Possession

(Andrzej Źuławski, 1981, West Germany/France, 124 minutes)

After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in 1981 (where Isabelle Adjani deservedly won Best Actress, in a joint award between that and Quartet, also playing as part of Adjanuary), the international co-production but English-language Possession suffered a checkered release in most English-speaking territories, including seeing release in a dreadfully truncated 81-minute cut in America and landing on the “Video Nasties” list in the U.K. A movie like this can never really go away, though. Whispered about for decades on account of Adjani’s performance, surely one of the all-time craziest committed to celluloid, lurking in import or bootleg form, and eventually seeing more official and higher-quality releases in its original cut, with a 2021 4K restoration finally snowballing it to legendary status. Taking elements from the domestic drama, body horror, creature features, and more, in addition to Adjani we have a stellar cast, including Jurassic Park’s Sam Neill as Adjani’s husband and Fassbinder favorite Margit Carstensen as one of Adjani’s friends. Lensed by Bruno Nuytten, who was in a relationship with Adjani at the time, and later directed her in her second Oscar-nominated performance in Camille Claudel. Possession won Adjani the first of her record five Césars for Best Actress.

January 15 screening features an introduction and post-film discussion from Victor Putinier, PhD candidate in French and Francophone Studies and Film and Media Studies at WashU.

You may also like the following events from Webster University Film Series:

• Next Friday, 16th January, 07:00 pm, The Story of Adèle H. in Webster Groves
• This month, 27th January, 07:00 pm, Quartet in Webster Groves
• This month, 29th January, 07:00 pm, Ishtar in Webster Groves

Also check out other Entertainment events in Webster Groves, Arts events in Webster Groves, Theatre events in Webster Groves.