The Devils (film)

The Devils is a 1971 British historical drama horror film directed by Ken Russell and starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. Russells screenplay is based partly on the 1952 book The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley, and partly on the 1960 play The Devils by John Whiting, also based on Huxleys book. The film is a dramatised historical account of the rise and fall of Urbain Grandier, a 17thcentury Roman Catholic priest executed for witchcraft following the supposed possessions in Loudun, France. Reed plays Grandier in the film and Vanessa Redgrave plays a hunchbacked sexually repressed nun who finds herself inadvertently responsible for the accusations.

In 17th Century France, Cardinal Richelieu is influencing Louis XIII in an attempt to gain further power. He convinces Louis that the fortifications of cities throughout France should be demolished to prevent Protestants from uprising. Louis agrees, but forbids Richelieu from carrying out demolitions in the town of Loudun, having made a promise to its Governor not to damage the town.Meanwhile, in Loudun, the Governor has died, leaving control of the city to Urbain Grandier, a dissolute and proud but popular and wellregarded priest. He is having an affair with a relative of Father Canon Mignon, another priest in the town Grandier is, however, unaware that the neurotic, hunchbacked Sister Jeanne des Anges a victim of severe scoliosis who happens to be abbess of the local Ursuline convent, is sexually obsessed with him. Sister Jeanne asks for Grandier to become the convents new confessor. Grandier secretly marries another woman, Madeleine De Brou, but news of this reaches Sister Jeanne, driving her to jealous insanity. When Madeleine returns a book by Ursuline foundress Angela Merici that Sister Jeanne had earlier lent her, the abbess viciously attacks her with accusations of being a fornicator and sacrilegious bitch, among other things. ........

Source: Wikipedia