X
- 1983
- Unrated
- Limelight International
- 2 h 4 m
- 1983
- Unrated
- Limelight International
- 2 h 4 m
Summary A woman (Isabelle Adjani) starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband (Sam Neill) for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.
Directed By: Andrzej Zulawski
Written By: Frederic Tuten, Andrzej Zulawski
- 1983
- Unrated
- Limelight International
- 2 h 4 m
- 1983
- Unrated
- Limelight International
- 2 h 4 m
Possession
75
7.8
Where to Watch
Summary A woman (Isabelle Adjani) starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband (Sam Neill) for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.
Directed By: Andrzej Zulawski
Written By: Frederic Tuten, Andrzej Zulawski
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 10 Critic Reviews
75
80% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
20% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 10 Critic Reviews
75
80% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
20% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
To watch Possession again is to realize that it remains one of the most grueling, powerful, and overwhelmingly intense cinematic experiences that you are likely to have in your lifetime.
That's as good a way as any of describing Zulawski's confounding masterpiece. Possession conveys the fear that some terrible rift—madness, war, apocalypse—might sever us from our own identity. Zulawski communicates this by perverting nearly every convention of narrative cinema—even the exterior shots, which we count on to provide a sense of geography.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 30 User Ratings
7.8
77% Positive
23 Ratings
23 Ratings
20% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
3% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 30 User Ratings
7.8
77% Positive
23 Ratings
23 Ratings
20% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
3% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Each and every scene of this movie is a mixture of beauty and disgust. I will probably see nightmares for a week.
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Watched this because Guillermo del Toro told me to. Features some pretty advanced camera work for the time, has one of the coolest motorcycle shots ever Tom Cruise would be jealous. The main lady is dialed up beyond what I have ever seen before. The movie is great as long as the characters aren't monologuing for too long. Those last 10 minutes were perfect.
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Many directors have taken full advantage of Adjani’s exotic, ethereal French beauty; only Zulawski saw beyond the exquisite surface to something unsettling. Most disconcerting is the way Adjani can register almost demonic ill-intent while never losing some trace of the alluring.
The genius of Zulawski is that he's dispensed with all the buildup and explanation and logic. How many horror-movie explanations make any sense? He just made an entire movie out of the scary parts, the way a different genius concocted only the muffin top and some pop music producers give you 10 minutes of beats and chorus. Possession climaxes for two whole hours. It's as if, with "The Shining," Stanley Kubrick found 25 variations on "here's Johnny" and "red rum." [17 Nov 2012, p.G5]
Pic’s mass of symbols and unbridled, brilliant directing meld this disparate tale into a film that could get cult following on its many levels of symbolism and exploitation.
It's a movie that contains a certain amount of unseemly gore and makes no sense whatsoever.
An enormous number of symbols--sexual, religious, and political--collide randomly in this pretentious, incoherent horror story.
I can’t believe this style got me hooked so long. Thought I’d change the channel 10mins in
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This is considered to be one of the greats in horror cinema, however my only real comment is 'what the hell did I just watch'. Visually this film is interesting, as it feels more like a David Lynch, surrealist art film than a mainstream horror. The acting though, my god was too over the top.
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Awards
Fantasporto
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
Cannes Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
German Film Awards
• 2 Nominations
