Rupert Pupkin Speaks: Second Sighted: POSSESSION Blu-ray ""
I feel ridiculous comparing the two films, but my wife and I saw Richard Linklater's BEFORE MIDNIGHT the day before we watched this so it was very much on our minds. Both that film and Andrzej Zulawski's 1981 movie POSSESSION deal with couples in turmoil. That's really as far as I can take the comparison though because POSSESSION is almost unlike any film I've ever seen. It's maybe along the lines of what David Cronenberg's version of BEFORE MIDNIGHT would look like. Intrigued by that analogy? You should be, because POSSESSION is a uniquely singular experience. Cronenberg said that THE BROOD was his version of KRAMER VS. KRAMER. POSSESSION feels like it has a certain kinship with THE BROOD somehow. One difference though is the way that Zulawski chose to shoot the film. He has filled it with lots of handheld shots that bring the discomfort and unease to a much more immediate place for the viewer. Right from the first shot of the movie, we feel this anxiety and nervousness that is remarkably compelling somehow.
While Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy's characters have some heated, but fairly rational confrontations in BEFORE MIDNIGHT, it's nothing compared to the fury and craziness of the interactions between Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani in POSSESSION. It really is like watching two clinically insane individuals try to navigate marital troubles. While they live in apartment buildings for the most part, the characters in this film could just as easily populate one single giant asylum. None of this is meant to downplay how fascinating and raw the movie is by any means mind you. We're not even to the most memorable stuff yet. And to be honest, I'm gonna leave that stuff for people to discover on their own if they haven't ventured to do so yet. Suffice it to say, this movie takes a left turn at one point and never, ever looks back. For we the folks who watch tons and tons of movies, there are few joys that rival that of a film that can competently pull off a serious left turn and leave us completely engaged, enraptured and dumbfounded. POSSESSION is one of those films for sure. Honestly, the Cronenberg comparison is really reductive and doesn't do the film justice when I really think about it. I adore Cronenberg's films, but for the most part they tend to have a certain controlled distance about them emotionally. POSSESSION isn't really like that. I think the rawness of it combined with the horror elements that enter in make it very unexampled witches brew of a film. One that will haunt you with its "aftertaste" for years to come.
• ‘BASHA’ A new featurette on Polish artist Barbara ‘Basha’ Baranowska, who created the famed poster for Possession.
"Suffice it to say, this movie takes a left turn at one point and never, ever looks back. For we the folks who watch tons and tons of movies, there are few joys that rival that of a film that can competently pull off a serious left turn and leave us completely engaged, enraptured and dumbfounded. POSSESSION is one of those films for sure."
AGREE. Caught this on TCM about a year ago and WOW.