3. The Devils (1972)
The Devils is a film chockfull of controversial scenes. It led the BBFC on a merry dance throughout the 1970s and it is still edited and banned in many countries. I have chosen the infamous 'Rape of Christ' sequence as the most controversial. In this scene, Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave) is supposed to be praying but she experiences a vivid hallucination of the object of her lust - Father Grandier (Oliver Reed) as Jesus on the cross. He gets down from the cross and she falls at his feet in adoration. Sexual things happen between them until her hump is exposed and Sister Jeanne comes out of her hallucination - realising she has stabbed right through her hand with her Rosary beads. Widely condemned as blasphemy by Mary Whitehouse and her ilk, I don't read the film that way. It is just an honest look into a lust obsessed, sexually repressed nun's fantasies. I highly doubt Ken Russell was going out to shock with this scene or blaspheme. It is in fitting with the tone of the film and its subject matter