| Director | Ken Russell |
|---|---|
| Box office | $11 million |
In 1634 France, following the aftermath of the Huguenot rebellions, the French Catholic statesman Cardinal Richelieu influences King Louis XIII in an attempt to gain further power. Richelieu seeks to consolidate his authority by systematically divesting France's feudal lords of their power and centralising the country's government. He convinces Louis that the fortifications of cities throughout France should be demolished to prevent Protestants from rising up. Louis agrees, but forbids Richelieu from carrying out demolitions in the fortified town of Loudun, having made a promise to its Governor not to damage the town.
Meanwhile, in Loudun – where Catholics and Huguenots live in harmony – the Governor has died, leaving control of the city to Urbain Grandier, a dissolute, proud and popular priest. He is having an affair with a relative of Canon Jean Mignon, another priest in the town; Grandier is, however, unaware that the neurotic, hunchbacked Sister Jeanne des Anges, the abbess of the local Ursuline convent, is sexually obsessed with him. Jeanne asks for Grandier to become the convent's new confessor. Grandier secretly marries another woman, Madeleine De Brou, but news of this reaches Jeanne, who becomes jealous. When Madeleine returns a book by Ursuline foundress Angela Merici that Jeanne had earlier lent her, the abbess attacks her and accuses her of being a "fornicator" and "sacrilegious".
Baron Jean de Laubardemont arrives with orders to demolish the city's walls, overriding Grandier's orders to stop. Grandier summons the town's soldiers and forces Laubardemont to back down pending the arrival of an order for the demolition from King Louis. Grandier departs Loudun to visit the King. In the meantime, Canon Mignon tells Jeanne that he is to be their new confessor. She informs him of Grandier's marriage and affairs, and also inadvertently accuses Grandier of witchcraft and of possessing her, which Mignon relays to Laubardemont. In the process, the information is pared down to just the claim that Grandier has bewitched the convent and dealt with the Devil. With Grandier away from Loudun, Laubardemont and Mignon decide to find evidence against him.
Laubardemont summons inquisitor Father Pierre Barre, a "professional witch-hunter", whose interrogations involve depraved acts of "exorcism", including the forced administration of enemas to his victims. Jeanne claims that Grandier has bewitched her, and the other nuns do the same. A public exorcism erupts in a church, in which the nuns remove their clothes and enter a state of "religious" frenzy. Duke Henri de Condé (actually King Louis in disguise) arrives, claiming to be carrying a holy relic which can exorcise the "devils" possessing the nuns. Barre then proceeds to use the relic in "exorcising" the nuns, who then act as though they have been cured – until Condé/Louis reveals the case allegedly containing the relic to be empty. The possessions and the exorcisms then continue unabated, descending into a massive orgy in which the nuns remove the crucifix from above the high altar and masturbate with it. Mignon is both shocked and aroused by the sacrilegious chaos.
During the chaos, Grandier and Madeleine return. Grandier denies bewitching the nuns and condemns Jeanne, but he and Madeleine are arrested nonetheless. The nuns are returned to the convent, where Jeanne attempts to hang herself, but is cut down before she dies. After being given a show trial, Grandier is shaven and tortured. The judges sentence Grandier to death by burning at the stake. Laubardemont has also obtained permission to destroy the city's fortifications. Despite pressure to confess to the charges, Grandier refuses, and is taken to be publicly burnt at the stake. His executioner promises to strangle him rather than let him suffer death by fire, but Barre starts the fire himself, and Mignon, visibly panic-stricken about the possibility of Grandier's innocence, pulls the noose tight before it can be used to strangle Grandier. As Grandier burns, Laubardemont orders for explosive charges to be set off and the city walls are blown up, causing the revelling townspeople to flee.
After the execution, Barre leaves Loudun to continue his witch-hunting activities elsewhere in the Vienne region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Laubardemont informs Jeanne that Mignon has been put away in an asylum for claiming that Grandier was innocent, and that "with no signed confession to prove otherwise, everyone has the same opinion". He gives her Grandier's charred femur and leaves. Jeanne kisses and masturbates with the bone. Madeleine, having been released, staggers over the rubble of Loudun's walls and walks out of the ruined city.