Surely other Zulawski movies like "La femme publique" and "L'important c'est d'aimer" have dark, disturbing moments, too, but "Possession" must be the most terrifying of them all. It all begins perfectly normal, like something that could happen every day, anywhere in your neighborhood: Anna (Adjani) leaves Mark (Sam Neill), she confesses she found a new lover already a year ago, and then the breaking up of their marriage naturally affects their little son, too. "I'm the maker of my own evil", Anna says once, and the evil she creates is visualized literally as a slimy demon, whereas Mark "creates" a school teacher looking exactly like Anna (and also played by Adjani), a woman so pure and innocent they go to bed together without having sex, and of course the idealized woman immediately takes care of his son ... and the dish washing ;-). The torment and hysteria of destroyed love is perfectly set in a Berlin before reunification, with the wall appearing countless times in the frame: an obvious symbol that divides what used to belong together, just like the characters in the movie. The "possessed" Adjani delivers an unforgettable performance, but if you are going to watch this, be prepared for more blood and guts than in "The Exorcist".
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unbrokenmetal3 July 2008
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Pjtaylor-96-13804422 January 2022There are subtle films, there are unsubtle films and then there's 'Possession (1981)', a picture that cranks everything up to eleven and doesn't even think about adjusting the dials until its end credits have rolled. It's a very violent movie, and I'm not just talking about violence in the traditional sense. Every movement feels like a convulsion, every reaction an explosion, every interaction a fight, every line of dialogue a visceral scream. Of course, there are also moments of more conventional conflict, eruptions of painful brutality that hit like a truck, but the piece is very aggressive for its entire duration. It's nihilistic, but not unreasonably nasty. Its characters tear themselves apart from the inside as they fruitlessly scramble to understand their seemingly world-shattering situation. The performances are overwrought yet vigorous, some of the most intense I've ever seen on screen. They walk the line between scary and silly, ultimately emerging as rather uncanny. As such, they're rather unsettling. They're over-the-top without being obnoxious, forceful without being foolish, pretty much pitch-perfect for what the movie tries to achieve. Everything is just a bit off, representative of a kind of unreality that roots the story in a world adjacent to our own, recognisable yet alien. The tone is effectively bizarre, as is the film in general. There's nothing quite like it, to be honest. It certainly has a distinct effect. The actual plot is strangely discreet considering how brazenly unsubtle the overall experience is. The movie is, at its core, a metaphor for divorce. The specifics of how this metaphor relates to the beat-for-beat plot are almost irrelevant. In a way, the film's subtext is its substance. Without its allegorical underpinning, I suppose it doesn't really hold any weight. This is almost the opposite of how most movies with an allegorical element operate, as they tend to present an air-tight straightforward story that can also be interpreted in a few different ways. Here, those interpretations are pretty much the only thing that matter. Most of the movie is a literal manifestation of the metaphors it represents; there's almost no other way to interpret its events. Perhaps that could be frustrating to some, especially because its in-the-moment narrative is purposefully difficult to parse. Yet, it's a picture that you're meant to feel more than understand. It makes sure that you feel every visceral moment. In that sense, it's a total success. It's oddly engrossing, an energetic and bracing experience that takes no prisoners. It's bizarrely entertaining in its own way. It's unlike anything I've ever seen and all the better for it. 7/10.
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Xstal17 October 2023Now here's a film that may just get you thinking, the extents that some go to with abstractive linking, as a marriage breaks down, this might just make you frown, as you witness two souls whose reality's sinking. The performances are top drawer, Adjani is great - as she shows with aplomb what it can be to hate, how the strain manifests, putting all to the test, malevolence grows, incubates to gestate. So the value you take will depend on your past, if you've been pulled apart, separation has lashed, if the friction, torment has revealed extents, chasms and chaos of bottomless depths.
Sam Neil's not too shabby either. -
chaos-rampant28 October 2010This film doesn't do anything in halves, it doesn't abide by the mock humility of an understated/minimalist film that says "I am important but I'm not gonna show it to you". I generally love overstated/baroque movies as much as I like overactors (Kinski, Bette Davies, Nic Cage) but Possession goes beyond Gothic, it flaunts itself in violent anarchy even when it knows it's not being important. It's a movie in a constant state of violent flux, a chaotic maelstrom of emotion threatening to rip apart at the seams by force of its own negativity, an excess of emotion and abundance of expression. I don't know what Zulawski is trying to say through the film about his own divorce from wife and country and political system, like Eraserhead it's something so personal that it pierces through bottoms of the soul to come out at the other end and speak for things that touch all of us.
Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani see their marriage come crashing down and the film is not merely the death and burial but the wake before and the mourning after. I don't like how Zulawski uses Isabelle Adjani to play different characters very calculated to be different sides of the same person, but then again I don't like movies that do that, it's like a very easy way to a quick symbolism (Ashes of Time, another film I saw recently, does that too). And I don't like who the monster turns out to be, for the same reason, and also because the monster, bloody and deformed, is a better parable of all the bile and hatred and oppressed furious anger felt the character who nurses it to life. The symbolism is too clear almost.
But the rest of the film you watch in stupefied silence. Possession is like a woman in the grip of hysterics running around an apartment tossing and breaking things and cutting herself up with a meat knife, arms flailing like an armature of a tentacled beast ready to tear itself out from a human body.
What Zulawski does here is perfectly illustrated in one scene: the couple have one of their terrible rows in the apartment, the woman storms out, music cue plays then stops, and we get the impression the scene has played out, we expect the cut. But then Zulawski has the camera track behind the man as he chases the woman down the stairs of their apartment and out in the street, pulling at each other and yelling in the middle of an empty intersection, then a truck carrying beatup cars comes rolling by, cars falling crashing down from it. Like the wail of a banshee, Possession is demented and frightful.
