THE DEVILS, Ken Russell’s grandiose and provocatively scandalous adaptation of the notorious witchcraft trial in 17th Century France, has its own indisputable artistic flourish albeit its thinly veiled obloquy and ridicule of the insidious backscratching between religion and politics, actualized in the most wanton style which can be both riveting and endurance-testing.
Father Urban Grandier (Reed), a Catholic priest in the city of Loudun, is as liberal in his attitude towards Protestants as in his views on sex, woman and marriage, which makes him a fair game in the eyes of Cardinal Richelieu (Logue), who is spoiling for a theocratic regime by ingratiating himself with a flamboyantly attired Louis XIII (Armitage), who opens the film with a ludicrous playacting. So the actual persecution is carried off by Richelieu's minions, the Baron de Laubardemont (Sutton, an exemplar of dastardly evil-doer) and an adept inquisitor Father Pierre Barre (Gothard, hard to take him seriously with his jarringly out-of-context hippie hairdo and histrionic enthusiasm). Distinctly and blatantly, Russell plays the anachronistic card to accentuate the whole scenario’s fulsome scale of delusion and sleaze: the town’s cubistic buildings, the prison-like, cemented interior of the church and low-ceiling convent. It marks a big leap from other more detail-revered period films, that is where Russell pushes the envelope of his unorthodox vision and constructs something so bombastically lavish, idiosyncratic, sacrilegious and explicit to make great play of the harrowing witch-hunt and jeer at the religious brainwashing.
Oliver Reed’s macho bravado is not everyone’s cuppa, but tellingly he is riveting to behold in the show trial and on the stake, operatic but counterpoising the sadistic atrocity with his own stamina and compassion. Vanessa Redgrave’sSister Jeanne des Anges, a twisted character subjugated to her repressed sexuality, is both a victim and an inexplicable indictor, her tour-de-force is staggeringly perverse and utterly stirring, a deformed figure imprisoned by her warped faith, mouthing the ugly truth of nun’s ill-fated destiny, from this regard, the orgiastic sequence (much is cut from the original version but re-added in shoddy quality in this DVD version) in the heat of the exorcism, evokes a ghost of misogyny and misgivings that Russell’s abandon seems to be beyond the pale in his unrestrained demonization, not of the Establishment, but of the powerless and downtrodden. Last but not the least,a dazzling Gemma Jones debuts as Madeleine De Brou, Grandier’s wife, who could have been put to good use (or at least a chance to give her own voice, however it would be inconsequential for the preordained judgement) in the fray if Russell’s modernist take doesn’t opt to kept her entirely off-screen during the show trial of her husband.
All things considered, THE DEVILS substantiates itself as a cultish eye-opener for the liberal-minded audience, but definitely a bugbear among devout God-botherers, a monumental artifact only can be conceived and manufactured in the age of liberation.
referential point: Russell’s TOMMY (1975, 7.4/10)
what a disturbing film full of poetic sickness
3.5。真是骯臟又淫亂。所有宗教的誕生都伴隨著“犧牲品”。所有女人-修女(出生丑陋嫁不出去才做修女)對耶穌和神父的絕對臣服與迷戀(肉欲)仿若女巫的誕生。契合“女人是原罪,女人是一切罪惡的起源。”的基調(diào)。一小時后的淫趴幾乎達到了瘋魔般的褻瀆。修女瘋狂擼蠟燭/赤身坐于耶穌雕像上…
我懷疑我看的盜版在畫幅上出了問題,畫幅比原來的更窄了(本身畫幅就窄),在這種逼仄的框架里,人物的身體所表現(xiàn)出的扭曲更能加大某種“痛苦”。一面是畫幅的長向極限延伸,一面是畫幅的寬向人物逼近,一切(尤其是畫幅中要表現(xiàn)的人物主體)都貼近了那個不可逾越的邊緣,更加顯示出某種不可能的抵抗,摩擦由此產(chǎn)生、咬著牙抵住門的圣母像由此產(chǎn)生。關(guān)鍵詞是扭曲、極限、與邊緣。就像在女主脊柱上隆起的棱角一樣,在這樣的畫幅里,女主也像皮膚下的一塊塊骨頭像從畫框中掙脫出去、徹底的溢出!也恰恰是骨頭掙脫出皮膚的不能,人物掙脫出畫幅的不能導致了對抗關(guān)系中始終持續(xù)的緊張狀態(tài)。一切在皮膚與骨頭、人物的與畫框頂撞的力與力中流動、然后凝固。
肯.拉塞爾又一次展現(xiàn)他奇妙的視界,宗教的野蠻神秘與性的偏激奔放,融匯成驚心動魄的景象,一個性的無政府社會。
http://weibo.com/1565377705/DqBJIEDy7?type=repost#_rnd1460440235152
與Ken Russell同場看這部電影的大屏幕,是件幸福的事。
傳說中的修女剝削電影,真是一片群魔亂舞的景象....
