The Devils

The Devils is a piece of madness by Ken Russell though telling the true story of the persecution of progressive French priest Urbain Grandier by the establishment lead by Cardinal Richelieu, obviously not the only story featuring the Cardinal as a villain. Fitting to Russell's style as a director this is an insane film, though in this case that probably was the approach to the story. What is notable here, and not so much in the other films of his that I have seen, is that he does intelligent maneuver the film's tone despite his rather broad reaching approach. Although overall, particularly in the production design and the performances of the supporting cast, the film is purposefully grotesque in its excesses. Russell seems to thrive in these circumstances. The madness he inflicts is mesmerizing, for the most part, in its own right. As he plays with religious and historical iconography to reveal the full extent of the debauchery of the people. He has enough of a sense here to pull back within the character of Grandier well played by Oliver Reed. He depicts that character with the utmost humanity effectively turning him into a focal point of sanity and decency. This keeps the film's style from becoming too much as keeping the man within it all not only provides the needed anchor, but also provides a real emotional weight within that hysteria. Although the other films of Russell's that I have seen have failed in one way or another, this film succeeds as it uses his excesses towards effectively storytelling while still having that sense to know when to pull back to reveal the true tragedy within this mad story.
5/5

Macbeth (1971)

I suppose any great Shakespearean adaptation there should be distinct vision by the director. This quite true to Roman Polanki's adaptation of the Scottish play. The film marked the first film by the director since the brutal murder of his wife Sharon Tate by the Mason family. The influence of that event on the director's mind is palatable in the hopeless and particularly violent telling. Macbeth is already a dark tragedy however Polanski takes every step to amplify this particularly in the graphic nature of the blood letting, the MacDuff family massacre in particular takes its time to depicts the horrors of the scene. It goes beyond that even with an undercurrent of a circular process of decay. Macbeth is not the only traitor in this version changing the character Ross to a co-conspirator, turning the younger brother of the murdered king a future Macbeth. The side effects of the plot seem to age Macbeth and his wife into older people beyond their years as they slowly meet their demise. This film is clearly of a singular vision by Polanski though I wouldn't quite call it a great adaptation. The central nihilistic theme is fitting to this tragedy to be sure, however there are unneeded excesses in this vision. The vision in itself though still is compelling realization of an already compelling story.
4/5

Come and See

Come and See is a stark depiction of Nazi occupation founded from the most intimate perspective of a young boy who attempts to join the partisan fighters in Belarus. The plotting itself seems simple enough but is the approach of director Elem Klimov that makes this film a truly harrowing experience. The film features that perspective closely where the horrors are often just in the peripheral view of the frame, which seems to make them even more disturbing than if they where bluntly placed at the center of the screen. The film attempts to inflict the viewer with the same experience through this constrictor that is very effective in this approach. We are not granted a broader viewer, even a broader hope, we only know what our young boy sees which one horrific sight after another. Now this itself could be numbing if not for the film's particular approach that leaves every instance an impression on your memory. As it creates the sense of the confusion of the life in the occupation, those attempts to fight back, but mostly being lost with the only checkpoints being those moments of the very worst of humanity. The film startling in the ease of the events in a way particularly a village massacre that the perpetrators almost treat like a picnic. What is as disturbing though is the depiction of how this weighs on the people and particularly this boy who seems to age into a hardened older man by the film's haunting last sequence where the boy blindly rages at a photograph of Hitler. Where Downfall portrayed the rot on the man around him, Come and See is a startling depiction of the rot and victims of the man's hate filled agenda.
5/5

Downfall

Downfall depicts the final days of Adolf Hitler. This story actually had been previously told, with Hitler: The Last Ten Days, which while had some scenes that are almost exactly the same differed rather greatly in tone. This film is different in its approach to not only tell the story from Hitler's secretary's Traudl Junge point of view it emphasizes this idea. We do not see the broader picture of Hitler's horrors other than within the epilogue featuring the real Junge coming to terms with her past. The film's constrictive approach is an effective one, in fact I'd say it would be a stronger film if it stayed even truer to this idea of the world of the bunker. The reason being the film is incredible in terms of its vivid realization of the strange society of sorts that forms within Hitler's final home, essentially a dark cellar in the ground. It shows the different men and women inhabiting it those who have come to understand their fate, those still fooling themselves into believing into the cause, or those happy to live in the façade knowing their deaths will come soon. The mess of emotions of the individuals is what makes the film most fascinating with everyone with a different delusion or lack of it. The film ends up being a story of decay centered around Hitler who seems to be both mentally and physically spent until he takes upon himself to end it all. I will say that is where the film loses a bit of its steam as it follows his underlings either following suit or trying to find someway to escape. This is quite disturbing however it does lose some of its potency once this becomes the film's path. The ending is not the strongest part of the film however as a whole film works in its examination of a humanized, though not sympathetic, insular examination of a monster.
4.5/5