Thick smoke, nuns and screams. Crazy people and blood. Intense lighting and use of colour amidst the chaos. Each frame seems crowded - either through closeup or frenzy; moments of stillness are rare. Who is the stranger who saves Jakub? Why the nun? The madness of his surroundings - acrobats and theatricals, dancers and whores, mirror the insanity of the world. There is no goodness here. Monstrosity is the only answer.
13 Reviews
Surreal and demented.
HumanoidOfFlesh14 April 2010
Warning: Spoilers
The action of "Diabel" takes place in January 1793 during the year Prussian troops entered Poland.The Devil(brilliant Wojciech Pszoniak clad entirely in black) goes the prison of the monastery and takes a young nobleman Jakub(Leszek Teleszyński)along with a nun.Would-be regicide,clearly stunned by torture Jakub comes back in the company of a nun to see his family,but a meeting with parents,siblings,a friend and his girlfriend only intensifies obsession and bloodlust.The stranger gives him the razor to and tells "cleanse." James decides to settle accounts with their loved ones who have plunged into debauchery and moral betrayal and is losing the feeling of reality."Diabel" was banned by Polish communist regime during 1972-1988.It features some wonderfully surreal scenes and there is plenty of sleaze and bloody violence to enjoy.The castration with a rusty razor blade will certainly upset some male viewers.8 out of 10.
Very Difficult To Follow, But Very Unique, And Well Made.
DarkSpotOn8 September 2023
Well, i went into this completely blind. Had no clue this movie existed. I can tell you that this movie is really hard to follow. I wanted to watch this with subs from my country, but sadly i found it only with English subs, so it was really, REALLY hard to follow. But what i followed was pretty good.
This movie never got boring, maybe a tiny bit, but for the most part it's really sharp. I can tell you that the movie has a clear message: A King that's being influenced with God and Evil. The King (who was said to be mentally ill at times, not 100% sure bout that), only followed the Diabel, while the Nun the Good, he just ignored her, and she was there for nothing.
This movie depicts in a very brutal, way how it is to be forgotten. This King has been sentenced to death, and when he escaped, nobody really cared for him: His wife re-married, his mother is a prostitute, his sister barely cared, it's like when you get locked up for such a long time, when people forget about you, they just dont care anymore.
Also, what we forget, is how many people have been killed because of the Diabel, even though these people did not care, the King killed people that nothing to do with being forgotten, like the Turkish woman, and the other actor... He killed people that had nothing to do with this, and then he Diablo forced him into self destruction, untill in the end, when the Devil shows it's true face.
This is an amazing movie, i actually wanted to give it 10/10, but it's just too difficult to follow. I think this movie was inspired based on 1971 The Devils, they seem kinda similar, and i loved 1971 The Devils, this is kinda in the same boat. I think this is the first movie ive seen from Poland, and it's worth watching.
I enjoyed what was served, even though i think i didn't pick up on a lot of what was being said, but still pretty well made movie for what it is. A lot of people are complaining over bad acting, and bad "directing". No, to everything seemed to work pretty well. And as i say 100 times, the MOST important thing when it comes to movies, is the plot, this had a strong plot, and i enjoyed it.
This movie never got boring, maybe a tiny bit, but for the most part it's really sharp. I can tell you that the movie has a clear message: A King that's being influenced with God and Evil. The King (who was said to be mentally ill at times, not 100% sure bout that), only followed the Diabel, while the Nun the Good, he just ignored her, and she was there for nothing.
This movie depicts in a very brutal, way how it is to be forgotten. This King has been sentenced to death, and when he escaped, nobody really cared for him: His wife re-married, his mother is a prostitute, his sister barely cared, it's like when you get locked up for such a long time, when people forget about you, they just dont care anymore.
Also, what we forget, is how many people have been killed because of the Diabel, even though these people did not care, the King killed people that nothing to do with being forgotten, like the Turkish woman, and the other actor... He killed people that had nothing to do with this, and then he Diablo forced him into self destruction, untill in the end, when the Devil shows it's true face.
This is an amazing movie, i actually wanted to give it 10/10, but it's just too difficult to follow. I think this movie was inspired based on 1971 The Devils, they seem kinda similar, and i loved 1971 The Devils, this is kinda in the same boat. I think this is the first movie ive seen from Poland, and it's worth watching.
