Possession

Poster

Polish director Andrzej Zulawski first English language film is very powerful cinema! Possession (1981) is the surreal story of the break up of a marriage which in turn leads to the breakup of the family. It’s not an easy film to describe or understand but the basic plot involves Mark (Sam Neill) who returns home to Berlin to find his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani) leaving him but he’s not sure why. Suspecting she’s having an affair, he engages a private detective who discovers she has an elderly lover, Heinrich (Heinz Bennent), but she is also leaving him!

Isabelle Adjani won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her extraordinary portrayal of a deranged women on the verge of complete insanity who takes a demon lover, which I suspect is a metaphor for evil, an action described by the director as a woman who ‘fucks with an octopus’ This dark, deranged and original film has been described by some critics as a horror film but Zulawsli’s film does not hide behind any genre mask. It subject matter covers politics, love, sex, loneliness and jealousy.

On the verge of complete insanity !

Filmed in the Turkish district of Berlin where it's wall is an important part of the overall atmosphere, as is the use of wide angle lenses and hand held cameras. After an initial release in the UK it was subsequently banned but has now won a deserved cult following. Possession is not necessarily meant to be purely entertainment, love or hate it; it will leave no one untouched. Start with this YouTube clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bDDanNgcgY