I loved it. Seeing a more complete print than the one shown in the US in 1971 raises the film in my esteem. The torture and madness are rather graphic, but it's a beautiful film, not nearly as gross or repellant as some of the "horror" films like HOSTEL or SAW, and the story is a real tragedy. I found it much less graphic than I had remembered. I found much of it visually stunning and beautiful, and truly insane when the political circus takes over and the nuns are forced to go wild. Some of the screenplay comes right out of John Whiting's play, like the scene where the very gay Prnce Henri de Conde, cousin of the very gay King Louis XIII (Dumas makes him a heterosexual King in THREE MUSKETEERS), exposes the madness for the sham it is
I also like the play on the title: the devils aren't the mythical ones corrupting the nuns but the demented priests and politicians torturing and burning an innocent. I will read Huxley's wonderful history The Devils of Loudun again. Great cast, too. Oliver Reed is wonderful, but it was nice to see Joe Orton's original Mr Sloane, Dudley Sutton, as de Laubardemont and the original Dr Pangloss Max Adrian as the demented surgeon. Murray Melvin. the original Hostage Leslie in Behan's great play, is Father Mignon. I'll watch this again next week withvthe commentary. There are too many other things in the DVD set I want to watch.
