The Devils (1971) (Ken Russell) Discussion Thread

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

A little screengrab from the dvd. Looks stunning.

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

The quality of the pic I took doesn't look so good though!

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Wouldn't have anything to do with that can of suds under the telly would it?

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Reaper@Cult Labs

Wouldn't have anything to do with that can of suds under the telly would it?

Haha, noooooo, not at all. Just a consequence of it being compressed when I uploaded it using my phone. Sorted it now.....and it does look stunning!

[Rik]

I've just took a shitload of stills from it ready to upload, it even looks good using VLC on my PC, definitely best purchase this year so far for me

[P-Mac]

Came home last night to find it had arrived . Read the censorship section of the booklet today, really fascinating.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Reaper@Cult Labs

I'm gonna see how Zavvi perform.

All this hysteria....imagine

a)The full uncut relase had been unleashed
b)On hd


However,I suspect that there are enough fans of this to double dip,should the above ever surface.I for one would be at the front of the queue!

Especially if it was a package akin to the superb deal the BFI has put out here!


Give it up for the BFI!

As I suspected, it didn't arrive today so hopefully Monday or Tuesday will allow me to catch up with everyone here and allow me to watch the longest currently available version and form a definitive opinion of Ken Russell's most controversial film.

Like you, Reaps, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a longer version – the so-called 'directors cut' - if it was released on BD.

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Just read the censorship part of the booklet and have a question. Is the Director's Cut just the x-rated version with the rape of Christ sequence restored, or all the footage removed by the BBFC restored? Seems there was quite a lot removed by our moral guardians!

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

Never mind! The answer to my post above is at the end of the censorship part of the booklet.

[Michael Brooke]

Originally Posted by Stephen@Cult Labs

Just read the censorship part of the booklet and have a question. Is the Director's Cut just the x-rated version with the rape of Christ sequence restored, or all the footage removed by the BBFC restored? Seems there was quite a lot removed by our moral guardians!

For the benefit of those who don't have the booklet, the so-called "director's cut" is essentially the 1971 British cinema version with one scene reinstated (the "rape of Christ") and another slightly extended (the thigh bone scene).

But there's still several minutes of footage missing, presumed irretrievably destroyed - so it's only a "director's cut" in the sense that Russell was involved and that he prefers the 2004 version to any other that's actually viewable. But there's no question that his true "director's cut" is what he showed to Warner Bros and the BBFC back in 1971 - and that, sadly, is almost certainly gone for good.

Because of the nature of film editing back then, that actual workprint would have been physically taken apart (there's no video record of what it looked like, let alone an electronic copy), so the only way of returning to that version is for the original footage to have survived (doubtful) and for Warner Bros to allow original editor Michael Bradsell to try to reassemble it (equally unlikely, since they requested many of the cuts in the first place).