete vision. Perhaps no film has had a rougher time with censorship than The Devils. The BBFC in Britain insisted on major cuts - including a scene involving sexually deranged nuns humping a giant statue of Christ on the cross (which has come to be referred to as the "Rape of Christ" sequence) - and then the company which financed the movie - Warner Brothers - and the American censors demanded even more cuts for the U.S. release. (These were ostensibly to obtain an R-rating, but the cuts were made and the film was still released with an X.) The version I saw was most likely the less censored UK cut. The negative for the cut scenes was found a few years ago by British film critic Mark Kermode. These scenes were shown on British television as part of a documentary and were inserted back into the movie, which has been given a few cinema showings, but Warner Brothers are insistent that the director's cut of the film cannot be released on DVD and that no cut of the film can be released on BluRay. The BFI have released the film on DVD in England, but it is still the old cut version. A shameful situation for a film which many consider to be a unique masterpiece.
Richard Crouse does a great job of telling the complex story of the making of the film, its censorship and the controversy surrounding it. The book is full of amusing anecdotes which make it a rollicking read, but it is the deeper analysis which gives food for thought. Crouse compares what happened with The Devils to the response to other controversial films of the time such as Straw Dogs (1971), A Clockwork Orange (1971) and The Exorcist (1973). The comparison to The Exorcist is particularly interesting as both films deal with religion, exorcism and sexuality, in fact the most controversial scene in each film involves the sexual use of a crucifix by someone believed to be possessed. But The Exorcist is a deeply conservative film. The authorities (the priests) are there to save us from evil. The Devils is anti-authoritarian. It shows that the authorities of Louis XIII's France, both political and religious, were corrupt and willing to use religion to manipulate the people to give up their power. Russell's film is still a profoundly religious film with great respect for Catholicism (the director's own religion), but there are no comforting "good guys" who will come to anyone's rescue. Good in the film is a matter of a hard and lonely choice made by a flawed individual.
At the centre of the sometimes hysterical responses the film has elicited is the issue of religion and sexuality. The so-called possessions which occurred amongst the cloistered nuns in Loudun in 1634 were most likely a case of mass sexual hysteria. Just because someone decides to give up the worldly life doesn't mean that they have no sexual feelings, and nothing is likely to increase those feelings so much as to make them something forbidden. Most of the time if we are told we absolutely can't have something we end up wanting it more. And there is a strong similarity between sexual fetishism and religious adoration. Whether one believes that it is reasonable for those who seek the spiritual to give up the sexual or not, the presence of the sexual within the subconscious of such individuals has to be acknowledged if we are not to dangerously lose touch with reality. To juxtapose the sexual and the religious should do no harm to the religious if it is real. If it is false, anything can harm it and anything should harm it. And, of course, perverse sexual behaviour from religious figures is not just something which happened in 1634 under the influence of "the demon Asmodeus". Russell wasn't just engaging in cheap shock tactics. He was examining issues we ignore at our peril.
January 29, 2019
This should have been twice as long. But I’ll take what I can get.
August 15, 2020
I want to see this film!
May 6, 2021
A fantastic book on one of the most controversial movies ever! I could not put it down.
July 17, 2021
I don't think I've ever come away from a book feeling so righteously furious on a movie's behalf before.
February 3, 2022
Fantastic reading, and really knowledgable of one of the most (in)famous movies ever made. Amazing
February 3, 2022
Wonderfully researched and chock full of juicy details, this is a real page-turner for Russellites (though personally I would've loved more of the making and less of the unmaking).
April 9, 2025
a wonderful look at Russell, The Devils and British film at the time. truly a fucking shame that WB is too cowardly still to release a full cut
October 16, 2012
In some ways I'm really late to The Devils party, but then, so are most people who missed it's original run in the 1970s, and of those, even fewer saw Russell's incredible work in anything like its complete form.
Film critic Richard Crouse, after Mark Kermode, probably ranks as one of the film's staunchest defenders among the critical echelons, not always an easy thing to be, given the hysterical bile and howls of outrage sometimes levelled at the film.
He has delved into the three plus decades of controversy, censorship, rediscovery and reappraisals that surround this most powerful of cinematic statements on the abuses of faith, the corruption of Church and State, the psychology of demonic possession, and the brutality of scapegoating and crafted an excellent document on a hounded classic.