I enjoyed what was served, even though i think i didn't pick up on a lot of what was being said, but still pretty well made movie for what it is. A lot of people are complaining over bad acting, and bad "directing". No, to everything seemed to work pretty well. And as i say 100 times, the MOST important thing when it comes to movies, is the plot, this had a strong plot, and i enjoyed it.
Baroque vision of a world gone mad.
Infofreak3 February 2002
Andrzej Zulawski's 'The Devil' is a real oddity from the early 1970s. Originally released in 1972, but banned at the behest of the Catholic church, it has been little seen, which is a pity, because it is a fascinating movie that deserves a larger audience. Reminiscent at times of Jodorowsky and sometimes Fellini, this is a very puzzling movie steeped in religious symbolism.
In 18th Century Poland the Prussian army are in the process of conquering the country. In the midst of this chaos a mysterious figure arrives at a convent with orders to escort a political prisoner. The prisoner, a young man named Jakub, was accused of attempting to murder the King. The man finds Jakub, and along with a young nun they flee the oncoming troops. Once they are safe Jakub is freed and urged to return home. When he arrives he finds that nothing is as before. His father burnt down the family home before committing suicide, his pregnant fiancee has married one of his friends, and his mother is a whore. Jakub is constantly described by others as being a lunatic or "sick" yet in many ways he appears to be the sanest one of the lot. To complicate matters the man who initially rescued him shadows his every move and seems to have a strange agenda of his own. Is Jakub mad or is the world? Who is the enigmatic stranger and what does he want of Jakub? 'The Devil' will appeal to fans of strange, multi-layered movies.
In 18th Century Poland the Prussian army are in the process of conquering the country. In the midst of this chaos a mysterious figure arrives at a convent with orders to escort a political prisoner. The prisoner, a young man named Jakub, was accused of attempting to murder the King. The man finds Jakub, and along with a young nun they flee the oncoming troops. Once they are safe Jakub is freed and urged to return home. When he arrives he finds that nothing is as before. His father burnt down the family home before committing suicide, his pregnant fiancee has married one of his friends, and his mother is a whore. Jakub is constantly described by others as being a lunatic or "sick" yet in many ways he appears to be the sanest one of the lot. To complicate matters the man who initially rescued him shadows his every move and seems to have a strange agenda of his own. Is Jakub mad or is the world? Who is the enigmatic stranger and what does he want of Jakub? 'The Devil' will appeal to fans of strange, multi-layered movies.
"Tell me, does the world seem horrible to me because of my illness, or because it is really like that?"
XxEthanHuntxX30 December 2020
During the joint Russian,German (Prussian) and Austrian invasion to Poland in 1793, a young Polish nobleman Jacob is saved from the imprisonment by a stranger who wants in return to obtain a list of Jacob's fellow conspirators. It is a bargain. Maybe implicitly, Jakub sold his life to this stranger, following his mysterious savior across the country, Jacob becomes a witness to chaos and moral corruption that is ensuing the partition and dissolution of Poland by the neighbor countries. People everywhere seems to gone mad and crazy, including Jacob's own family and his beloved girlfriend.
Being apparently demented by what he has seen, he, amidst his own delerium of his consciousness fading away, commits noumerus of gory and enigmatic killings derailing in social and political turmoil by mass murders, leading to insanity and desperation. This stranger, who acts as a guide, displays horrific sights of this physically and morally destroyed 18th-Century nation, whispering the actions of Jakub and acting as an evil motor. But there is free will in Jakub as well, which remains unquestionable.
The film was immediately banned by the censors of the then-communist Polish government and the director was soon forced to leave Poland. Almost two decades later, in the last days of communism in Poland, Zulawski have somehow obtained a copy of his film from censorship vaults and immediately presented it during nearest film festival in Tokyo in 1988. Albeit very late, the film premiere has had received a lot of applause from viewers and film critics alike.
Zulawski's invigorating style shines as brightly as ever, his vision of insanity displayed at every corner, its a world fueled by animal instincts and sexual deviance, permeated with enough filth to make the devil dance in joy. Where each frame is filled with details that are caught by the eye either consciously or subconsciously. Camera management is aggressive and intrepid, never giving up, never hesitating to the depiction of scandalous content, shifting tones and creating authentic psychological horror with remarkable success.
