Restoration as Worship: The Everlasting Terror of Ken Russell’s The Devils

A close-up of Vanessa Redgrave as Sister Jeanne des Anges in full 17th-century Catholic nun garb: stark white linen surrounds her pale face and neckline with a deep black exterior that sits atop as she gazes into the distance with her head bent at a strange, almost inhuman angle. Blurred in the background is the white brick sanctuary she and her fellow sisters are held in like a prison, her similarly "possessed" colleagues lined up neatly and acutely around her and an altar.

|Chris Polley| When I was transfixed watching Michaela Coel restore an ancient, priceless painting in Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers earlier this year, I found myself strangely moved. It was cold and calculating but also incredibly caring and artful. I thought of this scene again when I heard that BBC critic Mark Kermode and… Continue reading