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(More customer reviews)After many years of acquiring a cult status of mythical proportions, Zulawski's "Possession" finally comes to the viewers as it was originally supposed to be seen.
This is not an easy movie to see or to understand -- and I suppose it neither was easy to write or film. The characters are severely neurotic and seem to thrive on their bizarre behaviour (in more ways than one) yet they are somehow all too human. Like the movie ultimately suggests (once you get to see the secret trick the movie plays on the two leads), this story may be like looking into a mirror, though dark and distorted.
Meet Mark (Sam Neill), an overworked man with a mysterious job that takes him "to far away places". Meet his lovely wife, Anna (an overwhelmingly beautiful Isabelle Adjani), a sexually frustrated housewife and former ballet instructor who has much more than meets the eye going on for her.
Between quarrels and reconciliations, these two share a nice apartment in a quiet and well-to-do district of Berlin and have a five year old son, Bob, but they also share a horror that no one could have suspected, and that will make all their fantasies and nightmares come true.
After being brutally butchered by Vestron Video for its original release, "Possession" has been restored to its original lenght and sequence, therefore becoming coherent for the viewers who used to find it mind-numbingly strange.
I think of it as a very unique piece of craftmanship, part Ingmar Bergman drama, part Polanski suspense thriller, part Dario Argento gore, part Kubrick satire, part Buñuel surrealism and still somehow, very much its own.
The camera angles, the direction, the strange whims and seizures that seem to take over the characters (including one memorable and disturbing scene on a subway station with Adjani pulling all the stops not ontly to her acting abilities but to her physical strength too) are part of a very strange style Zulawski has to tell his story.
If you are accustomed to standard horror fare, then probably you will dismiss this movie as pretentious eurotrash (something it has been labeled off as countless times) but if you're game and follow the sequences and let your imagination be ensnared this will be a convulsive ride to the depths of emotion where you won't emerge as the same person.
And quite possibly, that's what all horror movies are really about at heart.
As a footnote: Isabelle Adjani won a very deserved Gold Palm at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival for her dual role in this film that, no matter how much you loved it or hated it, is still unforgettable.
The quality of the DVD in picture and sound is also of note.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Possession (1981)
In this controversial epic of obsessive love and sexual psychosis, Isabelle Adjani (QUEEN MARGOT, NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE) and Sam Neill (MY BRILLIANT CAREER, JURASSIC PARK) star as a married couple torn by emotional instability and carnal infidelity. As their madness grows, their world becomes a nightmare of savage murder... and climaxes in a monstrous manifestation of sexual evil.Written and directed by acclaimed international director Andrzej Zulawski and featuring shocking creature effects by Carlo Rambaldi (ALIEN, E.T.), POSSESSION is an experience like no other - part masterful art film, part bizarre horror thriller. Cut by nearly 45 minutes for its U.S. release, this controversial film is now presented here completely uncut and uncensored.EXTRAS:Audio Commentary with Director Andrzej Zulawski and Biographer Dan BirdInternational TrailerU.S. TrailerAndrzej Zulawski
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