It is as ugly as it is mesmerizing. Andrzej Zulawski's cinema is the definition of madness, the real meaning of insanity, and the truth of the quest of craziness. This film Diabel is flawlessly made, perfectly filmed, completely insane, profoundly depicted. With the typical emotional attacks of anger and madness expressed by the various characters. He represents an absolute and incontrovertible chaos, subjecting the vision to a frenetic and frustrating horror. In Diabel, Zulawski seems to point out we should stop worrying about the Devil since it is already Hell on Earth...
Being apparently demented by what he has seen, he, amidst his own delerium of his consciousness fading away, commits noumerus of gory and enigmatic killings derailing in social and political turmoil by mass murders, leading to insanity and desperation. This stranger, who acts as a guide, displays horrific sights of this physically and morally destroyed 18th-Century nation, whispering the actions of Jakub and acting as an evil motor. But there is free will in Jakub as well, which remains unquestionable.
The film was immediately banned by the censors of the then-communist Polish government and the director was soon forced to leave Poland. Almost two decades later, in the last days of communism in Poland, Zulawski have somehow obtained a copy of his film from censorship vaults and immediately presented it during nearest film festival in Tokyo in 1988. Albeit very late, the film premiere has had received a lot of applause from viewers and film critics alike.
Zulawski's invigorating style shines as brightly as ever, his vision of insanity displayed at every corner, its a world fueled by animal instincts and sexual deviance, permeated with enough filth to make the devil dance in joy. Where each frame is filled with details that are caught by the eye either consciously or subconsciously. Camera management is aggressive and intrepid, never giving up, never hesitating to the depiction of scandalous content, shifting tones and creating authentic psychological horror with remarkable success.
It is as ugly as it is mesmerizing. Andrzej Zulawski's cinema is the definition of madness, the real meaning of insanity, and the truth of the quest of craziness. This film Diabel is flawlessly made, perfectly filmed, completely insane, profoundly depicted. With the typical emotional attacks of anger and madness expressed by the various characters. He represents an absolute and incontrovertible chaos, subjecting the vision to a frenetic and frustrating horror. In Diabel, Zulawski seems to point out we should stop worrying about the Devil since it is already Hell on Earth...
The devil epileptically dancing the beauty of the world...
MauveMouse21 June 2012
The devil epileptically dancing the beauty of the world in front of the eyes of a dying man, the victim of his deceit and evil schemes, how cruel, ironic and jaw-droppingly macabre that can be... and the dark blue unctuous atmosphere, the claustrophobic feeling that the mazy woods, the snow give despite the haywire dynamics in an open landscape, people like pawns spinning on a chessboard manipulated and controlled through their weaknesses by master puppeteers who use lust and envy and madness as levers of their domination, God represented by the constant presence of the nun, witnessing with a neutral frozen mercifulness the gyratory display of human delirium and the devil's catalytic actions.. I know now that only after seeing this sublime film and being impacted by it I've became a true Żuławski fan
Inhuman cruelty??
krzysiektom9 November 2007
The previous poster calls the cruelty at display in this film "inhuman". Oh really? How come then that people slaughter people, gouge their eyes out, cut their limbs or burn them alive? Or torture them? Or rape and mutilate women? He should read some reports about practices during the Bosnian war or wars in Africa, about the stuff people have been doing to other people for ages, for reasons like religion, greed or lust. Or for no reasons at all. It took real "balls" or creative guts from the filmmaker to do a film like that. I am fed up with the political correctness and general blandness of films, caused by the requirements of market and profits, or by mere cowardliness. I could understand criticism of the cruelty if it was purely gratuitous but it is not. This film has artistic values and touches upon important topics. I am happy it was not destroyed and all copies not locked up somewhere. It could probably happen in Hollywood or in the lands like Iran.
A Messy, Pointless and Violent Journey to Insanity
claudio_carvalho15 November 2010
In Poland, a mysterious man comes to a chaotic convent to bring to Warsaw the nobleman political prisoner Jakub (Leszek Teleszynski) that imprisoned in the dungeons. The stranger requests the list of fellow conspirators to Jakub and abducts a nun to travel with Jakub in his journey back home. When he arrives in his destroyed house, he sees his father dead; his sister abused and insane; his mother in a brothel; and his girlfriend pregnant and living with his former best friend. Jakub becomes deranged and using a razor delivered by the stranger, he kills each sinner, in an irrational period of chaos and moral degradation.
