Possession (1981)
Directed by Andrzej Zulawski
Starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill
I haven't been in a serious relationship for about two years. The last person I was with and I had a very dynamic time to say the least. When it was good it was having sex on top of a roof on the 4th of July drunk on wine, when it was bad cars were stolen and rooms were destroyed. The funny thing is that neither of us are like that alone or even with other people. Just something about us came together like dynamite. We met at a party and made out at the provocation of someone who wanted me outta their face. Soon enough we were inseparable and stayed together through sleeping around, sexual withdrawal, jealousy, selling everything we owned, driving across country twice, drinking insane amounts, becoming completely sober, unemployment, getting the job of your dreams, trying to leave her fifteen times, seeing me holding my dead best friends hand, seeing her paint beautiful things, meeting families, wanting to get married, watching Carcass play drenched in sweat, nude dance parties, falling in love with people in Texas...I could go on and on...and I kinda did.
Something about the way we fought when I look back on it, that bizarre rush of adrenaline. In the middle of it you're terrified, desperate to prove you're right, shouting so loud because they just won't listen and you feel about 1% of yourself getting a kick out of it??? I didn't fight this way with other people. In fact I don't remember ever doing this in my whole life with a lover.
It became a subconscious cycle of getting along like best friends and then scenes from episodes of COPS (minus the punching). Something that I feel like in a way we were a little addicted to. Like we just wanted to have that feeling of relief after the fight...all the time. You just wanna batter each other to see if once you've burned and broken it all that you'll still be there bloody but smiling and ready to scab over.
Was all this really happening to us? Is that what our minds were really trying to get at? An hour or so of bliss? I can't tell you for sure because like most intense relationships this one seems like it almost didn't happen...like a dream.
The film Possession opens with Anna (Isabelle Adjani) deciding to leave her family for an unknown reason. Her husband Mark (Sam Neill) just quit his government job to spend more time with her and their son, Bob (Michael Hogben). Very quickly it's apparent Anna is in the middle of a nervous breakdown. Mark's mind follows once she moves out and reveals that she's been with another man (Heinrich played by Heinz Bennent) for years.
Out of desperation Mark hires a private detective to follow Anna only to find out that she's living alone in an apartment and is no longer seeing Heinrich. As Mark and Anna's mental states become increasingly unstable violence erupts between them and others and literally gives birth to something malignant and horrifying.
This is by far the best acting I've seen Sam Neill do and Isabelle Adjani (whom I'd only previously seen in the remake of Diabolique) does some of the craziest things I've seen on camera (see clip below). She won three different awards for the performance. The photography by Bruno Nuytten and Art Direction by Holger Gross are heavy on blue, yellow and grey and provide a cold, lonely atmosphere throughout the film. Writer-Director Andrzej Zulawski has crafted a beautiful, original horror film that plays more to the emotions and subconscious than it does to you. Watch it today with someone you love!!!