It's a movie that doesn't happen in the same place as other movies. Sometimes it gets hard for me for example to differentiate the look and feel of one noir from the other, one NYC crime flick from the other. Like Don't Look Now with its Venetian labyrinths, this has a sense of place and a malevolent presence in that place. It happens in that part of the city where other movies don't know how to go, the streets are different, the buildings and apartments look curiously different, and when an apartment catches on fire, there's a strange old woman down in the street corner yelling things about God ("giving the light clear, getting it back dirty") and cackling maniacally as though an end to the world is very close at hand.
Both Sam Neil and Isabelle Adjani give performances of a lifetime. Neil is going through the motions though, except for his 'going mad in a hotel room' scene in the beginning, his madness is external, pantomimed. Isabelle Adjani lives it though, feels and breathes it. She gives perhaps the most outstanding female performance I have ever seen. Her scene in the subway station, all spasmodic intensity and wordless cries, affected me physically like no other, at once monstrous and immensely sad.
This movie is a nervous breakdown and an agnostic lament against an absent indifferent God captured on celluloid. The tagline for the American release reads "She made a monster her secret lover", but this is not that type of film. This is like few films ever made, before or after, and is done with the ferocity of someone going mad in four walls, now perhaps clawing at the walls with blood and bile and staring at his designs as though there might be pattern and order there. -
Yoooooofffff4 October 2007I'm not very good at plot synopsis, and I very rarely write reviews, but this film could quite possibly be a distant cousin to David Lynchs 'Eraserhead', in that it involves a marriage gone wrong, a (perhaps) mutant baby, infidelity, and so much more that is felt emotionally rather than explained and read into.
It contains the most OTT, eccentric, and brilliant performances I've ever seen, and you can't say that about many films, where the performances are unique and different. There's serious acting, hammy acting, B movie acting, serious/Oscar winning acting, comical acting, silent film acting, but never any acting like you have seen in this film. And I guess you could include David Lynch acting, as thats pretty unique too. And of course method acting.
Its like watching a theatrical play in cinematic form on acid. A lot of acid.
I showed this to my friend who has the darkest possible taste in films I've ever known, owns over a thousand dvds, and even he was blown away by the sheer chaos, resonant imagery, beautifully swift camera work and photography, and of course, the performances. Most notably Isabella Adjani who manages to be sexy and scary as hell at the same time. Her performance in this is monumental, especially the often noted 'underground menstruation' scene which could induce some viewers to a panic attack. I certainly nearly had one when I watched the film for the first time.
When a character has a breakdown in this film (both of the leads) its a REAL breakdown. And boy, do you ever feel it. Its realistic yet surreal. God knows how the director managed to coax these types of performances out of his actors. He must of drugged them or hypnotized them or something. He certainly didn't just yell 'action'.
The way the scenes are cut together is highly unusual and unconventional but it makes absolute perfect sense. I don't know how, it just does. I'm unfamiliar with the directors other work but if its even half as good as this I'll order everything I can get of his.
Recommended to any open minded individual who likes films that draw attention to themselves with an utter sense of uniqueness. -
Krug Stillo31 May 2003Acting, colour, camera movement and story thrown into hyperactivity What do you get? Well, the headache inducing, enthralling Possession. Beautiful, erotic and extremely disturbing, Andrjez Zulawski's film (admired by the Italian Master of the Macabre himself, Dario Argento) is an extreme assault upon the senses.
Mark (played excellently and deliberately over-the-top by Sam Neil) returns home from secret government work to his wife in Berlin, cue many shots of the Berlin wall representing the couple's marital breakdown. However, Mark's wife, Anna (a truly unforgettable, no holds barred and hypnotic performance from the lovely Isabelle Adjani) is behaving inexcusably strangely. Mark finds out that she is having an affair with Heinrick (another crazy performance from Heinz Bennet) and confronts him only to find that the lover has not seen Anna for some time. This is the part of the rollercoaster ride before your cart
plummets into some real thought-provoking, unsettling and scary surrealism.
Possession is definitely the film that requires many subsequent viewings. Excellent performances that frequently go way OTT, dreamily fluid camerawork and migraine inducing metaphorical horror, this is a true beast of the imagination. Love it or hate it, it is a true original masterpiece that is definitely not for all tastes. If films were placed in boxes and divided by flavours, like crisps, POSSESSION would sit in a box entirely by its self, awaiting only those who can take it. Go into it with an open mind like you've never gone into a film with one before. It can seriously mentally damage you if you try and figure it all out on that initial viewing, so beware; if there is truly anything to work out. The now infamous miscarriage in the subway scene is confusing, painful and sickening to watch and nothing like it can be found elsewhere. This is a hell of a film, if you're prepared for it!
`This for me exceeds anything thrown up by The Exorcist for sheer impact on the nervous system.' David Thompson - Sight and Sound -
Yeah, Possession. The First time I saw this film I was catatonic by the end. My 3 friends and I talked about it so much we got 4 new friends to watch it with us again. We continued discussing & marveling over it and watched it yet again on the third night (ten people this time). Why? Because this isn't really a horror film. Yeah, there's a "monster", but only in America would this get relegated to the "Horror" genre. Because here, we usually make films to fit in a box, follow a formula or entertain, not as a catharsis for the director. Wake up my friends; not everything in life fits in tidy packages or makes rational sense. Several years ago there was an amazing fan site to this man's work (which doesn't seem to exist anymore) that went into infinite detail about his films and personal life. Suffice to say, there's much more going on here than you think.
During 1970's and 80's Poland, all films were approved by the Polish film commission and Zulawski's second film "Diabel" (1975) was banned. Made in Polish, "Diabel" was essentially cut off from it's only possible audience. He took a trip to France, ended up making a film and then returned to his homeland. He worked on yet another film for two years which the authorities did not allow him to finish. Since then he has basically lived and worked successfully in France.
