Devilishly good

In 1971 a group of studio executives were foolish (or brilliant) enough to entrust to British director Ken Russell shed-loads of cash to make a film of The Devils, a story of religious and sexual hysteria, and political manipulation, set in seventeenth century Loudun.

With a stellar cast of thesps (including Oliver Reed in probably his finest performance, Vanessa Redgrave in her bravest performance, and the inimitable Dudley Sutton), one of its many claims to fame is that the production designer, on his first main job, was the great Derek Jarman (the film looks utterly wonderful).

The Devils was butchered by the British censors before release, an orgy scene in which naked nuns take liberties with assorted priests and religious icons being particularly heavily cut, but, miraculously, 20 minutes of cut footage was rediscovered a few years back.

Last week the National Film Theatre gave a rare public screening of the restored film (the first time I have seen it on a cinema screen rather than tv). It looked staggering.

Alas, the rights are owned by Warner Bros and this pathetic company refuses either to release a DVD or to licence someone else to do it. A critically important part of Britain's cultural heritage is therefore kept locked away (unless you happen to live within spitting distance of London's South Bank and managed to get a ticket to the single, sold-out screening...).

By what right does some foreign company lock away British cultural heritage? And is it any wonder that people resort to "piracy" to get hold of a copy of an otherwise unavailable film?