Plus d’une simple fustigation envers les dérives du pouvoir ecclésiastique appuyée par la dénonciation du fanatisme et l’obscurantisme, les Diables excelle avant tout par son esthétique formelle (couleur, décors, plans) sans oublier ses scènes cultes audacieuses
人力滾輪拆墻機,宗教審判業(yè)務(wù)部,酒池肉林驅(qū)魔宴,火刑狂歡嘉年華;空圣盒,獵鳥人,骷髏風車一路轉(zhuǎn)……最偉大的驅(qū)魔電影,也許沒有之一。Mel Gibson和Terry Gilliam一定受此片影響很多,當然,還有修女系的SM porn
Cinema Museum 重映,Mark Kermode 做介紹,講到本片長期遭到華納禁映的歷史,BFI為修復本片做出的努力。非常精彩的關(guān)于宗教與政治的反思,并且,竟然并不病態(tài)和晦澀,直白,有力,不用隱喻,而用的荒誕景象本身,來展示政教勾結(jié)的可怕后果。
絕對偉大作品。強烈的文本、典故與瘋魔的感官、肢體交融。拍出了所有真實歷史的傷痕,也揭露了欲望與信仰、原罪與圣行交鋒焦灼的苦楚。堅石之城、人骨輪盤,德里克·賈曼為本片設(shè)計布景后轉(zhuǎn)向電影。
嘆為觀止的直白諷刺。政教合一的權(quán)力亂像,借用禁欲主義引來的瘋魔導致烏合之眾的狂歡。影片的視聽美學也運用的相當高級,彩色影片卻用了大量黑白設(shè)計,禁欲的教堂墻面設(shè)計成的黑白格子,一塵不染的環(huán)境,低矮的房間還有修女直不起來的脖子處處表現(xiàn)宗教的性壓抑。最后一個鏡頭的超現(xiàn)實主義構(gòu)圖,城墻打開,神父的妻子走向絕望未知的未來。視聽手法對傳統(tǒng)宗教赤裸裸的挑戰(zhàn)至今仍然讓大部分人難以承受,大概是因為審查發(fā)行知名度不高,感覺索多瑪120天與之相比都弱了很多。
8.5/10。盧丹教區(qū)神父因與性壓抑的修女們荒淫無度而冒犯了保守勢力導致被他們用酷刑誣陷折磨至死的故事。各種攝影美術(shù)和詭異儀式的設(shè)計都極具原創(chuàng)感極其邪典、癲狂、褻瀆,但作為傳統(tǒng)故事片敘事節(jié)奏太混亂了。
在Ken Russell對于Huxley的影像化之中,創(chuàng)傷性的蒙太奇暗示著對影像的剪輯等同于招魂術(shù)——褻瀆在修女讓娜的祈禱之中突然出現(xiàn),“誘惑”以影像的方式現(xiàn)身,作為取代神圣的反客為主之物。論薄伽丘式的愛,或曰迷戀?!侗R》所呈現(xiàn)的逼仄修道院并不存在神跡,由肉體驅(qū)動的信仰之名,在禁欲的表象之下,德萊葉借用受難者面孔背后無限空間構(gòu)成畫外的無限延伸直通超驗之時,《盧》對于格拉維耶神父的處理則反其道而行之,狂歡化的空間與有限延伸的修道院拱頂是逼仄的,在影片之中,縱使畫面將在攝影機之外有所延伸,卻始終維持著某種封閉的有限性。唯一的哥特時刻:國王和主教到來,修女們以裸體召喚Glavier神父的肉體之名,被審判的神父身后的暗色調(diào)不斷延伸。不應(yīng)該忘記的是,病態(tài)的迷戀是哥特神圣的另外一面。
以格蘭蒂的死收尾了,政治的部分就結(jié)束了,電影里表現(xiàn)出的人物行為因明確的前因后果和顯得更合理化;赫胥黎書的下半段里,慕男狂的讓娜修女以圣女自居走上朝圣之旅受到王公貴族的接見;性、宗教、狂熱、人的非理性可以有更深的探討。
"the tourist season is coming, we need a bigger theatre"第一次驅(qū)魔開始的father barre像搖滾明星,眼看著觀眾一場一場多起來. 反正中世紀燒女巫常常serve觀看的人群 jesus-judas-devil在火墻里不分彼此dont look at me look at your city. fight or become slave.
Russell從來不給片子停下來呼吸的機會。同年拍的波蘭的Diabel也以一種歇斯底里的方式探討性、宗教、權(quán)利,就更為立體深刻。僅管如此,他的努力和野心也堪比Pasolini的索多馬了。
假如看的是Uncut版本會不會覺得更有沖擊力一些?我猜并不會,因為畢竟有《熔爐》珠玉在前。[惡魔]有著類似的故事,但重點不在道德而在人性之惡上。在賈曼無邪坎普的布景下,這個人間慘劇變成了荒誕鬧劇。這種獨特的風格是如此奪眼球,讓人幾乎沒看到這個劇本本身的扎實,特別是臺詞寫得極有水準。
很難再找出一部電影能夠更加肆無忌憚地褻瀆天主教會,它幾乎是以喜劇甚至接近于鬧劇的方式拍攝的,但其主要角色的塑造和剪輯方式則為敘事基調(diào)帶來完全相反的詭異與恐怖的氣氛,鏡頭中的荒誕與詭異的配樂烘托出一種沖突強烈而扭曲瘋癲的氛圍,而火刑那場戲視覺沖擊力極強的剪輯則是這種特殊風格的極致
能明白當年禁映的原因,你直戳戳的告訴宗教徒他們的正義性來自世俗權(quán)力的傾軋而非萬能的上帝、神性只是空空如也的盒子里的謊言、圣潔的修女淫亂的和娼妓一般在教堂赤身裸體、政教合一既殘酷又癲狂、教廷的事兒不是追求真理的爭辯而是爭權(quán)奪利的陰謀、以信仰之名藏納了數(shù)不盡的迫害,可不得戳著他們的肺管子嗎,瓦妮莎·雷德格雷夫的歪脖子修女和邁克爾·戈特哈德的眼鏡神父演的極其精彩,奧列佛·里德被吐槽長的不帥沒有吸引眾女的合理性,但是其實很有性張力