Twelve years and close to that many viewings later, Possession<\/em> is now my favorite movie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A dramatic turnaround, but hardly one unique to my experience. In a lot of ways, the evolution of my opinion mirrors that of the larger world: since its controversial debut at the Cannes Film Festival 40 years ago, Possession\u2019s <\/em>reputation and legacy have undergone a remarkable gestation, not unlike the creature at the center of its story. The product of a traumatic mental breakdown spurred by familial disintegration, the film\u2019s initial release came in the form of a mutilated miscarriage, but thanks to the patient nurturing of its small but diligent cult of devotees, it has since mutated into a masterwork of deeply sinister power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Possession<\/em> centers around Mark and Anna (Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani, both giving career best performances), a couple living along the border of West Berlin (he\u2019s a spy, she\u2019s a ballet instructor) whose symbiotic relationship is so powerful that the violent fracturing of their union ushers into existence an interdimensional demon of pure malevolence, while also bringing about the end of the world. (This…will not all be clear on first viewing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t know quite what I expected when I first watched Possession<\/em>, but it wasn\u2019t what I got. A friend had asked if I\u2019d ever seen it, to which I replied that I hadn\u2019t even heard of it. He went on to describe it in opaque, but intriguing terms, as a relationship drama starring Sam Neill in which a sea monster suddenly appears from out of nowhere halfway through. The film\u2019s director, Andrzej \u017bu\u0142awski, initially pitched his idea to studios in similar, but more titillating terms: it was, in his words, \u201ca film about a woman who fucks an octopus.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither synopsis is entirely wrong, but neither do they capture what Possession<\/em> actually is. To be sure, the film does star Sam Neill, it does introduce a monster about halfway through its runtime, and a woman most certainly does fuck something resembling an octopus, but the film is so much more than the sum of those selling points . At its core, Possession<\/em> is about the all encompassing devastation wrought by love–devastation that \u017bu\u0142awski depicts through all manner of emotional, psychological, physical, political and even automotive carnage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u017bu\u0142awski\u2019s style has been described as \u2018hysterical\u2019, a term he did not care for, but which nonetheless fits. Having seen all of his films, I don\u2019t know that Possession<\/em> is necessarily the most<\/em> hysterical, but it is certainly the one in which the hysteria feels its purest. This is because Possession<\/em> is Zulawski\u2019s most personal film, the product of real suicidal despair following the dissolution of his own family (as in the movie, his wife left him for a New Agey-charlatan), which coincided with his (second) exile from his native Poland following the communist government\u2019s shutdown and attempted destruction of his previous project, his magnum science fiction opus, On the Silver Globe<\/em> (and astounding film long overdue for its own rediscovery). <\/p>\n\n\n\n By this point in his career, \u017bu\u0142awski was relatively well-known and well-regarded on the international movie scene, less for the couple of films he\u2019d made in Poland up to that point than for his 1977 French production (and the only real hit of his career), L\u2019 Important C\u2019est D\u2019aimer<\/em> (The Most Important Thing: Love<\/em>), a dizzying romantic melodrama set against the Paris\u2019s pornographic underworld and starring Euro icons Romy Schneider, Fabio Testi and Klaus Kinski. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, when his next international production (and sole English language film), Possession<\/em>, debuted at Cannes in 1981, it was met with a fair amount of interest, especially since it featured Adjani, a big star in her native France, front and center, alongside Neill, who, although still a lesser known quantity at that point, had received good notices for his performance in the Australian drama My Brilliant Career<\/em> two years prior (it was that role which brought him to \u017bu\u0142awski\u2019s attention, and in fact, the director initially wanted to bring along his Brilliant Career<\/em> co-star, Judy Davis, for the role of Anna).