Fantastic Fest 2021: "Possession" Gets The 4K Facelift It Deserves!
40 years after its initial release, Andrzej Żuławski’s bonkers breakup film, Possession, finally gets the TLC it rightfully deserves! With a new 4K facelift (courtesy of Metrograph Pictures), Possession’s singularly visceral insanity has never looked so damn good. Best of all: a theatrical and digital re-release is slated for October, which means this mesmerizing genre marvel can be seen the way it was always intended!
Marc (Sam Neill) comes home from a mysterious business trip to find his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani) has been having an affair. She wants to leave him. Not for her svelte, mystical lover, Heinrich (Heinz Bennent), but for a slimy creature she birthed in a subway freakout and now has clandestine sex with in a squalid apartment on the Eastern border. What ensues is a battle of wills, and a test of faith and chance that just might heal their ruptured romance.
A hypnotic ballet of madness. A kinetic force of nature. A beguiling, elusive triumph in a league all its own. A truly unforgettable masterpiece of division, desolation, and dementia. The most staggeringly bonkers film about a break up or divorce ever made. Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession is all of these things and more! It combines explosive performances, stunning camerawork, and chilling what-the-fuckery into absolute insanity that defies easy categorization.
There’s little wonder why it perplexed critics and audiences alike upon its initial release in 1981. The film is a peculiar intersection between mainstream Hollywood and European art house, and it’s the kind of genre-bender that was rarely seen in those days. There are elements of espionage thriller, relationship drama, and creature feature that mash and collide. Too arty, self-serious, and unconventional to be horror, and too weird and kitsch to be art house, no one knew what to make of this unique gem, or quite how to market it — when the film was released stateside, it was shamelessly neutered by an unapproved U.S. re-edit that hacked off 42 minutes as a direct result.
The closest glove that fits the tentacles of this slice of strange cinema is horror, but even then it’s a lose fit. As much as it leans into the genre, it leans out — and that’s its strength. Like we’ve seen many films do over the years, Possession used the horror genre to tell a deeper story, one that’s rooted in Żuławski’s own personal life. The screenplay was written during his painful divorce with actress Malgorzata Braunek (who appeared in his first two films, The Third Part Of The Night and The Devil), but his previous divorce with artist Barbara “Basha” Baranowska (who painted the film’s famous Medusa-head poster) also played a hand in its creation. No matter how abstract or strange it gets, these personal touches always bleed through. Żuławski’s anguish and heartbreak can be deeply felt, and they cut like an electric knife.
The use of the Berlin Wall drives home the division between husband and wife, whose turmoil we are kinetically thrust into. We feel the separation in Żuławski’s wonderful blocking; characters are separated by space, different rooms, and even physical dividers. The camerawork is superb and constantly in flux, hurling issues us into the ugly orbit of its central couple. The constant movement and dizzying direction keep the energy and unease tightly drawn, while Sam Neill and Isabella Adjani exorcise their demons in beautifully unhinged, highly physical and rawly emotional performances. They each give career-best efforts here, but Adjani in particular is gloriously deranged; she takes direction like “fuck the air,” and churns out one of the most spellbinding scenes of all time.
As far as horror films go, it’s one of the most distinctly disturbing. It contains the kind of unsettling darkness and unforgettable terror that thoroughly gets under your skin. Żuławski creates a palpable madness-infused atmosphere and utilizes an intentionally uneven tone to keep the viewer disoriented and confused. You never quite know just where it’s going to take you next, but you can rest assured it’s going to get increasingly bizarre. What starts as an unusually volatile and violent breakup soon gives way to monsters and doppelgängers and perhaps even nuclear apocalypse. The personal and the political combine into a soupy ooze rich in metaphor and symbolism.
In short, you’ve never seen anything quite like Possession. It’s hands down one of the best of the extreme, and it’s a cinematic experience you’ll never forget. The film has made a considerable impact on filmmakers, such as Gaspar Noé, and it’s definitely well-deserving of its cult status, but it needs to be seen by more eyes. Hopefully, this beautiful 4K re-release will possess even more moviegoers to join the cult that champions the film’s bizarre, gelatinous majesty. If you can see it in a theater, you absolutely should. This film will have you reeling. You’ll stagger from the auditorium with your bell rung, and if you’re anything like us, you’ll want to rush right back in for more.
Recommendation: Possession is one of the most spellbindingly singular films ever made, and it must be seen! Definitely seek out this one out when it re-releases in October.
Rating: 5 subway freakouts outta 5
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