"Possession" is the first film he made immediately following the 2nd incident in Poland. I read an interview where he talked about how his personal identity was in crisis at the time due to his divorce and being (for all intents and purposes) exiled from his homeland. "Possession" is better described as 3 films in 1. The first part is indeed a drama centering around a couple who's marriage is falling apart. As their discord escalates, it becomes a horror film with some scenes taking place only in the psyche of the wife. The last part is an action film, driving the frenzied pace even higher through chase sequences.
There are many lines of dialog (especially in exchanges between Heinz and Sam Neill) that were written as critique of his treatment by the government of Poland. In many ways this film is an examination of the internal landscape of Zulawski at that moment; divorced from his wife and exiled by his beloved homeland. It's astoundingly dramatized because he was probably on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and these characters/actors are screamingly portraying every pent-up emotion he wasn't allowed to say about Poland to his fellow countrymen. I love this film. I love every gut wrenching, hysterical, chaotic minute of it. Long live Zulawski. -
the red duchess7 December 2000Imagine Bergman's 'Scenes From a Marriage' filmed by Dario Argento using Kubrick's 'Shining' steadicam. I can't pretend to have actually UNDERSTOOD this intellectually rigorous horror film, but I do know that it is arguably the most beautiful film of the 1980s, that ugliest of cinematic decades.
The chief source of this beauty is Zulawski's camerawork, unsettling, spacious, constantly mobile, it achieves the kind of elaborate shots you normally expect with cumbersome, expensive equipment with the nimbleness of a handheld camera. Static scenes in repetitive milieux are subjected to awesomely complex movements, as the camera encircles, tracks, reveals, blocks, opens up space, creating a narrative that never stands still, offering us different, usually startling viewpoints within the one scene.
What is most remarkable is its transformation of scale - the film is set in Cold-War Berlin, a famously constricted city; the plot takes place mostly in inhumanly modern apartments or on streets, and yet the sense of size, scale, space is as monumental as a Fordian Western. This is apt for characters who are simultaneously confined and alienated by their environment. Even scenes of flamboyant repulsiveness, the puling monster mounting Isabella Adjani, Mark's lavatorial dispatch of Heinrich, have a clarity of composition that is simply breathtaking.
Unlike most horror films, which open with images of normality against which to measure the transgression of terror, 'Possession' hurls us into its relentless unpleasantness in medias res. Zulawski opens at full speed and never lets up. Mark in his car looks out at a city he hasn't seen for some time as if it is an alien land, full of troubling images, including an iron cross. Anna rushes to meet him. We assume they are husband and wife, reuniting, but their talk if full of exasperated dislocation. Mark has apparently come home too early. They have a son; after making love, their post-coital talk is full of Antonionian misunderstanding, uncertainty, alienation, cruelty.
These scenes create the mood of the whole film. 'Possession' is shot in English with a French lead by a Polish director. The dialogue has a stilted quality, like a translation from some lost original; this sense of not-quite-rightness extends to the acting, and the scenes themselves, which seem too mannered, too abrupt, too stylised to seem natural. This sense of the drama being at one remove from some original 'reality' is perfect for a film about alienation - people alienated from themselves, each other, their marriage, their home, even their identity.
The horror that constitutes the film obviously has its roots in the female hysteria (one scene in a subway, remembered by Anna, has her miscarry, as she pours out blood and milk, the essence of her femaleness spilling from her; the toilet scene between Heinrich and Mark has a gynaecological terror similar to Argento's 'Suspiria') and male bestiality that cannot be hidden by affluent modernity, but this, on its most basic level, is a harrowing portrait of a failed marriage, horribly truthful to anyone who has even rejoiced in that institution.
All the while we are constantly reminded of the contemporary political reality - Mark's espionage (or is he an assassin?) activities; the wired Berlin wall with its faceless surveillance guards (a divided city, a divided marriage, literally divided people, the whore and the madonna). The film has a lot of talk about faith, chance, God, good and evil, but its true power is recognisably more mundane, yet more unaccountably wrenching than that. One should not overlook the comic sense that flickers through the film, the exaggeration of scenes by prolonging them (the restaurant scene), and the Franju-like waltz-of-death music. -
imagiking1 April 2010Famously violent, bloody and brutal, Possession is a member of that most hallowed hall of "Video Nasties" we know and love. Boasting scenes of some noteworthy infamy, Andrzej Zulawski's complex allegorical explanation of marital disintegration is known for its thematic obscurity.
In Cold War Berlin, Mark returns home from unclear duties to a marriage which is on its last legs. His wife Anna, suffering from increasingly inclement behaviour and mood swings brought about by their ailing relationship, is revealed to be having an affair, leading Mark to investigate. What he discovers is more bizarre even than his wife's drug loving German lover.
The one feeling which appears to be universal in conjunction with Possession is that of helpless confusion. As the credits roll, the only thing we can justifiably think is "What just happened?!" The film is utterly mad; unendingly so. From start to finish, I struggled not to miss a beat amidst the mire. Difficult to follow and impossible to understand at first, Zulawski's frustrating work leaves us scratching our heads for the entirety of its running time. Possession's gradual descent from a Kramer Vs. Kramer-esquire marital drama to a bloody and supernatural allegory is as surprising as it is bizarre and mental. Thereafter, we are treated to a visual feast of harrowing images and strangely violent outbursts. The increasingly insane plot is marred by overeager performances, though it is considerably attention grabbing. The film is not at all a bad one, providing a deeply interesting message (which may take time and thought to fully comprehend) albeit through a hazy, complicated and apparently nonsensical narrative. Additionally, Heinz Bennent's Heinrich is a wonderful and whimsical character, bringing an element of farcical comedy to the plot.
