Ken Russell’s The Devils definitive 4K restoration to launch ahead of major BFI retrospective

Censored for over half a century, Ken Russell’s visionary masterpiece The Devils will be back on the big screen in its definitive version on 30 October 2026, released in cinemas in the UK and Ireland by BFI Distribution in partnership with Warner Bros. Clockwork. Fully restored in 4K and cut to Ken Russell’s specific direction, Ken Russell’s The Devils is the first publicly released version of the film as intended by the filmmaker. Fifty-five years after its initial release, the definitive version of The Devils was unveiled at the 79th Cannes Film Festival as an official selection in Cannes Classics. Warner Bros. Clockwork will be releasing the film in all other territories, beginning with the US on 16 October for an exclusive one-week engagement.

An enduring masterpiece of cinema starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, Ken Russell’s The Devils is a prescient epic of obsession and corruption, and a defining work of art from seminal filmmaker Ken Russell. Inspired by the true story of 17th-century priest Urbain Grandier, accused of bewitching a convent of nuns, the film lays bare the collusion of church and state through a searing vision of religious persecution, collective hysteria and institutional corruption. In addition to powerhouse performances from Reed and Redgrave, Ken Russell’s The Devils showcases the stunning work of artists at the peak of their craft: Academy Award-winning cinematographer David Watkin (Out of Africa, Chariots of Fire); editor Michael Bradsell (Local Hero, Jabberwocky); and visual artist Derek Jarman (Jubilee, Caravaggio), whose work as production designer marked his feature film debut.

Produced by Warner Bros. in 1971, the film received best director awards from two of the most prestigious institutions in the world: the 33rd Venice International Film Festival and the US National Board of Review. Its critical reception in the following decades has only become more impassioned, championed by artists and film historians including Guillermo del Toro and Mark Kermode.

Stuart Brown, BFI Director of Programme and Distribution said:

“Ken Russell’s The Devils is one of the great masterpieces of British cinema: a film of astonishing imagination, searing power and dazzling formal brilliance. The BFI is thrilled to be partnering with Warner Bros. Clockwork to present the new restoration, which reveals anew the extraordinary artistry of Oliver Reed, Vanessa Redgrave, Derek Jarman and the many others who collaborated to create a truly singular work. The BFI has long supported Ken Russell’s film and television work across BFI Southbank, BFI home entertainment and BFI Player, and so it is a fitting privilege to help bring this landmark restoration to audiences across the UK and Ireland.”

Ken Russell was a pioneering Academy Award-nominated British filmmaker, the disruptive visionary behind classics such as Tommy, Women in Love and Altered States. He directed an Academy Award-winning performance from Glenda Jackson in Women in Love.

To mark the centenary of Ken Russell’s birth on 3 July 1927, in July and August 2027 BFI Southbank will present the most extensive retrospective ever mounted of one of Britain’s truly pioneering figures. Spanning more than five decades of restless creativity, the season will explore Russell’s extraordinary work, from his amateur films of the 1950s through the form-breaking BBC productions of the 1960s that transformed the possibilities of television arts broadcasting, before he embarked on one of the most distinctive careers in world cinema. The BFI celebration will bring together every one of Russell’s theatrically released feature films, alongside rare television works – many screening from original film prints preserved in the BFI National Archive’s collections – later digital productions and newly created materials by the BFI National Archive.

Ken Russell’s The Devils is the definitive cut of The Devils, and no other director’s cut formally exists. This cut was originally reconstructed in 2004 under the supervision of Ken Russell and the film’s editor Michael Bradsell, in collaboration with Mark Kermode and Paul Joyce. The 4K restoration was completed using the original camera negative at WB Water Tower Color, with audio restoration completed using original composite 35mm magnetic film at WB Sound. Warner Bros. Clockwork’s release of Ken Russell’s The Devils marks the first time Russell’s defining masterpiece has been made officially accessible to the public.

Ken Russell’s The Devils will be released in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on 30 October 2026.