Extensive interviews with both surviving and since-deceased cast and crew, along with contemporary filmmakers who are fans of the flick, illuminate almost the entire complex story behind the strange events at Loudon in 17th century France. Oliver Reed, Ken Russell, Gemma Jones, Mike Bradsell, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Derek Jarman all chip in with funny, disarming and spirited anecdotes that any afficionado will love reading about.
If there are any small caveats, they would be a brief dismay at the lack of photographs, posters or set designs to illustrate the incredible story of the film, and a little more about a couple of details on the cuts imposed by Russell himself, as well as the censors. There's no description of a couple of scenes rediscovered in the Director's cut(2004) or the Hell on Earth documentary. Also, the gorgeous BFI DVD released this year mentions a scene Ken decided himself to scrap and reshoot starring comic genius Spike Milligan, which I'd liked to have seen mentioned, but no matter. There's a couple of tantalising hints of the original, much longer screenplay here that might have been slightly expanded upon, but again, this isn't essential. This is a worthy examination of this powerful and unforgettable British masterpiece.
Film critic Richard Crouse, after Mark Kermode, probably ranks as one of the film's staunchest defenders among the critical echelons, not always an easy thing to be, given the hysterical bile and howls of outrage sometimes levelled at the film.
He has delved into the three plus decades of controversy, censorship, rediscovery and reappraisals that surround this most powerful of cinematic statements on the abuses of faith, the corruption of Church and State, the psychology of demonic possession, and the brutality of scapegoating and crafted an excellent document on a hounded classic.
Extensive interviews with both surviving and since-deceased cast and crew, along with contemporary filmmakers who are fans of the flick, illuminate almost the entire complex story behind the strange events at Loudon in 17th century France. Oliver Reed, Ken Russell, Gemma Jones, Mike Bradsell, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Derek Jarman all chip in with funny, disarming and spirited anecdotes that any afficionado will love reading about.
If there are any small caveats, they would be a brief dismay at the lack of photographs, posters or set designs to illustrate the incredible story of the film, and a little more about a couple of details on the cuts imposed by Russell himself, as well as the censors. There's no description of a couple of scenes rediscovered in the Director's cut(2004) or the Hell on Earth documentary. Also, the gorgeous BFI DVD released this year mentions a scene Ken decided himself to scrap and reshoot starring comic genius Spike Milligan, which I'd liked to have seen mentioned, but no matter. There's a couple of tantalising hints of the original, much longer screenplay here that might have been slightly expanded upon, but again, this isn't essential. This is a worthy examination of this powerful and unforgettable British masterpiece.
August 12, 2013
If you have seen the extras on the recent British DVD release then you already know most of the things that are being written about here, but nevertheless it is a nice thing to have all the info about the infamous film collected in a book. And it does dig a bit deeper into Warner Brothers' reluctance to make it more widely available (especially in its uncut form), an issue that the DVD extras (and TV documentaries about the movie) always dance around. And they confirm all the conspiracy theories that have been around; WB just doesn't want people to see the film, period. Heh.
September 24, 2022
Censorship, particularly market based censorship, intrigues me, as does Ken Russell, his movies and religious themes, so this book was fascinating to me. Certainly niche interests, but for those that have them, a fun read. Now if I could only find the movie . . .
July 6, 2016
Lots of fun tidbits about the state of British film-making in the '70s in general, what life was like on a Ken Russell set in specific, and an effective lament for a somewhat lost masterpiece - and Richard Crouse is an engaging writer to boot!
November 20, 2013
Excellent book-length primer on the movie, its creation, and its aftermath. A true masterpiece undone by a nervous studio and censorious citizen activists.
September 7, 2014
It took me a while to get through it but that was mostly because I'm not big into nonfiction. Decent book, made me want to watch the movie.
October 23, 2016
I'm not a huge DEVILS fan by any means, but this was fascinating. Well-organized, too, for what could have easily been a disaster of a story.
August 20, 2015
great read. had to go on ebay and order this flick after finish reading.
April 24, 2017
Fascinating and personable look into the production of a landmark film. I am looking forward to rewatching the movie armed with the contexts and the things I learned in this book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews