'POSSESSION' AN EXORCISE IN FUTILITY
Philadelphia Daily News (PA) - November 14, 1983
Author: JOE BALTAKE, Daily News Movie Reviewer
"Possession." A thriller starring Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill and Heinz Bennent. Directed and co-authored by Andrzej Zulawski from an original script by Frederic Tuten. Photographed by Bruno Nuytten. Music by Andrzej Korzynski. Special effects by Carlo Rambaldi. Running Time: 78 minutes (cut from original 128 minutes). A Limelight International release. In area theaters.
Any movie that has the gall to reach back to 1973 and attempt to redo "The Exorcist," whose own imperfections can be re-examined on TV these days, deserves every odious comparison it gets.
"Possession" is a boringly camp-elegante attempt by a group of reputable French, German and Polish filmmakers (most notably director Andrzej Zulawski) to find Art in the ooze and bile that monopolize most demonic-possession flicks. All we end up with is a movie that's even more fatuous than most exploitation thrillers of this ilk.
There's nothing on screen here that we haven't seen before. This is not to imply that "Possession" is without its interests or curiositites. Not so. The film's history alone should command our attention: "Possession" is - now get this - 50 minutes shorter than the version that played the Cannes Film Festival two years ago and won star Isabelle Adjani her Best Actress award there.
In the seriously truncated version being distributed in America, nothing makes sense, least of all Adjani's babbling, incoherent and yet arresting portrayal of a woman who has given birth to some slimy, other-worldly monster (which could be a demon or even a god).
Adjani's character, Anna, is a little unstable and more than a little bonkers. When she isn't abusing her little ballet students, she's carving up herself with an electric knife or terrorizing her wild-eyed husband (Sam Neill), who also seems possessed.
Anna keeps her repulsive monster-child stashed in a suite of rooms in a decaying hotel in Berlin. Amidst a flurry of flashbacks, flashforwards and scenes involving Anna's demure alter-ego (named Helen), our madwoman and her evil ward spend their days killing off nosy intruders (and sutffing their entrails in a refigerator) and their nights making . . . love. The lovemaking scenes in "Possession" are fairly gross.
I think it is safe to assume that the film's American distributor edited out everything except the excess and and frenzy. The missing 50 minutes most certainly contains exposition, common sense and an explanation or two, quiet, introspective scenes that might have brought rationale to the excess and frenzy (and perhaps even made them more vivid).
Adjani works herself up in a succession of self-abandoning scenes that seem to be a takeoff on her role in "The Story of Adele H," and Neill, always fascinating, remains the screen's most civilized psycho.
Complementing the stars - and also suffering from the indiscreet editing (garroting?) - are the contributions of cinematographer Bruno Nuytten and effects wizard Carol Rambaldi ("E.T." and "Alien").
Rarely has so much been so senselessly wasted.
**SINGLEG* Parental Guide: Rated R for its violence and gory effects.
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FILM: 'POSSESSION' IS A THRILLER ABOUT A LADY AND A CREATURE
Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) - November 15, 1983
Author: Rick Lyman, Inquirer Movie Critic
I sat through Possession because it's my job. Why anybody else would want to do it, I can't imagine. Take my word for it: If today's Inquirer does nothing more than steer you away from this movie, you will have gotten your quarter's worth.
Possession, in its present form, is one of those movies that's so awful, so unclean, that it clarifies for you exactly what it takes to make a movie bad. It's as if someone had taken every wrong technique and simmered them down into a thick, unpleasant broth.
Isabelle Adjani, the beautiful French actress who came to stardom with Francois Truffaut's Story of Adele H and has never, for my money, lived up to her hype, is humiliated in the lead role.
It's kind of hard to figure out what's happening most of the time, but she plays a crazed young woman with a thing for Jesus and another thing that she
keeps in a run-down apartment house. This other thing, a gruesome sort of creature that she loves dearly and often, helps her knock off the curious souls who venture into their decaying refuge.
Ostensibly a thriller about demons, Possession is really an attempt to raise the gore movie to a level of pseudo art. There's plenty of spitting-up and contortions and people getting sliced and impaled, but there's also this moronic attempt to invest the images with an artsy weirdness. There are so many fisheye-lens shots that I thought I was at the aquarium.
But nothing is worse than Adjani's performance. She gurgles. She rants. Icky fluids comes out of her mouth. She screams her inane lines directly into the camera like a preschooler's idea of the way crazy people act.
And she won best actress honors at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival. For this movie. It's unbelievable.
The original version of Possession, shown in Europe, was much longer. Perhaps her better scenes were left in the trash bin. Maybe they cut the movie in half and released the wrong part.
Suffice it to say that I don't think we're dealing with a lost masterpiece here. True, the movie is halfway hacked to shreds, but if they're looking for volunteers to finish the job they can add my name to the list.
There were a few unfortunates who went the distance the afternoon I saw the movie. It's a prodigious achievement and I salute them. But I'm not sure whether to give them a medal or a saliva test.
Maybe both. Just to be safe.
POSSESSION
Produced by Marie-Laure Reyre, written and directed by Andrzej Zulawski, photography by Bruno Nuytten, music by Andrzej Korzynski, and distributed by Limelight International Film Releases; running time, 1 hour, 18 mins. *
Anna - Isabelle Adjani
Mark - Sam Neill
Heinrich - Heinz Bennent
Parents' guide: R (violence, nudity)
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