Saturday, November 3, 2007

Film Review: POSSESSION (1981)


A dream, a nightmare, or an insight into the dark recesses of the writers subconsciousness?

Possession is avant garde film noir that truly has to be seen to be appreciated or believed. Set with a backdrop of Berlin Germany (wall and all) in 1981, Sam Neill plays an increasingly tormented husband who's dear wife (Andrzej Zulawski) is becoming progressively bleak, with her bitterness of him escilating as her self loathing intensifies. Insidiously, she retreats to a world of despair and increasing erratic maddness which ultimately results in an aggressive marital seperation. At a loss and fast becoming a psychological & physical wreck, he follows his love and soon discovers she is fornicating with a black tenticled malevolent entity and has embarked on a murderous rampage, killing those that intrude on her nest. Is she acting of her own free will, a slave to her urges or are there more sinister forces at play? What is this being that has such a grip on her?

Immensely entertaining dark and often nasty but poetic through out, Possession feels like no other film I've ever seen. It is beautifully filmed with often odd seductive angles, supurbly acted, near masterful work of art which only falls down due to its extensive length and at times sluggish pacing. This is a film that is burned into your brain long after viewing and is as much an experience of the senses as a piece of celluloid entertainment. Sam Neill is brilliant in the lead role and Andrzej Zulawski is equally so.


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