Warner Bros. restores censored sequence to Ken Russell's The Devils for October cinema run
Warner Bros. has restored the notorious `Rape of Christ' sequence to Ken Russell's The Devils, more than 50 years after censors ordered it cut.
The restored version is set to open in US theatres on Oct. 16 for a one-week engagement through Clockwork, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Clockwork is Warner Bros.' new specialist label for smaller releases, led by former Neon marketing chief Christian Parkes.
The sequence shows nuns pulling down a huge crucifix and sexually defiling its sculpted figure of Jesus. Censors demanded its complete removal before release. It did not survive the censors.
The Devils was released in 1971. It draws on Aldous Huxley's book The Devils of Loudun and John Whiting's stage play The Devils, and stars Oliver Reed as priest Urbain Grandier and Vanessa Redgrave as Sister Jeanne.
The footage was thought lost for decades. British film critic Mark Kermode promised Russell in a 1995 Sight and Sound interview that he would find it, after Russell told him it was gone and probably destroyed.
Kermode later located a can labelled `C Cut 89' that held the missing sequence. The film inside was beginning to decompose when the can was opened, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
That find fed a cut reconstructed in 2004 under Russell's supervision. Russell lived to approve that reconstruction but not to see the completed restoration.
The October dates will be its first official theatrical release. Until now, the 2004 version had circulated only in limited forms. A BFI DVD release discussed in 2012 had no Blu-ray edition and excluded the sequence under contractual compromises, according to BFI.
What makes this stand out is the chain of custody. A studio archive, a critic's promise, a mislabelled can in poor condition, and a director's late approval all had to line up. For audiences, this means the October screenings will be the first chance to see the 2004 reconstruction as Russell approved it, with the censored sequence back in place, in a cinema.
