Sight and Sound: the November 2026 issue

“At the Cannes Film Festival this May, a restored print of a 55-year-old British movie that was derided as “filth” on its original release was declared to be both “the hottest ticket” and “the coolest film” in town. Screened in a spanking new director’s cut, Ken Russell’s The Devils (as it is now being titled) restored several minutes of footage that was cut from the movie back in 1971, causing Russell to label the original release “damaged goods”. The response to the Cannes premiere, at which such film glitterati as honorary Palme d’Or recipient Peter Jackson were present, was ecstatic.”

— Mark Kermode on Ken Russell’s The Devils, in our cover feature

In 1971, at the height of his powers, Ken Russell delivered The Devils, a blistering vision of religious corruption, political repression and mass hysteria in 17th-century France, only for censors to hack away at some of its most incendiary scenes. Now, as a painstaking restoration reveals Russell’s intended vision, Mark Kermode tells the story of its suppression, survival and revival, with testimony from its key players. With imagery from the BFI national archive. 

For a special Sight and Sound supplement on film censorship, The Devils’ writer director opened up about his ambitions for the film – including his rationales for its most scandalising scenes – and his run-ins with its range of detractors. 

The then British Board of Film Censors was not the only obstacle to Ken Russell’s conception of The Devils – and nor was it monolithic in its judgement. Linda Ruth Williams reveals the tussles between the director’s admirers and disgusted critics on the board, a schism that reflected wider ideological shifts in the country at large.

Among the most revealing relics from the production of The Devils, now held at the BFI National Archive, are the annotated shooting script and on-set Polaroid photos compiled by the film’s continuity supervisor Ann Skinner. She recounts to Isabel Stevens her experiences of working with the fiery director. 

Guillermo del Toro on the film’s darkness and light. 

After Ida and Cold War, Fatherland marks Paweł Pawlikowski’s third dive into 20th century European history, using the writer Thomas Mann’s post-war return to Germany to open up questions of nation, identity and culture. The Polish director discusses the Mann family’s values and his own style and sensibility. By Jonathan Romney. 

With I Love Boosters, Boots Riley transforms a 20-year-old rap about shoplifters into a radical satire of ownership and class. He talks about smuggling revolutionary dialectics (and horny Afrofuturism) into Hollywood. By Arjun Sajip. 

The great silent-era German director F.W. Murnau was notoriously secretive, even banning his producer from visiting the set. But a lavish scrapbook prepared for him by the designer Robert Herlth during the making of his 1926 fantasy Faust, seemingly lost for most of the last century, offers extraordinary insight into his innovative and demanding methods. By Robert Hanks. 

Amid moans about low star wattage and groans at another near-lockout of films directed by women, this year’s festival saw Lee Chang-dong and Werner Herzog return, Koreeda Hirokazu back on form, and eye-opening documentaries spanning subjects from Elon Musk to Jorge Luis Borges. By Sam Wigley. 

David Thompson pays tribute to Jeremy Thomas. 

In Gentle Monster, a shocked and disbelieving wife must confront her husband’s role in a paedophile ring. By B Ruby Rich. 

New films by Matt Johnson, Duke Johnson, Mia Hansen-Løve, Maria Schrader, Janicza Bravo. By Hope Rangaswami.

Dracula – the 1958 version starring the alluring, urbane Christopher Lee – has a storied history both as a cornerstone of Hammer’s output and an example of how sharp the BBFC’s celluloid-cutting knives were. By Kim Newman. 

Falling on the 30th anniversary of the director’s death, the annual Kieślowski festival spotlighted the work of the brothers Quay. By J.A. Hopkin. 

Posters for films about rebellious nuns turn religious imagery on its head. By Hope Rangaswami.

Like John Grierson a century ago, Jeanie Finlay shows what floats Britain’s boat people. By Pamela Hutchinson. 

From Oak Street to Camp Miasma, pastiches of the past deflect from real fear of the future. By Nicole Flattery.

From its lean, mean origins, Cape Fear now hedges male sexual violence with female culpability. By Andrew Male.

From Clio Barnard’s Birmingham to Ken Russell’s Loudun, buildings teach us our place. By Mike Williams. 

Věra Chytilová’s posthumous portrait of her long-time friend and collaborator Ester Krumbachová, unsung heroine of the Czech New Wave, is fascinating for what it tells us not just about Krumbachová but about creative relationships – and some of it makes for uncomfortable hearing. By Rachel Pronger. 

An exhibition at Tate Britain by London-based, Algerian-heritage artist Zineb Sedira harks back to an era when the stakes of revolutionary postcolonial cinema could be life or death. By Arjun Sajip. 

The legendary director Billy Wilder and poster and titles designer Saul Bass made friends when they worked together on The Seven Year Itch in 1955. Four decades later, they shared stories of Hollywood past and present in this wide-ranging lunch conversation, which we reprint to mark a Wilder retrospective at BFI Southbank. Interview by Pat Kirkham. 

Our critics review: Remake, Possible Love, I Love Boosters, The Dog Stars, Sense and Sensibility, Daughters of the Late Colonel, Heart of the Beast, The Portuguese House, The Yellow Tie, Animol, Shadows of Beirut, Gentle Monster, Fatherland, Case 137, Hope, Mārama, Cotton Queen, Boorman and the Devil, The Lost Children of Tuam, All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea, Winter of the Crow, Idiots.

Our critics review: Reap the Whirlwind: Four Films with Angela Mao, Sexy Beast, Odssa, Devil Times Five, Nuts in May, The Abominable Snowman, World Noir vol. 5, Harlan County, USA, The magnificent Cuckold, The Mahabharata. 

Our critics review: Just a Shot Away: Martin Scorsese’s Life in Film, Arrows of Desire:Selected Writings 1963-2002, Morvern Callar.