IS IT DESIRE? OR VIOLATION? DEVOTION? OR BONDAGE? YOUR HIDDEN FEARS WILL BE AROUSED.
Some time ago, I was getting to know a young woman from Poland who was a bit of an original. She had a favorite movie, one I didn’t know very well: Possession, a 1981 horror film that blends different genres and features Isabelle Adjani in one of her most memorable roles. I became curious, but the film wasn’t instantly available. After some time, it became clear that the Polish woman and I were fed up with each other, but I definitely had to see the movie. When the opportunity came, I didn’t love Possession. It did however remind me of an impossible-to-win argument that a friend of mine and I keep having.
A spy returns
After returning to West Berlin, Mark (Sam Neill), who’s a spy, learns that his wife Anna (Adjani) wants to separate; in his absence, she’s started seeing another man. After getting absolutely shitfaced one day, Mark comes back to the apartment they used to share and finds his son Bob alone and dirty. He tries to pressure Anna to come back and also visits her lover, Heinrich (Bennent), who beats him up. Mark then hires a detective to trace Anna’s movements. The detective finds her entering another apartment that’s empty… except for a horrifying secret.
Butchered in the U.S.
This is the kind of movie that opened to indifferent reviews; in Britain, Possession was banned as a ”video nasty” and in the U.S. the film was cut down to 81 minutes and released as a monster movie without the context of the film’s primary theme, the collapse of a marriage. Over the years, the proper version of the film has been more widely viewed and now has a cult following.
So much in the film is interesting, so much of it tries one’s patience.
Director Andrzej Zulawski had a tough second half of the 1970s, as he went through a harrowing divorce and was later banned from making movies. After escaping communist Poland, and battling with suicidal thoughts, Zulawski turned his experiences into a script. It’s not a film for the faint of heart. Both Adjani and Neill have talked about what it was like to make a movie where they were expected to deliver performances that are constantly dialed up to eleven, including a scene that has become a minor classic, where Adjani has sort of a seizure in the subway. An exhausting experience, and Neill has said that he barely escaped with his sanity intact. Watching the film takes a toll as well. Expect hysteria, Cronenberg-esque body horror, doppelgängers, bloody chases and utter confusion. So much in the film is interesting, so much of it tries one’s patience.
My friend and I have argued over the merits of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). There are logical gaps in that movie that irritate my friend. My defense is this: the film is so well made, so thrilling, that you simply don’t care about a thing like that. In the case of Possession (and other classics I find hard to watch), I end up turning into my friend, arguing that the story is such a mess, the characters such a pain, that it becomes a problem. Fans of the movie will point out that what matters is the symbolism and the rage and fury of Zulawski’s work. The ride is such an intellectual thrill that you’re not supposed to care, they will argue. So what to make of it all? Very simple: my friend and I are both right. You either buy the concept of a film, or you don’t.
If Possession does bore you, there’s at least one fascinating aspect: much of it was shot right next to the Berlin Wall in Kreuzberg. A strange, sad historical era caught on film.
Possession 1981-France-West Germany. 124 min. Color. Written and directed by Andzej Zulawski. Cinematography: Bruno Nuytten. Cast: Isabelle Adjani (Anna/Helen), Sam Neill (Mark), Margit Carstensen (Margit ”Margie” Gluckmeister), Heinz Bennent, Johanna Hofer, Carl Duering.
Trivia: Judy Davis was offered the lead, but declined. Remade in Indonesia in 2024.
Cannes: Best Actress (Adjani).