Ken Russell's The Devils (1971)

The Harris Theater is running Ken Russell's The Devils starting Thursday, October 15, and it stays on the screen through Thursday, October 22. This is a new 4K restoration of the 1971 film, so if you've only ever seen it on a grainy old print, this is the version to catch.

For those who haven't seen it, The Devils is Russell's infamous adaptation of Aldous Huxley's novel. The story centers on a group of nuns who appear to be possessed after one of them, played by Vanessa Redgrave, accuses a priest, played by Oliver Reed, of collaborating with the devil. It's the kind of film that earned Russell his reputation for the provocative and the provocative—it's loud, visually striking, and doesn't pull its punches.

There's also something worth knowing about the venue. The Harris Theater, formerly the Art Cinema, is one of the few places around that still regularly uses 35mm film projectors, so it's a proper cinema experience rather than a digital projection. The theater opened to the public on November 9, 1995, and was named through a gift from the Buhl Foundation after John P. Harris, a co-founder of the Nickelodeon. If you're a fan of film on film, that's a nice detail to keep in mind.

Between the 4K restoration and the 35mm projection, this is a good chance to see the movie as it was meant to be seen. The run goes from Thursday, October 15, through Thursday, October 22, at the Harris Theater in Pittsburgh.