Managing to shock and surprise as well as stupefy, Possession is a film well versed in oddity. Exploring an interesting topic with a veiled depth, it gives us a message in an unconventional way which is quite brilliant in itself. -
Being a huge fan of bizarre and surreal cinema, I wonder why I waited until a few weeks ago to finally see Andrzej Zulawski's "Possession" (1981), which had , on multiple occasions, been recommended to me by fellow cult-cinema fans as brilliant and absolutely essential. Having finally seen it, I must say that, while the film is definitely worthwhile, I do not quite get the hype it receives from most of my fellow admirers of European cult-cinema. "Possession" is often called a 'love it or hate it' film, but, personally I must say that neither is the case with me. On the one hand, "Possession" is a wonderfully bizarre film which really isn't like anything else, and furthermore an exceptionally shot exercise in fascinating cinematic style. On the other hand, it is - plain and simple - a mess.
Terriffically set in Berlin (divided by the Berlin Wall), the film is about an... eer... slightly troubled married couple - Mark (Sam Neill) is slowly going out of his mind over his wife Anna (the stunning Isabelle Adjani), who does not merely betray him with a quite sinister lover, but also with someone (or something) else... This is only a very vague description of the first part of "Possession", but, in this case, giving a proper description would mean describing every scene from start to finish (and what would be the point of that?). While I usually LOVE cinematic weirdness (one of my all-time favorite filmmakers being the Chilean/French/Mexican genius Alejandro Jodorowsky), and this one is full of it, the weirdness of "Possession" is too messy at times. Too often does it seem as if director Zulawski simply put together unrelated scenes, just to make the film more bizarre. The cast is great, and the over-acting (from everybody, which was obviously requested by the director) fits the film in this case. However, there are many scenes in which the characters simply grimace and do things like cutting themselves with electric knives for no reason whatsoever. Scenes like these may be shocking or fascinating in a film every now and then, but when large parts of a movie do only consist of barely related weird sequences attached to one another, the weirdness can loose its impact. Still, the film never gets monotonous.
Technically, "Possession" is a masterwork. Both the settings in Berlin and the cinematography are fascinating. The film is set in West Berlin, and, in many parts, one can actually see the Eastern part over the wall, through windows on one the Western side. This aspect alone makes the film fascinating. Besides its stylistic and cinematographic greatness, "Possession" has many other fascinating aspects. The characters are entirely sinister. As mentioned above, all cast members are extremely over-acting, but, in this case this isn't a bad thing. Especially Sam Neill and Isabella Adjani are great. Neill is a terrific actor and he greatly portrays the maddening despair of a left husband obsessed with his crazed wife. Adjani (who actually plays two roles in this film) must be one of the most stunningly beautiful actresses ever, and she is an equally fantastic actress. Her performance as the ravishing but 'possessed' Anna is magnificent. Heinz Bennert is also very remarkable as her sinister, creepy and somewhat nuts lover, who claims to be a sex-master and still lives with his mother. "Possession" has the reputation of being very gory and perverted, which even landed it on the UK's infamous Video Nasty List (another proof that Film censors are a bunch of fascist morons). Except for one very gross scene, however, the film isn't really exceptionally gory, and the perversity is mostly suggested rather than show.
Overall, "Possession" certainly is an unforgettable film experience, maybe even a must-see for every true cineaste. Still, I cannot quite see it as the masterpiece that some of my fellow cult-cinema fans seem to regard it. For true masterpieces of bizarre cinema see any film by Alejandro Jodorowsky (especially "El Topo", "The Holy Mountain" or "Santa Sangre"); in case you dig surreal Art-Horror films in which beautiful women have sex with strange monstrosities, I recommend Walerian Borowczyk's "La Bête" (1975) over this one. As far as I am concerned, "Possession" is definitely recommended, but I cannot entirely praise it. -
thalassafischer18 September 2023Everyone in this movie talks like a character in a picaresque novel from the 18th century. People behave insanely, constantly, as if they're all mentally ill or intoxicated. Then the cherry on top is that Isabelle Adjuani claims to have made love all night with some kind of slimy ropy sea creature that is mysteriously covered in blood.
What the hell is going on here? I am all for symbolism and originality but Possession strikes me as just being weird for the sake of being weird. The characters are increasingly annoying with their trippy, poetic dialogue passing itself off as normal conversation. -
gavin69429 November 2015A woman starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband (Sam Neill) for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.
This is a very absurd film. It starts off normal, making you think it is a drama or romance gone wrong. But even early on we get something telling us there is something off. Maybe a little David Lynch, maybe a little Franz Kafka. But something not quite right. And then it starts to build. There are moments that almost seem right out of Lovecraft.
This seems to be a horror film that needs to be seen, but may not be very well known in the mainstream. Based on how many people rated it on IMDb, it can't be extremely obscure, but still enough that it has to be overlooked. And it shouldn't be. -
Of all the films from the video nasty list – films banned by the authorities in the UK in the 80's – Possession is the one that comes from the art-house side of the spectrum. It's a very different proposition compared to the other films from this list which were in the main pulpy exploitative genre efforts. Possession, by contrast, is an experimental movie that has some genre elements. It's the most obtuse video nasty and will certainly be one of the most divisive. Whatever way you look at it one thing is certain and that is that it is one bizarre film. Set in cold war Berlin, it's about the disintegration of a marriage. The process leaves the couple suffering nervous breakdowns. The woman forsakes her husband and lover for a tentacled creature that lives in a run-down apartment. It seems as though the story is allegorical in some way but, if I am being honest, I don't really know. It was way too strange for me to make any claims at understanding it.
