Watching Possession (again)

This is one of those films I own a digital copy of. As committed as I am to physical media, there are a number of go-to classics that I have on in the background in my office when I’m either trying to complete mundane and repetitive tasks or simply need a break - and can’t be bothered going downstairs to find the hard copy.

I’ve seen possession loads of times - often only part of the way through - it’s such an odd patchwork of themes, styles, narratives and tones that it doesn’t really matter if you only focus on one part - it’s still worth the experience. It’s like 10 films in one and never lets you know where it’s going until it’s too late.

Possession makes almost no sense - it has a central story - but it’s hidden under layers of subplots and diversions, false starts and dead ends - it’s amazing, infuriating, mesmerising and confounding at the same time.

The central performances from Sam Neil and Isabelle Adjani are phenomenal - and oddly at odds with some - if not all of the supporting cast, who often seem stagey and dragged in from other films, but somehow that makes you focus more on the two stars as they go through an astonishing range of emotional extremes. Sometimes, the more natural acting we get in the dynamics of a failing marriage feels like it came in from another film when compared to the darkness we get to see see in both key players - I know there are plenty of stories about the emotional and physical toll the production took out of Neil and Adjani - and they are perfectly matched in every breakdown, hysterical outburst and in the darkness of their connivance with evils of their own chosing.

Possession also has the most disturbing and frightening practical effect monster since The Thing, a figure so unnerving - presented with almost no real explanation and understanding - it confounds what we were expecting from the film at this point. It takes us all somewhere very dark indeed.

I can’t say much more - you really need to experience Possession for yourself - but there is one key scene at the very end when the child does something unexpected and terrifying in response to someone opening the door and letting someone into the apartment that is absolutely the only time I’ve ever been genuinely scared in the cinema.

I have read that Possession is being remade. I have no idea why anyone would do something that stupid.