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given how assaultive, violent and strange Possession<\/em> is, it was never going to earn unanimous praise from Cannes\u2019 reliably prickly and capricious audience, but the festival judges couldn\u2019t deny the genius of Adjani\u2019s seismic, shamanistic<\/a> performance, rightly bestowing upon her that year\u2019s Best Actress award (although the honor was given to her for her roles in both Possession<\/em> and the Merchant Ivory film Quartet<\/em>, which also played at the festival). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Had Possession<\/em> come about two decades earlier, during the height of the international arthouse movement which saw directors like Roman Polanski and Ingmar Bergman earn fame and acclaim for their transgressive, challenging visions, it might have garnered a similar kind of notice, although it would no doubt have remained divisive. However, the \u201880s were a very different time for cinema, one marked by political and commercial regression. Possession <\/em>received a limited run in France concurrent with its Cannes debut, but it was never released in Germany despite being shot there, while in the U.K. it landed on the (non-prosecuted) Video Nasties<\/a> list, ensuring both infamy and unavailability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Worse yet was the film\u2019s treatment in America, where it was released two years later in a totally butchered form, with 40 minutes cut out, and totally re-edited and re-scored. According to Daniel Bird, the curator and writer who worked closely with \u017bu\u0142awski during the last decade of his life, and who, more than any other single person, is most responsible for increased awareness of the director\u2019s work during that time and since, this was hardly different from what Poland\u2019s communist regime had put the director through. \u201cWith Possession<\/em>,\u201d Bird wrote, \u201c\u017bu\u0142awski escaped from Eastern Bloc censorship only to fall victim to the commercial pressures of film distribution in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unsurprisingly, the U.S. edit of Possession<\/em> was reviled by most who saw it\u2014including, somewhat hilariously, fellow Soviet \u00e9migr\u00e9 and auteur (as well as a former personal acquaintance of \u017bu\u0142awski\u2019s) Andrei Tarkovsky, who called it \u201cunspeakably revolting\u201d and laid the blame for the film\u2019s entire conception on \u201cmoney, money, money.\u201d (It\u2019s tempting to think Tarkovsky might have felt different had he seen the original cut of the film, except that he and \u017bu\u0142awski are, in many ways, each other\u2019s polar opposite aesthetically and philosophically, so chances he\u2019d have been personally offended anyway.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n For the next 15 or so years, Possession<\/em> remained mostly forgotten, although it lingered in the memories of those who had seen the original cut (including Italian maestro Dario Argento, who credited the film\u2019s bold color palette for inspiring the cold blue look of his 1982 giallo, Tenebre<\/em>), as well as the psychotronic video set who found even the mangled U.S. version worthwhile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (I\u2019d note that, for as despised as that cut is, when I saw a screening of it at San Francisco\u2019s historic Castro Theater around 2011\u2014on a double bill with Polanski\u2019s Repulsion, <\/em>natch\u2014I thought it made for an effectively unsettling and memorable viewing experience, even if that version is, for the most part, utterly incomprehensible.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u017bu\u0142awski continued making brilliant and controversial movies in France and, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Poland, up to the year 2000, which saw the release of his last feature for 15 years, La Fid\u00e9lit\u00e9<\/em>. The same year his directorial career came to a halt also marked the beginning of a wider international reappraisal of his previous work, thanks to the first release of Possession<\/em>\u2014in near-original form\u2014on DVD. A barebones set with a not-great transfer, the release brooked little attention at the time, but was nonetheless essential in starting the movement that would eventually earn it its proper due.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the decade that followed, a number of arthouse retrospectives of \u017bu\u0142awski\u2019s filmography\u2014most of them overseen by Bird\u2014were bolstered by a steady rise in media coverage of the man and his films: blogs and news articles, interviews, podcasts, and even a couple of books (most notable is Possession\u2019s<\/em> prevalence in Keir-La Janisse\u2019s highly acclaimed House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films<\/em>, the first printing of which repurposed Basha Baranowska\u2019s iconic poster art<\/a> for its cover). