Ken Russell’s 1971 historical drama The Devils opens with a title card establishing its basis in real 1630s events in Loudun, France, where priest Urbain Grandier was burned at the stake for allegedly possessing a group of Ursuline nuns. Yet, the film’s visual design completely rejects traditional, Victorian-era depictions of the pre-modern world.
The Architecture of Loudun and the Rejection of Victorian Tropes
- Production designer Derek Jarman rejected crumbling 17th-century wall molds at Pinewood Studios, arguing that historical buildings in the 1630s were vibrant and finished rather than stark ruins.
- Jarman utilized gleaming white tiles, striking black-and-white layouts, and rich interiors inspired by Aldous Huxley’s description of Sister Jeanne’s exorcism as a “public lavatory.”
- The film’s 4K restoration is currently playing in theaters, offering audiences a rare theatrical look at its uncompromising, timeless set design.
Derek Jarman Rebuilds the 1630s Without Ruined Stone Walls
When experimental filmmaker and production designer Derek Jarman arrived at Pinewood Studios in London to prepare for The Devils, studio staff offered him molds of crumbling 17th-century walls. Jarman immediately pushed back against the proposition, recognizing that in the actual 1630s, those architectural structures would not have been weathered ruins. Richard Crouse details this history in Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of ‘The Devils,’ noting how Jarman had to construct a massive, practical Capital-T Tower to capture the intense ideological and physical conflicts between Grandier, played by Oliver Reed, and the agents of Cardinal Richelieu, portrayed by Christopher Logue.
Most period films set in the pre-modern world rely on a persistent Victorian aesthetic. Whether looking at The Last Duel, A Knight’s Tale, The Tudors, or Wolf Hall, modern set designs frequently default to bare stone walls, flickering candles under Gothic arches, and muted, mud-soaked color palettes. This ongoing cinematic choice owes its existence to how 19th-century figures like Lord Byron and Mary Shelley romantically visualized the past. Historical reality, however, included ample use of tapestries, frescoes, murals, painted plaster, and limewash by wealthy and prominent pre-modern societies.
Avoiding the Teleological Trap of Historical Progress
Films like The Uprising lean heavily into a bleak, dirt-covered aesthetic that reinforces the modern assumption that contemporary civilization is inherently cleaner, smarter, and more advanced than past societies. While 2021’s Catherine Called Birdy captures a broader spectrum of medieval colors, it still limits its primary feasting hall largely to bare stone and heavy fireplaces. Jarman and Ken Russell purposefully rejected this distancing effect. They refused to employ a teleological argument for human progress through the simplistic visual shorthand of a dirty, unadorned past.
Instead, the visual language of The Devils embraces stark contrasts. The interrogation and exorcism chambers feature gleaming white tiles, while the overall layout of Loudun utilizes sharp black-and-white geometries. Grandier’s personal office spaces are rendered with rich, layered textures that make the eventual destruction of his Late Medieval statuary feel jarring and invasive. These environments would feel right at home within Fritz Lang’s Metropolis or Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak.
| Production Aspect | Traditional Period Film Standard | Derek Jarman & Ken Russell’s Approach in The Devils |
|---|---|---|
| Wall Finishes | Crumbled, bare stone and stark medieval masonry | Gleaming white tiles, painted plaster, murals, and limewash |
| Color Palette | Muted, mud-covered, monochromatic earth tones | Vivid black-and-white contrasts and vibrant court-world ornamentation |
| Architectural Intent | Distance the audience via a clean, progressive view of history | Immerse viewers immediately through stark, institutional, and contemporary spatial designs |
The Public Lavatory Aesthetic Behind Sister Jeanne’s Exorcism
Jarman’s design choices were directly informed by source material from Aldous Huxley’s nonfiction study, The Devils of Loudun. In a 1997 retrospective piece published in Sight and Sound, Jarman highlighted a specific sentence from Huxley that permanently shaped his artistic direction: “The exorcism of Sister Jeanne was equivalent to a rape in a public lavatory.” That chilling parallel between religious hysteria and institutional coldness drove the production designer toward the clinical white tiles that line the convent walls.
The resulting sets successfully blend period-specific narrative elements with modern spatial anxieties. The hospital-asylum atmosphere of the exorcism rooms forces viewers to confront the mechanisms of institutional control, systemic prejudice, and the weaponization of public superstition. By anchoring the historical tragedy in sets that feel uncomfortably material, Russell and Jarman ensure that audiences cannot safely distance themselves from the barbarous mechanics of the narrative.
The newly minted 4K restoration of Ken Russell’s The Devils is now playing in theaters.
