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Did someone order a long rambling mess? No? Well here’s one anyway. As the archive.org version of the film does not have subtitles and the heavy accents and constant whispering/shouting made it difficult for me to understand most of the dialogue, I used this “script” to follow along: https://subslikescript.com/movie/Possession-82933. It really helped me make a bit more sense of the narrative. I find myself, once again, having to review a film steeped in a blue-tinged malaise (and occasional orange-tinted horror). Possession is unrelentingly emotionally draining. The film starts off with a tense discussion between a man and a woman on the brink of a divorce, and the tension only ramps up from there, never to let up until the end. No one in this movie acts like a real person. Every movement is an unnatural contortion. People are constantly rocking and fidgeting, like junkies after their next fix. Every close-up features a tight jawed, bug-eyed facsimile of a human face with teeth poised to bite you right in the face. Most of the dialogue is either whispered or shouted. Mania and paranoia abound in Possession. It’s fascinating that a movie with so many phone conversations can feel so frantic. While I was enraptured by the content, I noted that I had been watching the movie with my body pulled as far back into the chair as I could muster, as if some part of my brain wanted to flee the experience. How wonderful (If it’s not clear by now, I have a masochistic streak when it comes to movies.) Both Sam Neil and Isabelle Adjani are giving performances cranked up to eleven, but Adjani is particularly devastating. The shoot was apparently incredibly physically and mentally demanding, and you can feel that in every frame. I was exhausted by the time the credits rolled. As other reviewers have mentioned, the husband, Mark, is the director’s self-insert. The fact that we’re supposed to relate to him and view him sympathetically is telling of what kind of person he is. After having returned from a long work-related absence, he arrives home to a wife who no longer loves him and a son he barely knows. Confronted with the reality of losing his family, he makes the grand gesture of foregoing his important spy work (providing vials to an increasingly greedy man with pink socks?) to focus on his family. However, his actions come far too late and appear to be unwanted. He tries to impose his presence and will on Anna, who keeps telling him (and most of the male characters in the film) to leave her alone. She tells him in no uncertain terms that it’s over between them. She has found someone new, someone better. In fact, both of them seem to have found idealized reflections of the other. Mark finds his in Bob’s teacher, who is soft and maternal. Anna asserts that her lover is better than Mark in every way during one of their conversations. He also brings her a sense of purpose and his ability to seemingly enact his will upon others also reflects a heightened version of what initially attracted her about Mark (‘From now on she'll know, how much righteous anger and sheer will she's got in her to say, "I can do as well. I can be better. I'm the best." Only in this case can she become a success. Nobody took me there. That's why I'm with you. Because you say "I" for me.’). It is interesting to note that both figures have green eyes (although fully formed Not Mark’s eyes seem to be darker, whereas half-formed Not Mark had emerald green eyes), which may symbolize the grass being greener on the other side. And yet, despite this, both characters (Mark more so than Anna, but she shows signs of being unsure) seem to cling to their failed relationship, which does not appear to be one worth fighting for. Mark shows himself to be extremely volatile (throws tantrums in public), emotionally manipulative (threatens to abandon his son) and violent (“Are you afraid I’ll get made again and beat you?”). Anna is no perfect specimen either. She is unfaithful, evasive, neglectful of her son and clearly disturbed. Mark constantly remarks about how much she has changed, something he initially attributes to the wonderfully ridiculous Heinrich. However, it is later revealed that her change was brought on by a miscarriage. The miscarriage, which she describes as being “Sister Faith,” occurs immediately following a scene where Anna seems to be looking up imploringly at a statue of Jesus (there are several allusions to religion throughout the film, but, as a disgusting heathen, my analysis will be very shallow). This does not appear to bring her solace. The aftermath, a scene so painful in its rawness, has Anna writhing in a subway as if possessed by demons. If we take into consideration her statement that “Goodness is only some kind of reflection of evil” and that Jesus is born from a virgin birth, then Anna serves as a dark reflection of Marie by shattering “mother’s milk” and miscarrying the anti-Christ. She becomes “the maker of [her] own evil.” The rest of the movie is Adjani acting like a cornered beast as she attempts to “protect her faith.” There is no elation in her murders. The act seems to horrify her, and she seems to try to avoid it when possible In the end, Mark and Anna’s toxic relationship destroys them, Bob (or maybe he’s just good at keeping his head underwater. He’s been practicing since the start of the film) and the entire world. Hurray. Notable quotes: - “That's why through the disease we can reach God.” - “Darkness is easeful. And the temptation to let go... promises so much comfort after the pain.” - "We are all the same but in different words. With different bodies, different versions, like insects. Meat! " - "It isn't normal. It wasn't even human. It was... Divine? Perhaps you met God a moment ago and you didn't even realize it." - "You know, for me, God is still under the porch, where the dog died." Yesterdays Piss fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Nov 8, 2020 |
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Nov 7, 2020 20:15
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| # ¿ May 19, 2024 18:53 |
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