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.

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.

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.

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.