The Devils (1971)
Ken Russell’s 1971 period shocker The Devils has been named the favourite BFI DVD/Blu-ray following a poll of 6,500 voters. With the lure of a prize of 50 BFI DVD/Blu-rays of their choice, pollers voted via email or social media for their three favourite discs from the label.
With 672 votes, The Devils narrowly fended off Seven Samurai (1954), which came in second place with 667 votes. Akira Kurosawa’s action epic topped a strong showing for Japanese titles, with Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953) also in the top five and Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla (1954) featuring at number nine.
Each title in the 300+ strong collection received at least one vote, with world cinema classics, UK archive compilations and long-lost favourites of British film and TV such as Ghost Stories at Christmas all proving popular.
F.W. Murnau’s gothic horror Nosferatu (1922) was the highest-voted silent film, while Jerzy Skolimowski’s Deep End (1970) was the most popular of the BFI’s Flipside releases, dedicated to rediscovering lost pockets of British cinema. The number one archive title was the GPO Film Unit’s Night Mail (1936), which rhythmically sets documentary footage of a London-Scotland mail train to a poem by W.H. Auden.
The winner – picked at random – was Giustina from London, who voted for Ken Russell’s The Devils, Jane Arden and Jack Bond’s Anti-Clock (1979) and Akira Kurosawa’s Drunken Angel (1948).
Top 5 BFI DVD/Blu-rays
1. The Devils
2. Seven Samurai
3. Nosferatu
4. Tokyo Story
5. La Belle et la Bête
The next five…
6. Ghost Stories at Christmas
7. Bande à part
8. L’Âge d’or
9. Godzilla
10. The Leopard
Archive top 5
1. Night Mail
2. The Great White Silence
3. The British Transport Films Collection
4. London: The Modern Babylon
5. Wonderful London
Flipside top 5
1. Deep End
2. The Bed Sitting Room
3. The Black Panther
4. Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
5. Bronco Bullfrog
Silent top 5
1. Nosferatu
2. Man with a Movie Camera
3. Charlie Chaplin: The Mutual Films
4. A Cottage on Dartmoor
5. Underground
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News, features and opinion on the world of film.
DVDs and Blu Ray
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Buy The Devils on DVD and Blu Ray
Ken Russell’s bold account of religious hysteria, political persecution and the corrupt marriage of church and state.
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Buy Tokyo Story on DVD and Blu Ray
A constant fixture in critics’ polls, Yasujiro Ozu’s most enduring masterpiece is a beautifully nuanced exploration of filial duty, expectation and regret.
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Buy Godzilla on DVD and Blu Ray
The definitive monster movie, both a bold metaphor for the atomic age and a thrilling tour de force of pioneering special effects.
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Buy Night Mail on DVD and Blu Ray
One of the most acclaimed entries in the British documentary film movement, following the Royal Mail rail delivery service at it makes its way from London to Scotland.
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Buy Nosferatu on DVD and Blu Ray
FW Murnau’s take on the Dracula story is one of the greatest horror films, not just of the silent screen, but of all time.
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Buy Deep End on DVD and Blu Ray
Legally unavailable for decades, Jerzy Skolimowski’s 1970 darkly comic and utterly compelling portrait of Britain in a era of uncertainty makes its long overdue return.
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