Possession

Theatrical Release Date: 1983 10 28 (USA)

UPC: 013131111699

Studio: Anchor Bay

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Violence, Nudity, Not For Children, Adult Language, Sexual Situations]

Summary: Usually misattributed to the horror genre, this challenging and highly unusual drama stars Isabelle Adjani as a young woman who forsakes her husband (Sam Neill) and her lover (Heinz Bennent) for a bizarre, tentacled creature that she keeps in a run-down Berlin apartment. In the beginning, her husband knows nothing about the monster and sincerely believes that his wife is insane. He has her tailed by private detectives, whom she kills and feeds to the creature. Still unaware of what has happened, the husband contends with the reserved and inadvertently seductive presence of his wife's look-alike (also played by Adjani), a schoolteacher who frequently comes to tutor his son while his wife is away. Though tempted by her quiet goodness and beauty, he is still passionately in love with his wife and even after he finds out about the murders, he stays by her side and helps her conceal her crimes. Filmed amidst the oppressive backdrop of the Berlin Wall by the expatriate Polish director Andrzej Zulawski (who was unable to work in his homeland after too many clashes with the authorities), the picture is so relentlessly intense and so deliberately esoteric, that most viewers would find it too hard to connect with. Still its symbolism, its unbridled and flashy directorial style, and the tour de force performance by Isabelle Adjani earned this unique tale a cult following in Europe. The version originally released in the U.S. had 45 minutes chopped out; in this form, it is barely comprehensible and looks like a cheap, gory feast. ~ Yuri German, Rovi

Category: Avant-garde / Exp

Awards: Best Actress – French Academy of Cinema Critics Award – São Paulo International Film Festival Best Actress – Fantasporto Film Festival (Porto) Best Actress – Cannes Film Festival

Features: Widescreen presentation [1.66:1] enhanced for 16x9 TVs
Audio commentary with director Andrzej Zulawski in discussion with biographer Dan Bird
International trailer
U.S. theatrical trailer
Talent bios

Possession

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 05/09/2000

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Vistavision

Audio: 1 USA & territories, Canada, 5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 123 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
0. Chapter Selections
1. Program Start/Main Titles [1:02]
2. Reunion [2:55]
3. Job Well Done [1:42]
4. Desperation [4:57]
5. Break Up [2:08]
6. Break Down [3:45]
7. Family Matters [6:02]
8. Heinrich [4:02]
9. Violent Reation [5:44]
10. Private Detective [3:17]
11. The Knife [5:32]
12. Following Anna [3:28]
13. Murder [4:04]
14. The Visitors [3:41]
15. New Love [5:15]
16. Missing Persons [1:58]
17. Second Victim [4:52]
18. Home Movies [8:41]
19. Abortion [7:49]
20. Three Of A Kind [8:58]
21. The Drowning [5:41]
22. Red Handed [6:20]
23. Phone Call [3:05]
24. "Almost..." [2:36]
25. Heinrich's Mother [3:17]
26. Dead Dogs [1:38]
27. Mayhem [2:31]
28. Doppelganger [5:14]
29. Apocalypse [1:40]
30. End Credits [1:19]

Michael Hastings

Director Andrzej Zulawski achieved his most widespread international success with this elliptical, allegorical tale of a disintegrating marriage and its grotesque byproducts. True to form, the director was able to coax deliciously unrestrained performances from Isabelle Adjani and the then-unknown Sam Neill as the bitter couple trapped in a torturous relationship. Zulawski's set-up is tantalizing: aided by the fluid, hypnotic camerawork of Bruno Nuytten, he uses the stark, oppressive cityscape of Berlin to mirror Neill's ever-increasing dread and discombobulation. Evoking elements of Vertigo (1958) and Repulsion (1965), Possession mixes the mundane with the shocking to create a compelling metaphor for the havoc that one man's obsession (and one woman's scorn) can wreak. Though the film's final act focuses on the more horrific elements of the tale -- namely, a bed-ridden, boyfriend-consuming creature which resembles a giant lower intestine, created by E.T.'s alien designer Carlo Rambaldi -- Zulawski never loses sight of the eerie, atmospheric qualities that elevate Possession above a mere genre film. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Herbert Chwoika  Actor 
Ilse Bahrs  Actor 
Andrzej Korzynski  Composer (Music Score) 
Marie-Laure Reyre  Producer 
Andrzej Zulawski  Director 
Andrzej Zulawski  Screenwriter 
Frederic Tuten  Screenwriter 
Isabelle Adjani  Actor 
Isabelle Adjani  Actor 
Sam Neill  Actor 
Heinz Bennent  Actor 
Margit Carstensen  Actor 
Shaun Lawton  Actor 
Michael Hogben  Actor 
Johanna Hofer  Actor 
Carl Duering  Actor 
Maximilian Ruethlein  Actor 
Leslie Malton  Actor 

Country: France,West Germany