Possession review.
Released in 1981, Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession has become a bit of a curiosity due to not being easily available to watch. That’s changed now that Shudder has it ready to stream right now. Let’s dive into it and try to figure out what it’s all about.
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
Possession
Directed by Andrzej Żuławski
Written by Frederic Tuten and Andzrej Żuławski
Starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill
Possession Review
The oddest aspect of Possession isn’t its growing monster doppelganger. It isn’t the extremely weird final moments. It isn’t even the overall lack of explanation for, well, anything that is happening. No…the oddest aspect of Possession is just the way people talk to each other. If you imagine your impression of a zero-budget art house play where characters talk around each other but not to each other…that’s a lot of Possession. Conversations have the back and forth of normal patter…but characters look off in different directions and responses often seem to line up as answers almost by accident.
While a lot of Possession’s energy comes from moments of violence or shock…it’s sustained by this strange method of performance. A married couple, Mark (Sam Neill) and Anna (Isabelle Adjani) spend the first half of the movie arguing and screaming in each other’s direction. It’s one of the most intense depictions of a marriage falling apart that you’ll ever find in film. It only gets stranger later when we meet Anna’s lover Heinrich (Heinz Bennent). He brings a completely different energy to the story. He’s interested in being close and connecting to the people he talks to. His character feels invasive in a way that an intruder to a marital bed should…and in a way I’ve never seen a movie capture.
That first half of Possession is something to behold. It isn’t narratively doing anything other than showing us a marriage that has fallen apart. It isn’t quick to explain any reason why. We watch Mark lose his mind in anger and confusion. Anna appears to be completely insane. She talks about things that don’t make sense and seems to answer every question in a way to hurt Mark…whether the answers are true or not.
Then, Possession changes focus. We get less scenes of Mark and Anna together. Anna is off in her own story…with a tentacled creature in an abandoned apartment. Mark is left with their son Bob. He begins spending time with Bob’s teacher Helen. Helen is also played by Isabelle Adjani, with green contact lenses. Helen, here, a doppelganger for Anna…replacing Anna in Mark’s story.
The tentacled creature evolves each time we encounter him. Inevitably the creature evolves into a doppelganger of Mark. An exact copy that has replaced Mark in Anna’s story. I’m not going to claim to understand the message being sent out by Possession. At first glance I believed it was as simple as disillusioned partners finding/creating their perfect version of the other. Any level of assurance I felt in that belief is blown up by the ending of the story.
Mark and Anna both die in a shootout. The reason for the shootout is as convoluted as it is unnecessary to understand. It involves spying and pink socks and secret organizations. All of which sounds cool, but we don’t see enough of any of it to draw full conclusions. An intimate family drama played out on a side stage while bigger things are happening in the center ring. How big? The film itself ends with Helen caring for Bob while the Mark doppelganger bangs on her door. Outside we hear what sounds like World War III beginning. Bob jumps into a full bathtub and lies face down in an apparent attempt to drown himself rather than live in a world where Helen invites the doppelganger inside. I got nothing.
When the story is contained to being a metaphor for divorce…it’s an incredible one. All the added pieces that are much more difficult to put together don’t detract from the movie in any way. If anything, they ensure that you’ll be thinking about Possession for a long time to come. Żuławski isn’t interested in answering questions. Applied poorly, this can be infuriating and ruin an experience. Possession does it masterfully. It creates a world you feel but can’t quite know. A piece you can debate and try to rationalize forever.
Żuławski crafts a movie that feels loose and experimental but is impressively tight and purposeful. It allows the actors free reign within scenes but expertly builds to a crescendo. The true beauty of Possession is the uninhibited performances of Neill and Adjani. Adjani gives an all-in, go for broke performance that you will never fully shake off. Neill has the less showy role. His intensity and constant descents and ascents to and from madness are perfectly played. This is the best, and worst, break-up story ever filmed.
We’re about to assign a score to Possession that I can see being controversial to many people. I have no doubt that you may watch this film tonight and turn it off after a bit thinking it’s impenetrable. That it is too abstract. Too noisy with little to say. I can’t even argue against any of those points. What I will argue, and in a moment reward, is an experience I’ve never had with a film before. An experience I can’t imagine ever having with a movie again. An experience you owe it to yourself to have.
Scare Value
So, we didn’t quite nail down what Possession is about. But that’s one of the great things about it. It seems to have a tenuous grasp at best on what it’s about. It’s definitely about the destruction of a marriage…but it clearly becomes more than that halfway through. Performances are as wonderful as they are odd. There are memorable moments here and imagery that will stick with you. Whatever the ultimate point of Possession is…it all adds up to a great movie.
5/5
Possession Links
Streaming on Shudder
Buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon
Possession Trailer
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