Taglines: She created a monster as her secret lover!
Possession movie storyline. During a secretive business trip away, Mark learns that his wife Anna is growing restless in what he believed was their happy marriage. Upon his return home, he learns from her that she wants a divorce. They both go through a series of different emotions related to their situation, Mark’s which is generally obsessive about learning why Anna, who he still loves, wants the divorce, and Anna’s which is generally increasingly histrionic in getting away from Mark.
Caught in the middle is their infant son Bob, who Mark uses as a gage to Anna’s mental state. Anna states that her want for the divorce is not because of another man, but Mark finds out that Anna has a lover named Heinrich. In the meantime, Mark also meets Bob’s teacher Helen, who looks exactly like Anna, but is her polar opposite in temperament.
Starting a relationship with Helen lessens his obsession with Anna. But as Mark and Anna’s encounters together reach more emotional and violent levels, Mark, with help of a private investigative firm, learns that Anna’s love life is not all that it appears. Anna’s true obsession has a somewhat gruesome process and nothing will stop her from reaching her end goal.
Possession is a 1981 psychological horror drama film directed by Andrzej Żuławski, written by Żuławski and Frederic Tuten, and starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill. The plot obliquely follows the relationship between an international spy and his wife, who begins exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking him for a divorce.
Possession, an international co-production between France and West Germany, was filmed in West Berlin in 1980. The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, where Adjani won the award for Best Actress for her performance. It was Żuławski’s only English-language film. In recent years, it has developed a cult following.
About the Themes and Production
Numerous film critics have noted the theme of separation and marital disintegration as core themes in Possession. Scholar Bartłomiej Paszylk notes that the metaphors present in the film also represent “a disintegrating country. The very fact that the film takes place in Cold War-era West Berlin is quite significant for the metaphor of divorce—the wall that separates it from East Berlin being a symbol of disconnection of what was once united—but Zulawski’s additional intention might have been for the Berlin wall to symbolize the Iron Curtain, and for Germany to symbolize Poland, a country he had to leave in order to keep making movies.”
It was filmed in West Berlin. The director states during the commentary on the DVD of the film that he wrote the screenplay in the midst of a messy divorce.[citation needed] Special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi assisted in creating the tentacle creature featured in the film. The shoot was emotionally exhausting for Adjani, and it was rumored that she attempted suicide after filming completed.
The film had a modest total of 541,120 admissions in France. Possession was released in a heavily-edited 81-minute cut in the United States. The film grossed $1.1 million at the U.S. box office. Viewers have found it difficult to properly classify it as drama, horror, or suspense, though elements of all three are present in the movie.
Possession (1981)
Directed by: Andrzej Żuławski
Starring: Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen, Heinz Bennent, Johanna Hofer, Carl Duering, Shaun Lawton, Michael Hogben, Maximilian Rüthlein, Leslie Malton, Kerstin Wohlfahrt
Screenplay by: Frederic Tuten, Andrzej Żuławski
Cinematography by: Bruno Nuytten
Film Editing by: Marie-Sophie Dubus, Suzanne Lang-Willar
Costume Design by: Ingrid Zoré
Art Direction by: Holger Gross
Music by: Andrzej Korzyński
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Gaumont
Release Date: May 27, 1981 (Cannes)
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