Psychological Interpretation of the Film "The Devils"

It has been said that film is nothing less than the highest form of art. Of course, in going with that description, it seems only natural then that certain films constitute a higher or deeper level of art than others. In much the same way that Dali's Apparition of the Face of Aphrodite of Cnidus, cannot be compared to Shannon Brady's recent work for Camel Cigarettes, so too must we be careful in grouping all classifications of film into the same category. For instance, a groundbreaking and original film such as Waking Life, should probably not be put into the same category as The Devils. Not to say that one movie is exactly "better" than the other, yet they both represent different styles of film and show their messages in radically different ways. However, even though The Devils may not exactly be the easiest film in the world to watch, the viewer can still gain a great amount of insight regarding self, other, individuality, autonomy, religion and even the construction of the social realties that define our everyday lives.

Perhaps some of the most important and most revealing information in the film comes from analyzing the different depictions of self and other that can be found throughout the film. One of the most powerful depictions of self found in the movie is doubtlessly the moment that Father Grandier comes to realize that one can find their way to God in other ways than through the church. Self is depicted, throughout the movie, as a sort of independence, a release that one can find from the power and crushing authority of the church. Self is displayed throughout the movie when the characters show individual actions and thoughts. We are given the notion of the self as being a sort of individual presence, but it so closely ties in with the ideas of God and religion that trying to separate the self from that presence of God is likely a completely foreign notion at the time. We see what happens to Grandier when he attempts to find his own interpretation of the path to God.