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, in 2008, a boutique physical media brand, Mondo Vision, was formed with the express purpose of releasing restorations of \u017bu\u0142awski\u2019s work on Blu-ray, starting with his Dostoevskian-erotic thriller La Femme Publique<\/em> (1984), and continuing with L’important c’est d’aimer<\/em>, L\u2019amour Braque<\/em> (1985) and Szamanka<\/em> (1996) over the following four years. Four years after that last release, they finally put out Possession <\/em>in a loaded set that stands as a legitimate piece of art in its own right (this is true of every one of their releases, any of which I\u2019d put up against the best work Criterion has ever done). Since then, Mondo Vision has released one other \u017bu\u0142awski film\u20141992\u2019s phantasmagoric Chopin biopic La Notte Blue<\/em>\u2014and announced a forthcoming collection containing his first three Polish films (The Third Part of the Night<\/em>, Diabel<\/em> and On the Silver Globe<\/em>), although there\u2019s been no new word on the latter for almost five years now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the middle of this decade, \u017bu\u0142awski stepped behind the camera one last time for an adaptation of the great Polish novelist Witold Gombrowicz\u2019s deranged, philisophical murder mystery Cosmos<\/em>. Sadly, he was ill throughout the production, and passed away before the film received its international release in 2016 (although he did live long enough to complete it). As far as final artistic statements go, there are few as worthy of their creator\u2019s greatness as Cosmos<\/em>, and while it\u2019s reception in America was muted, it did result in a couple more \u017bu\u0142awski retrospectives (as did his passing).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the time since, awareness towards his body of work, and in particular Possession,<\/em> has continued to grow thanks to a number of films and projects that have openly borne its influence, including the Mexican horror drama The Untamed<\/em> and the music video for Massive Attack\u2019s \u201cVoodoo in My Blood<\/a>\u201d, both from 2016, as well as Luca Guadagnino\u2019s remake of Argento\u2019s Berlin-set Suspiria<\/em><\/a> and Gaspar Noe\u2019s orgiastic nightmare Climax<\/em>, both from 2018. Two years ago, \u017bu\u0142awski\u2019s son Xawery–upon whom the character of Bob in Possession<\/em> is based, and an established director in his own right–directed his late father\u2019s final script, Bird Talk<\/em><\/a>, a semi-autobiographical story containing several clips and music cues from Possession,<\/em> and which features a fictional version of Andrzej contemplate the film\u2019s legacy all these years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just a few months ago, Possession<\/em> received another physical release, this time in the form of a massive, four-disc French set that includes a brand-new 4k transfer of the film. Like the previous Mondo Vision release, the high cost (worth every penny, by the way) and limited number of copies will keep many a curious viewer from purchasing it. This, combined with the film\u2019s lack of availability on streaming services, guarantees that Possession<\/em> will remain underseen–although no longer unknown–for the immediate future at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is something I find simultaneously lamentable and relieving, for while I would love nothing more than for others to experience Possession<\/em>, a part of me also wishes for it to remain in the shadows, something I get to introduce people to the way it was introduced to me. At the risk of being accused of \u2018gatekeeping\u2019, I also find the film so profound, and it means so much to me personally, that I can\u2019t help but feel you should have to do a little bit of work to find it. I know these concerns are selfish and petty at base, but the prevalence of the film\u2019s most notorious scene\u2014in which Adjani undergoes a full-body seizure in an underground U-Bahn station (\u017bu\u0142awski instructed her to \u2018fuck the air\u2019)\u2014on social media doesn\u2019t help to change my mind. I\u2019d rather the film fall back into obscurity than see it reduced to a meme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But I also recognize that, ultimately, the film\u2019s power won\u2019t be reduced one iota should its profile continue to rise. At this point, it probably is only a matter of time before it does show up on one streaming platform or other. Once that happens, I have no doubt that Possession<\/em> will join the canon of respectable world cinema. It will then have moved from grindhouse flop, to weird horror curio, to cult classic, to arthouse masterpiece, to bonafide cinema classic, and, like the unholy abomination within the film itself, its ascendance will be complete.\u00a0![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/possession2-1024x614.jpg\")
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