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Saturday, 2 September 2017
Possession 1981
Possession 1981
Written and Directed by Andrzej Zulawski who in 1972 directed acclaimed horror drama Diabel – The Devil – Possession is a psychological thriller like no other.
Starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill, the pair play a married couple who are going through a difficult time while raising their young son.
Mark (Sam Neill) growing suspicious of his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani) infidelity, makes it his mission to gain back control of his family while secretly spying on Anna.
Mark and Anna later separate – due to Anna’s increasingly erratic behaviour, while Anna also frequently disappears to a run-down apartment building in West Berlin. Mark later encounters Heinrich (Heinz Bennent), who he believes is the other man in Anna’s life and the cause of his marriage breakdown.
Things get stranger while Heinrich denies the affair between him and Mark’s wife Anna.
Controversy Possession was originally released in 1981 in France and was heavily edited for US theatrical release. Also, released in the UK, but to very limited cinemas and would later be banned in the UK and infamously dubbed a ‘video nasty’.
Despite the controversy surrounding the films extreme graphic content, which can be accredited to Carlo Rambaldi’s work on the creature design, Possession did receive critical acclaim and would see Isabelle Adjani win Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 1981