Possession

My second viewing of Possession was even more overwhelming than the first. Isabelle Adjani’s performance remains nothing short of staggering. I truly don’t think I’ve ever been so shaken by an actor on screen. This time, I found myself focusing more on the duality at the film’s core: a couple tearing each other apart within a city itself divided in two, a mirror of a fractured Europe. Anna is caught between two men who both seek to possess her, and through whom she seems to live by proxy. «Because you say I for me. » Anna becomes a devastating reorientation of womanhood: torn between ideals of love, perfection, motherhood, and desire, until nothing holds. The infamous miscarriage scene, almost played in a single breathless shot, is nothing short of insane: an exorcism of body and soul. There is so much more to unravel here: the colors (Mark’s cold blues contrasted with the creature’s sickly greens), the swirling, restless camera, the way every movement feels charged with hysteria and despair. And beyond the personal torment, the film’s political undercurrent is so subtle yet brilliantly intelligent, shadowing every crack in the couple’s breakdown. Yup, I want this film injected into my veins.