Dateline: Halloween 2008, New York City. Cineastes, libertines, and connoisseurs of the weird all took a break from their revelry to attend a special midnight screening of director Ken Russell’s notorious masterpiece The Devils, with Mr. Russell himself in attendance. The Devils is a difficult-to-classify film, simultaneously a period epic and a shocking exploitation film, which delights in the exploits of some very naughty nuns, but nonetheless features fiery lead performances from Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave and touches upon serious issues of religious hypocrisy, political manipulation, and freedom.

Mr. Russell, who showed up to the event in masquerade, proved to have lost nary a spring in his devious step, providing commentary before and after the film that was bawdy, irascible, and touching. Of particular interest were Russell’s anecdotes regarding the censorship and restoration of the film, its current status in distribution limbo, and his working relationship with legendary avant-garde filmmaker Derek Jarman, who provided the visionary production design for The Devils. We are pleased to provide excerpts from Russell’s comments below. (Note: The transcript has been edited slightly for clarity.)

On the Story

It’s stranger than fiction, but it is a true story. I made up nothing. You may think it’s strange that there are naked nuns in a cathedral pole dancing — there aren’t many poles in the film, are there? They did this carrying on in the cathedral to divert the citizens’ attention. The king and the cardinal (Richelieu) wanted to destroy the city walls because that’s what they were doing all over France, so there would be no opposition to their taking over the whole bloody country. So they had to distract the citizens by putting on this big show in the cathedral three times a day.

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