Possession
Short description
Possession is a 1981 horror film set in West Berlin, where Mark returns from an extended absence to find his marriage in ruins. His wife Anna has become distant and evasive, and when she finally admits to an affair with a man named Heinrich, Mark's jealousy drives him to investigate her movements on his own. His suspicions soon give way to something stranger: Anna's behaviour points to a secret far beyond an ordinary affair, one that pulls both of them toward violence and madness. Andrzej Żuławski wrote and directed the film, the first in the chronological list of his features, followed by Mad Love, On the Silver Globe, Fidelity and Cosmos. Isabelle Adjani plays the dual roles of Anna and Helen, with Sam Neill as Mark, Margit Carstensen as Margit Gluckmeister, Heinz Bennent as Heinrich, Johanna Hofer as Heinrich's mother and Carl Duering as the private detective.
Produced by Marie-Laure Reyre for Gaumont, Oliane Productions, Marianne Productions and Soma Film Produktion, the film carries a cult reputation. It earned 7.3 out of 10 on IMDb from over forty thousand votes, with a matching 7.3 on TMDB from a smaller pool, while a critics' rating of 7.9 out of 10 from thirty-six reviews places critical opinion noticeably above the general audience response. Against a budget of two million dollars, its worldwide box office of one million dollars indicates it did not recoup its costs during its initial release.
What's left behind the scenes
- Before its US release, the film was heavily edited by censors, and in the UK, it was branded a "video nasty" (a term used to describe low-budget horror or exploitation films distributed on videocassettes in the early 1980s and criticized for their violent content). The film was only approved by the British Board of Film Classification in 1999.
- The film, a joint French and West German production, was shot in West Berlin, but it was not released in Germany until it came out on DVD in late 2009.
- Sam Neill (who played Marc) later recounted in his autobiography that he was very reluctant to hit Isabelle Adjani, who played Marc's wife, in the face and initially refused to film the scene. Neill and Andrzej Żuławski argued about it for a long time until Adjani herself intervened and asked Neill to perform as written in the script. The scene was filmed in three takes, after which Neill secluded himself and burst into tears.
- According to director and screenwriter Andrzej Żuławski, he conceived the script during his divorce from actress Małgorzata Braunek.
- Isabelle Adjani later recounted that it took her several years to recover from the role of Anna, and she never played similar characters again.
- Carlo Rambaldi, the Italian special effects master and creator of the animatronic alien head in Ridley Scott's horror film "Alien" (1979), participated in the creation of the tentacled creature featured in the film.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
