Possession
Poor Sam Neill, Always the cuckhold, isn’t he? (In The Horse Whisperer, Yes,The Piano, Sleeping Dogs, Restoration, Dead Calm, etc, etc… He’s been in at least 400 films, so there’s going to be some repetition, but still, what is it about this poor man?)
Well, I like you, Sam Neill. Especially in Possession.
The 1980 film by Polish director Andrzej Zulawski begins like a traditional art film, with Fassbinder-like bright colors and hysterics. Sam Neill’s character discovers his wife, played Isabelle Adjani, is having an affair. He starts seeing a ballet instructor who is also played by Adjani, and the story continues using borrowed plot furniture from science fiction and horror — clones, serpents, slashings. Zulawski uses pulp elements as substitutes for emotions, like Cronenberg’s The Brood. It isn’t science fiction and it isn’t a horror film: it’s about the dissolve of a marriage, and the exaggerations — the overacting, the violence, the blood, the chaos — externalize emotions running high. One reviewer calls it “Grand Guignol.”
Adjani won the Best Actress award at Cannes, and it’s no surprise. Her freakouts are total adolescent in decadence. Just watch:
Just as memorable is her sex scene with a octopus-like creature, (it was banned in the UK as a “video nasty.”) The serpent was made by Carlo Rambaldi, (who did the special effects for Spielberg’s E.T.).
There are a couple of reasons this film hasn’t got the Cronenberg-sized audience it deserves. First, Zulawski hasn’t made a film in nearly ten years, and this is his only English language film. Secondly, it was badly butchered when it was first released here. Existing VHS copies are missing about 40 minutes of footage. The cut was to market it as part of the 80s junk drawer Italian horror craze — barf bags were distributed at American screenings. Horror fanatics who hate art films won’t like it, and those with strictly pretentious taste are sure to despise it. Thankfully, these binary distinctions are no longer as relevant — the art world includes some of the most voracious consumers of horror film.
I first found a copy of it at Borders about five years ago. It came as a set with a Mario Bava film. It’s no longer in print. Right now, the DVD is $50.00 through Amazon’s sellers. But there is good news: La Femme Publique (”The Public Woman”) will be released by Mondo Vision this year. If they continue releasing Zulawski’s other films, he may finally get the recognition he deserves for this incredible film.
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