What I can confirm for sure is that the acting from Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill was very impressive. These cannot have been easy parts to play by any means and they both give their all in full-on performances. They match the style of the movie, as this is an unremittingly intense film from start to finish. Even the constantly moving camera work is agitated. I wouldn't necessarily say that this is a film that could exactly be classified as entertainment though. It's so cold and tormenting that it's pretty far removed from the comforts of genre cinema. The film that it reminded me most of was Lars von Trier's Antichrist (2009) which was also about a married couple in turmoil. Both are esoteric films that make you feel somewhat uncomfortable. In Possession the geographic location is also used to create an oppressive feel, seeing as events happen in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. So there is no doubt a political subtext to this as well but, like I said before, your guess is as good as mine.
My feelings on this one are a bit mixed. One the one hand, the sheer coldness of it is very difficult to get behind and there are no characters you can really relate to seeing as everyone consistently acts in an all-consuming, severe manner. On the other hand, there was certainly something there, of what I am not sure but I am convinced there is an overall purpose. The scenes with the weird monster in the apartment were always interesting and there were individual moments that were hard to forget such as the subway miscarriage sequence where Adjani goes absolutely ballistic. Everything ends up with both parents being replaced with clones, while it appears that World War III has begun. As I say your guess is as good as mine. -
continuumx15 April 2023This is a difficult one to rate. It's not a badly made film. Quite the opposite. I can only rate it based on much I personally liked it which, unfortunately, was not much.
I got the impression that this was a deeply personal sort of film where the filmmaker was working through some very personal issues. In other words, the filmmaker made this mostly for himself. Unfortunately, I am not him and most of what he was doing here was lost on me. All of the characters are stark raving bonkers. Nothing they do or say make any sense. The dialogue is mostly a lot of artsy sounding nonsense. It probably means something to the filmmaker but it doesn't mean a damn thing to me. There are a lot of histrionics and overacting. A good chunk of the movie is taken up by the lead actress screaming and spazzing out. There's a monster or maybe there isn't? I don't know. It's hard to tell what is and isn't supposed to be metaphorical. Maybe all of it is.
In the end, I just didn't get much out of this movie. I usually think people who say, "You just don't get it" are either making excuses for a poorly done, vague movie or falling for obscurantism. In this case, I don't get this movie. -
eibon0924 July 2001Possession(1981) shows the viewer a relationship deep in dementia and repressed emotions. Mark and Anna stay together until the Death do us part moment. The family of Anna and Mark is probably the most disfunctional family ever portrayed on scree. The marriage of Anna and Mark is unstable to the point of total meltdown. The marriage is driven by harsh love, secretcy, and oppressed feelings of desire.
Isabelle Adjani gives a fantastic performance in the duel role of Anna and Helen. Anna and Helen are the polar opposites in their manners and personalities. One thing they have in common is their current life is shrouded in mystery. Helen in my opinion is Mark's fantasy of Anna as someone who is normal and stable. I find it interesting that Anna & Helen never meet or are seen together during the entire length of Possession(1981).
The East Germany locations are part of what makes Possession(1981) a special piece of film. The marriage of Anna and Mark is symbolic of the wall that divided Germany for many years. In Possession(1981), East Germany is a Kafkaesque place of fear, oppression, paranoia, and repression. With the bright lit lighting and colors East Germany gains the appearence of something futuristic. Gives East Germany a cold and indifferent feeling that inhibits every resident.
1981 was a year which gave us two extrodanory performances from actresses Isabelle Adjani and Zoe Tamerlis. Both put forth an emotional complex and disturbing performance in Possession(1981) and Ms. 45(1981). These two features show women with seas of emotions trapped within them until their frightening descent into madness. Both films seem to have been influenced by Repulsion(1964). Ms. 45 and Possession were two of the most underrated films of 1981.
Possession(1981) is steeped in complex and confound religious symbolics. The landscape of the motion picture is a place that has lost touch with its own spiritualty. The film needs to be watched more than three times in order to get a close clear understanding of the symbolic meanings. The main characters in the film(except Heinrich) no longer have any faith in religion. The final scene seems to symbolize the apocalyptic end of the world that is an element of Christianity.
The best way to see or try to understand Possession(1981) is in its full 127 minute version. The 81 minute version is one of the worst editing jobs ever done to an import film for American release. For example the opening and closing scenes were totally botched in the film's American release in 1981. Thus the movie was misintrpeted by many film goers and critics. Thankfully, Possession has been restored on Video in its uncut form.
The cinematography is one of the key aspects in Possession(1981). It moves among the characters of the film with sinister steps. Bruno Nuytten uses some excellent techniques to describe to events of the film. The DP and Director work together to create an intense and terrific type of genre film making. The role of DP was Bruno Nuytten's early step towards becoming a film director.
Possession(1981) is a mixture of a few different genres in cinema. The genre that the film belongs to in large parts is the horror genre. Inspired story by both director, Andrzej Zulawski and writer, Frederic Tuten. There is a wonderful plot twist near the end that is one of Possession's best moments. Its the kind of film I would expect from someone like David Cronenberg.
For her brave and courageous performance in Possession(1981), Isabelle Adjani won a Best Actress award at Cannes. She has been playing brave and difficult roles since The Story of Adele H(1975). She would play a similar character like this in One Deadly Summer(1986). Possession(1981) is a personal favorite of Dario Argento. Done by Andrzej Zulawski because of his frustrations to see an earlier film in Poland by him censored by that country's government.
An early film appearence by Sam Neil that may just be his top performance as an actor. The creature is a top of the line creation by Special Effects artist, Carlo Rambaldi. Shares some similarities with David Cronenberg's The Brood(1979), and Mario Bava's Shock(1977). A daring motion picture that should be watched by mature and open minded people. Possession(1981) blew my emotions away with its tense opening scene to its spine tingling and chaotic final moment. -
BandSAboutMovies22 September 2021So what the hell is going on here? Is Anna going insane? Is Mark (Sam Neill) unable to escape their breakup? Are they both dealing with things their own way, and by that, I mean Mark replacing his wife with a subservient drone of a woman (also Adjani) while Anna grows her own Mark in a jar? Is this all happening in a dream? Or are all the dead bodies, grocery throwing freakouts and electric knife mutual self-mutilation sessions really happening? Is it really about Zulawski divorcing himself from Poland? Or maybe as it was made in a still-divided Berlin, is it hopeful about the destruction and rebirth that will come from the tearing down of the Wall?