"Diabel" is a messy, pointless and violent journey to insanity. The writer and director Andrzej Zulawski makes a dreadful film, with a screenplay that does not tell the milestone when the story takes place. In accordance with the DVD cover, the period is 1793, during the invasion of Poland by the Prussian army. The performances are histrionic and theatrical, and the violence is stupid with the only intention of shocking the audience. My vote is four.
Title (Brazil): "Diabel"
"Diabel" is a messy, pointless and violent journey to insanity. The writer and director Andrzej Zulawski makes a dreadful film, with a screenplay that does not tell the milestone when the story takes place. In accordance with the DVD cover, the period is 1793, during the invasion of Poland by the Prussian army. The performances are histrionic and theatrical, and the violence is stupid with the only intention of shocking the audience. My vote is four.
Title (Brazil): "Diabel"
Jakob in revenge land
tvcarsd2 March 2024
I wouldn't call this horror at least not in the traditional sense. Jakob freed from jail tries to return to his previous life with a aid who has his own agenda. The Devil is in the details indeed as you the viewer are forced to play catch up with a series of events that must be interpreted to understand the craziness and violence this movie portrays.
There is in impatience that plagues every event along with musical scores that tries as it does to build tempo and rhythm to the maniacal. Does it really matter who Jacob was? Butchery to betrayal, the nun and a whole lot of death and suffering all wrapped up in a wacky 70's score. Best not to leave out that almost every character is full of self loathing.
Not sure if I'd watch it twice though, the dialog isn't very captivating and the story isn't really what you are here for. You watch it because someone didn't want you to see something with a powerful political message. Like having your world turned upside down. So you'll watch it like I did, hoping to find something everyone else missed.
There is in impatience that plagues every event along with musical scores that tries as it does to build tempo and rhythm to the maniacal. Does it really matter who Jacob was? Butchery to betrayal, the nun and a whole lot of death and suffering all wrapped up in a wacky 70's score. Best not to leave out that almost every character is full of self loathing.
Not sure if I'd watch it twice though, the dialog isn't very captivating and the story isn't really what you are here for. You watch it because someone didn't want you to see something with a powerful political message. Like having your world turned upside down. So you'll watch it like I did, hoping to find something everyone else missed.
A whole lot of screaming and pushing....and nothing else.
glyptoteque24 May 2011
I thought "Possession" was a brilliant feat of surreality, the absolutely dis-harmonic atmosphere in that film was amazing. So what about Diabel then? Does it deserve being lauded with praise? In my humble opinion, not at all. First of all, the story the filmmaker is trying to tell here is inanely boring in itself ( who f**king cares about the plight of the polish unless you happen to be polish yourself? ). Second it does not help masking it up in code and symbolic speech, does not make it more interesting to watch, just more pretentious. Third, the actors felt like no more than empty props, vacant carriers existing only as receptacles for the underlying message, spouting a pompous, quasi-philosophical dialog, displaying a never ending theatrical behavior which was nauseating. Last, but by no means least, the so called violence on display here was meek, nothing to write home about. In short, if you want an absolute bore-fest; a whole lot of screaming and pushing, flailing of arms and legs, and violence that your Christian grandmother safely could watch, then this is the film for you. What a bucket full of pretentious p**s!!!
