3. The Devils (1971)
The Devils is an excellent but highly controversial film about a sexually errant priest - Father Grandier - in Great Plague era France. He is the object of a Mother Superior's unhinged lust and she makes all sorts of sexual allegations against him as well as allegations involving black magic. For his nonconformity and the alleged sexual assaults upon the Mother Superior - Sister Jeanne - Grandier is tortured and burned at the stake. This is filmed by cinema's maverick genius Ken Russell (RIP) in his own inimitable style. A hot potato for the censors in 1971, The Devils was released with an X certificate losing a lot of footage along the way with cuts made to Grandier's torture sequences, nun nudity and bad behaviour (in particular, the infamous Rape of Christ scene was removed in its entirety) and Sister Jeanne masturbating with one of Grandier's charred bones. This was to mitigate the film's controversial sexual and religious content. This version was released in the USA as X Rated. However it was subjected to a butchering from the MPAA to tone it down for an R rating. Cuts included shots of Sister Jeanne kissing Father Grandier as he appears to her as Christ, further deletion of scenes of Grandier's torture, removal of shots of naked nuns and their cavorting, cuts to enemas and syringes being inserted between Sister Jeanne's legs. This mauling of the film was released as an 18 certificate in the UK without further cuts by Warner in 1988. In 2012, the US X rated version was released onto DVD in the UK and was passed with no further cuts. Several reels of lost cut footage have been found including the Rape of Christ sequence however they have yet to be incorporated into any DVD release. Warner have in their possession - The Director's Cut of the film but stubbornly refuse to release it much to the chagrin of The Devil's fans. Overall, a brilliant example of how to annoy the censors and end up having your film mangled as a result.