Zulawski went into this movie wanting to kill himself, as his wife had left him (the scene where the child is left alone for hours and the husband comes home to discover his son naked and covered in jelly is autobiographical) while the strains that Adjani put herself through left her in the throes of massive depression and suicidal thoughts, which the director confirms that she acted upon but survived.
Neill would later say, "I call it the most extreme film I've ever made, in every possible respect, and he asked of us things I wouldn't and couldn't go to now. And I think I only just escaped that film with my sanity barely intact."
Mark is a spy home from the cold, yet he returns to a wife who no longer wants to be part of this relationship. She can't tell him why - it's not a new lover - but she doesn't want him any longer. He wants out of the espionage life, even if his handlers seemingly refuse to allow him that choice. Yet she does have a lover - Heinrich - who is not only cucking Mark but easily bests him in a punchup. He in turn attacks his soon-to-be ex-wife and then they take turns attacking one another and themselves with the aforementioned carving knife.
Anna also has a second apartment and another life, a tentacled creature that lives with her, and a room full of destroyed body parts, which soon include the detective that Mark has hired to follow her and that detective's lover.
Before long, the love that exists - or doesn't - between the married couple consumes everyone, sometimes in fire, sometimes in bullets, sometimes in knife wounds, sometimes just one another on the kitchen floor.
That tentacle thing - credit goes to Carlo Rambaldi. You know, I just saw A Lizard In a Woman's Skin at a crowded drive-in and even horror-hardened viewers audibly gasped when his creation of still alive dogs torn apart flashed across the screen. Between that, Alien, Deep Red, A Bay of Blood and so many more, I find it rather life-affirming that the same man who created so many nightmarish visions also had a hand in creating E. T.
At one point, Mark says, "You know, when I'm away from you, I think of you as a monster or a woman possessed, and then I see you again and all this disappears." This is the most real moment inside a film filled with a cavalcade of fantastic imagery. Tearing apart the life you once had for the promise of something new that may not be as good or may take a tremendous amount of emotional work is the most frightening thing I've ever done in my life. Possession gave me flashbacks to those moments where the world felt like it was ending every day, where I felt like a monster and when the only person you could confide in became the person you could never speak to again.
Man, Possession is not an easy watch. Just warning anyone of that going in. But hey - movies should not be just wallpaper. They should attack you. They should change your consciousness. They should take your psyche like a rock tumbler and slam you against the walls over and over until you emerge better. -
Quinoa19848 December 2011It's staggering to come up against a filmmaker who has a truly mad vision to put onto celluloid. If it's really believable and the maker isn't just putting on the audience it can take us into that madness. Possession is a film that is like it's title, taken with it's own sense of grandeur, starting off as a Scenes-from-a-Marriage-esque tale of downfall - with more ZAP and wildness in the fights the married couple have - but with something just not quite right. These scenes feel raw and uninhibited, by the actors and by the material, which goes to such extremes of how much they hurt one another that it becomes perversely funny.
Why all the camera movement in this film, especially early on, where it turns into Vittorio Storaro Time with a Red Bull chaser? From the sensibility of the high emotions and hysteria on display, why not? If your material is going all out, then you might as well go all out with it. Isabelle Adjani really, REALLY goes to town here, forgetting that there's such a thing as 'chewing scenery' and just stampeding through it at times, with Sam Neill and the camera operator being breathless to keep up. It's a film that moves with real force and energy... sometimes maybe TOO much force and energy.
For a film like possession, excess is not something that can be kept back, but what is so fascinating is that it's so intense at times, in the husband/wife interactions, the emotional violence springing out into physical abuse (at one point a slap is then encouraged into more, an uncomfortable scene done just right), that it's fascinating because it's going into such high volume. And as a horror film, a true horror film of the soul where it's laid bare and stripped out by a demon and f***ed with a spiky tail or something, it's bewildering, mind-boggling, and a dark pile of fun.
A lot of it is the performances - Adjani worked her ass off to get that Cannes best actress win, and though there are times I can't understand her (not sure if it's the accent or the lines, like her 'fate and chance' monologue) and runs the gamut as a character who starts out flawed and damaged and gets so turned-inside-out she makes Linda Blair in the Exorcist look like a... girl. And Sam Neill has a kind of strange appeal here - at times he talks like he doesn't take these lines seriously, or is doing so SO much that it just becomes funny, and other times he is genuinely power-punching with his dramatic touch. In a scene like the restaurant fight he goes between both levels.
But why I may, someday, after I can get over the experience, would return to Possession is that among the f***ing-insane style of films out there, there's nothing else quite like it. It revels in bringing the audience into its horror set-pieces, especially with that creature in the apartment as ambiguous a demon as the baby in Eraserhead, and the dread in every man going into that apartment harder to bear than the one before. And there is genuine pain, I think, in the filmmaking. I don't know the history behind the film's gestation but I'd wager the director had a bad marriage and expressed it, literally and metaphorically, with a tale of an unfaithful woman brought to madness by a demon... or maybe that's it.