Andrzej Zulawski's DIABEL -I-
grob24818 November 2004
Along with "The Silver Globe", this is my favorite Zulawski film. Why? Well, maybe because both of them are so utterly insane. Zulawski is hardly known here in the states, and the only film of his that is available domestically (thanks to Anchor Bay) is "Possession". Sad really but that's life. As the saying goes, the depth of an idea is inversely proportional to the mass perception. It isn't the case for many famous artists of course, but for Zulawski it rings true. I haven't seen any of the stuff he made while living in France (I understand that many of them are on the more erotic side of things) with the exception of the above-mentioned "Possession" and "The Importance of Love" (with Romy Schneider and Fabio Testi), which was definitely *something". I also watched Zulwaski's later effort "Szamanka" which I have no comment on because I viewed a bootleg copy in Polish with French subtitles, and I speak neither of the languages. The same basically goes for "The Silver Globe" actually, which, as far as I know, can only be seen in Polish with German subtitles. But damn it, this film (which was never even finished) was nuts with or without English subtitles. And so is "Diabel". which I was lucky enough to find WITH the English subs! Hooray!!! Why this movie scared both the erstwhile Polish communist authorities, who were highly confused by it and suspected that it carried hidden anti-government messages, and the Catholic Church, which was completely outraged for reasons quite obvious if you've seen the film, much more so than the secular authorities, is clear even thirty something years (made around 1972 and then shelved by the censors until the late 80's) after it was made. Human insanity, cruelty and depravity are all here on display, wrapped in a guise of a historical epic and punctuated by Zulawski's trademark chaotic camera work and overall delivery. Is the film excessive and gratuitously shocking? Yes! But why shouldn't it be? Zulawski was young (and surely angry) back then, and the things he was going up against were, still are, and have always been a thousand times more excessive. If you can't take it - oh well. Maybe you should pull the wool off your eyes and look around. Another reason why I chose "Diabel" and "The Silver Globe" as favs is because of the time and place. They were made in the then Eastern Block during the Cold War and on the director's native soil, which must count for something, right? - all of which might have(or not) added more poignancy to the films (don't tell that to Roman Polanski though).After you move to France, the Artist's paradise that it is, it becomes safe for you to do what you do. The chance to suffer for your art diminishes significantly. Although, of course, you could suffer financially instead, which is something many Eastern European film makers discovered after the ascent of the market economy. Then again, in the new world disorder things change rather quickly. The recent slaying of a Dutch film director (Theo van Gogh was his name, I believe) by Muslim extremists shows that an artist in need can still fully suffer if he wants to. Anyway, back to "Diabel" - I love it. It's not something to be taken lightly of course. As a friend of mine wistfully observed: "the scene where a guy gets shot in the face is one of the most memorable I've seen in any film. So jarringly sudden, I was literally shocked - I don't know why it affected my like that." And I suppose I'll just leave it at that. I mean, how often does that happen in this day and age? Blessed be the sick! Amen.
Bad acting, bad directing, absurd transitions.
goblinqueen344 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I like surreal films. This one is bad. The acting is painful, the directing pretentious. It's like watching the film of a wannabe classic rock band and their friends, in Polish. Here's a word: wanky. For a while you can hear someone playing the jaw harp and it sucks. The violence is unconvincing. Drugs will not help.
At one point there is a really nice dapple grey horse.
At one point there is a really nice dapple grey horse.
"Do I see the world ugly because of my illness or because it is?"
chaos-rampant6 December 2010
Depravity, violence, a world permanently tipped off balance.
Near the end our halfmad protagonist asks someone else if he sees the world ugly because of his illness or because it is. The other replies that the world is filled with beauty, flowers, fruit, women, then reasons that he cannot adequately describe it. Instead he will dance about it.
His dance is not beautiful though, it's a wild spasmodic flailing of arms like we're seeing an epileptic suffer a seizure.
Diabel is that dance.
Superficially an allegory on how revolutions become mired in distraction - the political hedonism of power? - and how Poland has been used and abused by so many, deeper we find the same frightful pantomime that made Possession such a terrifying beast: inner soul made visible.
Slight problem is that he does not abstract enough to hit that bedrock were every image becomes multi-layered utterance of different cosmii. Characters remain pieces of the allegoric jigsaw, pawns in a game. There is not enough emptiness from life to pour into.
Near the end our halfmad protagonist asks someone else if he sees the world ugly because of his illness or because it is. The other replies that the world is filled with beauty, flowers, fruit, women, then reasons that he cannot adequately describe it. Instead he will dance about it.
His dance is not beautiful though, it's a wild spasmodic flailing of arms like we're seeing an epileptic suffer a seizure.
Diabel is that dance.
Superficially an allegory on how revolutions become mired in distraction - the political hedonism of power? - and how Poland has been used and abused by so many, deeper we find the same frightful pantomime that made Possession such a terrifying beast: inner soul made visible.
Slight problem is that he does not abstract enough to hit that bedrock were every image becomes multi-layered utterance of different cosmii. Characters remain pieces of the allegoric jigsaw, pawns in a game. There is not enough emptiness from life to pour into.
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