Fantastic Film Fest 2022 Review - Possession (4K Restoration)
Images courtesy of Fantastic Film Festival.
Set against the harsh backdrop of the Berlin Wall, Andrzej Żuławski's 1981 cult classic Possession is a genre-defying chronicle of marriage in decay. Slapped with the infamous "video nasty" label in the UK, resulting in its outright banning, and with a third of its runtime cut by US distributors confused by, well, probably just about everything, Possession also went on to be nominated for the coveted Palme d'Or and bagged star Isabelle Adjani a Best Actress win at Cannes that same year; truly an exemplification of the polarising nature of cinema.
Wasting very little time in its descent into madness, we're introduced to Anna (Adjani) and Mark (played by Sam Neill a full decade before Jurassic Park), who, upon his arrival home from an espionage mission, finds that Anna wants a divorce. Picking up and setting down his bags three times before carrying them inside, he's painted as a man adrift, unsure whether he truly is home. Anna insists that it's not because she's found someone else, but true to its title, Mark seems unwilling to let her go, no matter the havoc his lack of emotional maturity causes. He leaves and loses days binge drinking, only to find their son, Bob, has been left alone and neglected by his mother, and Mark ends up hiring a private investigator to track his soon-to-be ex-wife.
I'll try and forego recounting the larger twists and turns of the narrative going forward, but make no mistake, despite the absurdly heightened and sometimes kitschy drama of the film, there's some real horrors in the cobweb of the central relationship. As a film, Possession isn't afraid of showing confronting (but not exploitative) depictions of domestic violence, both verbal and physical. The turmoil of their arguments often plays out publicly in chaotic and sometimes explosive sequences; one that stands out has the pair arguing in the middle of a road to the point where a truck driver swerves around them, causing its massive load of wrecked cars to come crashing onto the asphalt. Mark will stop at nothing in his desperate pursuit of knowing everything Anna thinks and feels, while in turn sharing very little of his own vulnerabilities.
Unfortunately, this climate appears to have been mirrored on set. Żuławski is no stranger to pushing actresses further than anyone should be pushed and as a result, Adjani has stated that it took her years to recover from the role, going on to say “It was quite an amazing film to do, but I got bruised, inside out. It was exciting to do. It was no bones broken, but it was like, 'How or why did I do that?'”. While many tout her performance as among the greatest of all time (I remember the subway scene in particular being reblogged constantly on Tumblr back in the day), one must wonder at what point it stops becoming an act if a performer is actively placed in such an extreme mental state.
Going into the film without this prior knowledge, what remains is undeniably an incredible, strange work of art. While I’m not one to argue that suffering to that extent should’ve been deemed necessary, both as a window into torment and as an exorcism of Żuławski’s real life divorce, the work sears with a primal pain.
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Possession (4K Restoration) is showing at the 2022 Fantastic Film Festival Australia, running 21st April to the 6th of May. For tickets to the festival and more info, click here.