Possession

*“I come from a place where evil seems easier to pinpoint because you can see it in the flesh. It becomes people, so you know exactly the danger of being deformed by it. Which doesn't mean I admire your world. But I find pathetic these stories of women contaminating the universe.” Possession *is such a brilliant and thought provoking film. I didn’t really understand it fully the first time I watched it but loved the energy and vibe of the film. I’m happy to say that on this second viewing that I felt like I got even more out of it. The cinematography, acting, and dreamlike narrative are all so well done here. The story follows Anna and Mark, a married couple living in West Berlin whose relationship is unraveling. Anna is having an affair with an older man and Mark is not taking that news well but decides he can’t let her go and begins to engage in increasingly toxic and questionable behaviour while quite a lot of strange and unsettling realities about Anna are revealed. The film very much centers heavily on the deteriorating relationship and the secrets that both of them seem to be keeping. The entire film feels very dreamlike (in a similar way to the work of David Lynch) and that along with the body horror elements really causes this film to stand out amongst the many other films centred around declining marriages. The cinematography was interesting throughout the film and I found many of the shots in the film to be very memorable. The entire scene in the subway with Anna was absolutely mind blowing and I also really felt that the mental breakdown sequence that Mark had was very memorable visually as well! My favourite scenes in the film are definitely the scene in Anna’s apartment with the man investigating his partner’s disappearance as well as the climactic scene on the flight of stairs toward the end of the film! Finally, I felt that Possession had extremely strong and memorable performances from the two leads. Isabelle Adjani was so perfect at playing both Anna and Helen and was so robbed of not getting an Oscar Nomination for the performances! She perfectly captured both of those characters personalities so extremely well and was just so entertaining and captivating throughout. Sam Neill’s performance as Mark was also really impressive and this might be the best performance I’ve seen of his. Possession is a masterwork of filmmaking and is definitely becoming one of my favorite films. I absolutely would recommend this to fans of drama films as well as to fans of Psychological and Body Horror!