Possession doesn't spoon-feed at any point in time. On the contrary, and maybe this is a flaw I think, there's so little explanation of anything in the film that by the last fifteen minutes as Sam Neill's character goes ape-s**t and the husband/wife's child just gives up. It got to the point where I had my hands up in a 'what the hell!?' position sitting in my seat in the theater. Perhaps another viewing would solve some of my quandaries, or just make new ones. Whatever the case, the mood of this film is chilling and harrowing, and for those who like their dolly shots, this is a must-must-MUST see. Oh, and by the way, the creature effects - by the guy that did E.T.(!) -
kinoman-226 October 1999The very reason why this film was lambasted by so many people is because it requires the full use of imagination on the part of the viewer. Those who like films to be linear or over-explained (almost 90% of all films and almost 100% of all Hollywood films) will call this film confusing, baffling, hysterical, etc. However, very few directors are able to use cinematic space as Zulawski does in this film. This doesn't appeal to your rational part, it's supposed to connect with you on spiritual or deeply emotional level, it's supposed to appeal to something in you that can't be rationalized or explained verbally. Possession is a piece of pure cinema, no less.
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drgreenthumb10011 February 2014OK. SO I read all the reviews, downloaded this movie, and...I don't even know where to start, except to say I don't get why this is a 7.3 out of 10.
First off, Im glad movies don't start off with running credits anymore, the few reviews I read didn't mention a "creature" but golly-gee, the idiots who made the movie wanted to give that away. I don't know why crediting the "CREATURE MAKER" had to be done in the first 5 minutes of the film, but that was a spoiler alert I cant even top in this review.
Secondly, this movie is Poorly edited, you jump from scene to scene and you get left with the feeling of blue balls, like they are unfinished scenes. The story is confusing, nothing is explained, like how did this all start? Why is what is happening, happening? None of that is answered.
Sam Neill, the star of Jurassic Park and creepy guy from Event Horizon, is a good actor, but even his acting is over the top. The lead actress and the guy who plays Heinrich, both ham their roles up at times, especially when she miscarries in the tunnel! WTF is she doing, she is supposed to be writhing in agony I guess, but its just comes off as modern day "twerking"
The men in this movie are Utterly Weak and Stupid, even Heinrich, who comes off strong ends up portraying weakness,(forget the 2 PI's NEill's character hires to follow her, they are the epitome of weak) Sam Neill's character loves her to the point of insanity, which I can understand the movies point, love is irrational, but come on! Near the end, when he walks in on her with the creature, and finds whats in her fridge, he Still Keeps pining after her, saying, "If I laid down in front of you, would you still walk over me?" and he Does lay down(SPOILER ALERT: and guess what SHE Walks OVER him) At that point I was Cheering for him to die!
He literally does NOT get it till the very end, and even then he Still doesn't really get it
The last 5 or so minutes of this movie are Utterly confusing...that is the main problem with the movie, scenes simply do not tie together and make sense. Whatsup with the pink socks guy and the work Sam Neill's character did for him at the very beginning of the movie, does that have something to do w/ her being possessed? I have no clue, its NOT EXPLAINED, but he shows up at the end after everyones dead, hinting that he does, but once again the movie doesn't explain it.
Shes keeps talking about Faith & Chance, but once again, its not clear if the doppelgangers (the doppelganger teacher of their child Bob, and the, Spoiler Alert: the fact the creature turns into a evil Sam Neill's twin) how are they related to any of that, if they are even related.
Also, nearly every outside scene on streets, subways and the tunnels in subways, the train ride, there are Literally no people on the streets, anywhere save for the weirdo on the train that takes one of her bananas from her shopping bag.
I'll agree, this movie starts off innocently, with a break-up of a family and his hunt for the other man and some sort of CLosure, but then it descends into weirdness and gets weirder and weirder by the minute, but your left utterly confused and po'd...the last minute where the kid runs upstairs yelling repeatedly "Dont Open the Door" and then jumps in the tub full of water, is he drowning himself? or trying to hide? and the (good) doppelganger teacher is at the door, with the evil doppelganger Sam Neill right outside, but then their is an earthquake, and shes in a trance or something, not opening the door but staring off into space...roll end credits
This movie leaves you confused and unsatisfied, hence my blue balls comparison -
synystargates22 April 2022If Hell exists, this would probably be the devil's favorite movie. I had no idea what to expect going into Zulawski's Possession, but from the other side I'm still not fully sure what I just saw.
The film first presents itself as a drama about a failed marriage, complete with arguing and screaming and physical abuse. Then out of nowhere, you get slapped across the face with extreme gore, mental breakdowns, murder, graphic sex, creatures. Then it's back to.... almost normal. Until you're hit with more mind-bending insanity. And at some points it's kinda funny too? The most interesting (and terrifying) part of this is how easily all these opposing ends comfortably coexist over film's 2 hour runtime.
I definitely didn't catch every idea and theme that Zulawski was trying to put across, but the direction, sets and effects used were incredible. The sparse amount of music in the film actually worked in its favor too. That scene in the subway hall is permanently etched into my brain, for better or worse. -
"Possession" was recommended to me due to the works of Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch. I can perceive similarities with these authors; however, it's important to mention that this classic and cult horror film was created in a different historical context than the present, suggesting that its value as a film may have been greater in its time. The plot of the movie is interesting, as it begins as a romantic drama in which a husband returns home to discover that his wife has been unfaithful and no longer feels the same way about him. However, the plot takes an unexpected turn when elements soon emerge that do not fit with what one would expect in this type of drama. The viewer begins to perceive a strange and different atmosphere, the nature of which is not immediately evident but is later revealed clearly and forcefully.
As for the technical aspect of the film, the camera work did not live up to expectations. At times, it even seemed comical to imagine the cameraman running around everywhere and trying to avoid colliding with the actors. Because of this, I cannot praise the director for their work on this film. When searching for positive aspects in the overall film, I highlight the excellent acting, especially that of the talented Isabelle Adjani. However, I must admit that I became bored halfway through the plot, probably because I am not a fan of dramas. Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, the camera work did not live up to expectations, which also affected my experience as a viewer. Therefore, my final rating for the film is a 6, although it could have been a 7 under other circumstances.
