There’s usually so much premiering at Cannes that restoration screenings, usually screened in the Cannes Classics sidebar, tend to blur into the background for me. Every year they’re there — important and essential — but I usually skip most in favor of newer films that need to be covered, only making one or two exceptions when they feel like true events rather than archival sidebars. That’s been the case with “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “The Shining” in full restoration, as well as “The Gold Rush.” Even special presentations like Clint Eastwood introducing “Unforgiven” or a restored “One-Eyed Jacks” have fallen into that can’t-miss category that briefly overrides everything else.
This year’s programming, announced this afternoon, brings together a striking slate of restorations and rediscoveries, led by “Sanshiro Sugata,” the debut of Akira Kurosawa, including 12 minutes of previously unseen footage, alongside “The Innocent” from Luchino Visconti. It also includes Orson Welles’ “The Stranger,” a fascinating entry from his Hollywood period, and “Moonlighting” from Jerzy Skolimowski, a sharply observed and still underrated ‘80s drama. It is rounded out by a restored 20th anniversary presentation of “Pan’s Labyrinth” from Guillermo del Toro, with the director in attendance.
However, there’s one particular title I might not be able to miss.
Warner Bros., under its newly branded specialty studio “Clockwork,” has quietly dropped one of the most significant restoration announcements in years at Cannes Classics: a full 4K restoration of Ken Russell’s “The Devils” is set to premiere at the festival.
The news wasn’t highlighted in today’s announcement, but its implications are enormous. This is not a partial reissue or a cleaned-up version — it is being presented as an uncensored restoration of one of the most notoriously mutilated films in modern studio history. The screening is described as a new 4K restoration assembled from the original camera negative, and with extra footage.
The film, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed, released in 1971, was heavily censored in both the UK and US, not just after release but during and immediately after production, under pressure from distributors and censors, with entire sequences removed or altered due to its extreme religious and sexual content. Over time, it has become one of the most infamous cases of studio interference in British cinema, and yet, its reputation has only grown.
Set in a 17th-century French town gripped by religious hysteria after a priest is accused of witchcraft, the best way to describe “The Devils” is as a portrait of collective madness, where power and religion collapse into violence and spectacle. The film is hypnotic because Russell pushes it into operatic extremes — shifting between grotesque imagery, and sudden, disturbing moments of silence. It’s a feverish, almost trance-like experience.
For decades, audiences have only had access to compromised versions. The UK X-rated cut runs approximately 1 hour and 51 minutes, while the US R-rated version is even shorter at around 1 hour and 48 minutes. Over the years, fans have constructed unofficial versions, including fragments of the infamous “Rape of Christ” sequence and portions of the film’s prison scenes involving Grandier (Oliver Reed). Even so, none of these versions have ever been considered complete or authoritative.
At one point, Criterion was willing to go to remarkable lengths just to acquire “The Devils.” They were reportedly prepared to invest serious time, effort, and even their own money to restore and release it properly. Meanwhile, Warner Bros., which actually owns the film, seemed largely indifferent. When it came to this title, there was little sense of urgency or enthusiasm on their part. Things have now clearly changed.
This new restoration is therefore being interpreted as the closest possible cut of Russell’s original vision, potentially incorporating surviving elements that have never been seen in official circulation. The timing is also notable, as the restoration appears to be the first major release under Warner Bros.’ “Clockwork” label, which recently announced Sean Baker’s next film, “Ti Amo!”
Mark Kermode, a long-time champion and biographer of Ken Russell, alongside Elisabeth Russell, the director’s wife and academic collaborator, will be in attendance at the Cannes screening.