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.
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.