While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

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!!!

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.

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.

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.