4K screening of Ken Russell's The Devils, fully restored and cut to the director's original vision, at MAC Birmingham.
Ken Russell's The Devils is coming to MAC Birmingham on Friday 30 October, with screenings running through to Thursday 5 November. It's a 4K restoration of Russell's 1971 film, starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, and it's being shown as the director originally intended. That's the key bit here: the film has been cut back to Russell's own specific direction, so this re-release is the first version to be shown publicly as he wanted it. If you've seen it before, this might be a different experience.
The story is based on the true account of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century priest who was accused of bewitching a convent of nuns. It's classic Russell territory—religious hysteria, power struggles, and a fair bit of provocation. The 4K restoration brings the whole thing back into sharp focus, and the cast is top-tier, with Reed and Redgrave both at the top of their game. It's a film that doesn't hold back, and seeing it in a cinema is the only way to really take it in.
Beyond the leads, the film pulls together a crew of artists at the peak of their craft. There's Academy Award-winning cinematographer David Watkin, editor Michael Bradsell, and visual artist Derek Jarman, whose work as production designer was his feature film debut. Seeing those names together on one project gives you a sense of the ambition behind it, and the 4K restoration lets that work breathe. The runtime is 2 hours and 9 minutes.
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There are seven screenings in total, so you've got plenty of options: Friday 30 October at 4:30pm; Saturday 31 October at 8:00pm; Sunday 1 November at 5:45pm, which is the audio described and descriptive subtitled showing; Monday 2 November at 6:30pm; Tuesday 3 November at 4:00pm; Wednesday 4 November at 7:15pm; and Thursday 5 November at 3:00pm. Tickets start from £11.95, with accessible and free companion tickets available.
