After seeing The Devils, one thing is for sure: it will stay with you forever. For some, it's a horrific and unwatchable display of savagery, while for others it's an intense yet rewarding ride into a city beseiged with madness. It is Ken Russell's most tolerable film to sit through, because it is always interesting and contains many memorables scenes and images, but at the same time it is highly controversial and challenging, often making you want to turn away from the screen.

The story is of a highly influential priest in the French city of Loudon. He is a magnetic man with strong opinions and pride, lusted after by many women, including a disfigured nun. The authorities decide that he is a risk to their plans, and have him falsely accused of various disgusting sexual crimes for which he is burned at the stake.

There are some extraordinary moments in this film. The burning at the end is the most unforgettable of all, with Oliver Reed literally blackening and bubbling in front of your very eyes as he burns away. The scenes involving Vanessa Redgrave as the amorous nun are equally haunting, and the torture scenes with Michael Gothard as an exorcist trying to force a confession out of Reed are truly painful to watch. This film is certainly not for all tastes, but if you can bear the more gruesome moments, then you will find it fascinating viewing, and no matter how hard you try you won't be able to ignore its intensity.

In 17th Century France Cardinal Richelieu gains allegiance with King Louie Xlll in persecuting the Protestant populace. He finds resistance however in the charismatic Father Grandier (Oliver Reid) of Loudon whose walls and lack of religious strife pose a problem to the Cardinal's grand plan. When a sexually repressed nun falsely accuses Grandier of witchcraft, Richelieu's minions go to work to slander and burn.

It is no small order to make the claim that The Devil's is director Ken Russell's most audacious work. Known for pushing the envelope throughout his career The Devil is a relentless non-stop depiction of witch hunt depravity graphically presented by Russell who takes things to such a fever pitch you wonder if he has control during moments as the literal orgiastic trial runs into overtime. Featuring some of Russell's most outlandish as well as outstanding scenes and compositions it's devastating brutality never let's up with the opening portion of the film dealing with a plague. Even comedy relief such as the King's target practice having a very dark tone to it.

As Grandier, Reid effectively shows both virility and sensitivity as he defends the city while left vulnerable to carnal delight and love. Vanessa Redgrave's horny hunch back nun may be the most challenging role of her career that she gruesomely surmounts, the results riveting. Max Adrian as a quack doctor leads a supporting cast of well defined misanthropes bent on revenge and power.

Russell's interpretation of actual history ( with a mighty contribution from wife Shirley's outstanding costuming) paints some remarkable canvases throughout the Devils, most of it hard to look at and you walk away from it amazed and appalled; impressed and ill. The Devils is one tough watch.

Writing a review for a film as outlandish as The Devils while still remaining within IMDb's guidelines is proving very difficult: when describing the film, it's hard to avoid phrases that will offend - it's THAT eccentric, anarchic, and blasphemous. Controversial director Ken Russell's work is clearly still capable of pushing buttons after all of these years.

Oliver Reed stars as womanising priest Urbain Grandier, the actor putting in a commanding turn that cannot be ignored, scandalous at first, but ultimately admirable for his stoicism and the purity of his love for Madeleine De Brou (Gemma Jones); on the other end of the scale is Father Pierre Barre (Michael Gothard), a character with no redeeming qualities, a loathsome witch-hunter tasked with proving Grandier guilty of heresy so that power-hungry Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue) can take control of the town of Loudun.

Chock full of visually stunning and often provocative imagery, The Devils, based on a book by Aldous Huxley, is an assault on the senses that is hard to forget. It's not at all surprising that the film was heavily criticised on its release for its semi-pornographic content, nightmarish grotesquery, and general debauchery, but for all of its deliberate shock tactics, there's a great story to be told and it is done so in a stylish and unforgettable manner.

Even when the film isn't being deliberately offensive, it's still an audacious treat: Russell opens with a preposterous scene in which Louis XIII (Graham Armitage) participates in a comically absurd play (the King of France dressed as Botticelli's Venus); Grandier uses a stuffed crocodile to fight Trincant (John Woodvine), father of one of the priest's conquests; King Louis playfully shoots protestants dressed as crows; and Vanessa Redgrave is delightfully OTT as Sister Jeanne, the nun whose unrequited obsession over Grandier leads to his downfall. In keeping with the film's unconventionality, the set design by Derek Jarman -- medieval meets futurism -- is blatantly anachronistic, but a marvel to behold.