In summary, I consider that this film has relative value, as it could have had a greater impact in its time, but nowadays I perceive it as an amateurish movie with excellent performances and a bizarre plot, which nevertheless I could recommend without any problem. -
mikeburdick8 February 2015I love ambiguity in films. Which is why Haneke's "Cache," "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Picnic at Hanging Rock" all rank very highly amongst my favourite films. It's great when filmmakers give viewers credit and allow them to draw their own conclusions or search for their own meaning. Unfortunately, for "Possession," I don't really care enough about the characters to want to go through the mental gymnastics required to dig out the deeper meaning hidden in this film.
It's apparent early on in the film that much of the action is allegorical or meant to reflect the internal emotions of a couple going through a divorce. (God, I hope so. If it's meant to be a literal story, it's a monumental fail. A really annoying horror film.) If only there were an honest moment where you got to feel that these are real characters who perhaps were once a real couple with a real connection before the film slipped into allegory. A marriage can't slowly disintegrate if it never happened.
And it's disappointing, because I really like Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill, and rate them both as actors. They obviously put everything into their performances, which must have been very demanding, the only reason I can conjure up a few stars for this one. That and the special effects, which are super creepy and hold up well more than 30 years later. Oh, and the amazing German architecture.
But there are too many reasons it's hard to take this film seriously. The over-the-top acting, goofy choreography, elaborate camera moves for inconsequential moments, closeups so tight they managed to make even Isabelle Adjani look bad, soundtrack that's completely ripped off from "The Godfather." There were quite a few laugh-out-loud moments that I'm certain weren't meant that way.
Perhaps the filmmaker meant it as purely art, and it's raw emotion splattered on the screen. But my takeaway was, it's hopelessly dense. Every scene, every action, every movement, every word is imbued with a deeper meaning that, unfortunately, can only be deciphered by the filmmaker, and leaves the viewer with little more than the visceral experiences played out on the screen. -
jtoubro30 January 2002This has become my favorite movie, but only after watching it 5 times, and a 6th with the commentary of the great Zulawski. I believe this is the greatest movie ever, because it is completely flawless in its depiction of dysfunctional marriage, insanity, and ultimately the end of the world. Despite it being shot in 3 weeks, it is so tightly structured, beautifully shot, and marvellously acted, that at simply blows me away. I can only feel sorry for the people who have only seen the American version. Cutting a single frame from this movie would be a crime, and cutting 45 minutes is a sin.
Another example of how the American movie censorships lack of understanding the art of cinema. Luckily the movie is now out on DVD,and any movie fan should pick this up.
Possesion is simply a masterpiece! -
rmax30482324 April 2016I won't spoil the end because I couldn't make it all the way through. I can't even guess at what the end was like. Three-quarters into the story I was exhausted and felt like committing suicide by swallowing a string of lighted firecrackers. Somebody actually tried that once, according to Dr. Carl Menninger.
So far as I can make out, the fundamentals of the story are pretty banal. Sam Neill's wife, Isabelle Adjani, has had an affair with another man, and she may be having an affair with still another at the moment. Why? The new guy is a better lover than Neill.
Neill is supposed to be distraught because he loves her deeply and desperately needs her to come home and reestablish her place in her family, including not just Neill but their young boy.
That's about it for the fundamentals. The way it's written, acted, and directed can only be described as freakish. Sam Neill, for instance, is usually a reasonable kind of guy, a bit of a wimp. But make up has darkened his hair and eyebrows and he looks far more threatening than the pastor who scratched his head until it bled in "Cry In The Dark." Anxiety is his strong point as an actor but here he delivers outrage. His voice is a sneer. He smashes furniture. He beats his wife until bright crimson blood drips in festoons from her battered mouth. When she leaves him, he rents a hotel room and goes on a three-day drunk, after which you can almost smell him.
In fact there's blood all over the place. Neill confronts the other man and takes a swing at him, only to get decked himself. But if Neill is bizarre, Isabel Adjani is plain nuts. She chatters to herself, shrieks constantly, tries to cut off her head with an electric carving knife, beats a detective with a broken bottle until he bleeds to death. What must her thoughts be? She gives us a token. "Fate can control chance, but chance can influence fate, so it it fate? Is it chance?" There's a lot of metaphysical flotsam in the script if you can hear it through the screams.
The director seems to think all this is a superlative idea, shouting, bashing, murdering, glowering. I didn't. I kept thinking that it made the end of MY marriage look, well, what they call "amicable," despite the gymnastics and the silly reports in the newspapers at the time. It seemed to me that if Neill loved her so much, he wouldn't always be batting her around and throwing chairs at her. The only "love" on display was between Neill and his son, and that would better be called affection. The director also has people standing much too close to each other when they speak, as if they were Arabs. If one speakers moves away, the other follows, continually violating his personal space. Sometimes, for no reason, a speaker will slowly whirl around and carome off the walls.
The developments towards the end, about when I tuned out, are impossible to fit into the rest of the story. There is some kind of slimy, blood-covered organism that looks like a squid. It writhes in a bath of gore on a bed. "He's exhausted," explains Adjani. "He spent the whole night making love to me." It's difficult to accept this chimera as Adjani's hallucination because a detective sees it too.
Well. Make of it what you will. It's like Roman Polanksi's "Repulsion," a little, only on methamphetamines. -
view_and_review6 December 2019I don't know if they were going for artistic, eccentric, or just plain crazy. Whatever they were going for scary wasn't it. And whatever they were going for I didn't get it. The scenes were choppy, the dialog was mostly incoherent, and there was far too much yelling. I went to great lengths to watch this because of the imdb rating. To call it a disappointment is an understatement.