Possession (1981)

Director: Andrzej Zulawski
Writer(s): Zulawski and Frederic Tuten
Starring: Sam Neill, Isabelle Adjani, Margit Carstensen, and Heinz Bennent

Rarely in the annals of cinema history has such a hectic film been branded with such an unimaginative title. I’d imagine that many who had never heard of it would have simply scoffed it off and ignored it on video store shelves, images of an uninspired Exorcist ripoff dancing through their heads. But on the other hand, for those adventurous few that decided to pick it up anyway must have been in for a hell of a shock, because Possession is nothing like you would imagine it to be.

If you have stumbled on this blog looking for an explanation, or some kind of answer as to what it is they have just witnessed, or, if you have not yet seen it, what you should prepare for, I will save you the hassle of reading and just tell you to move along. Just as I long ago lost interest in trying to decipher cryptic, often personal lyrics in music, so too have I stopped wasting time attempting to decode the motives and inspirations of filmmakers. There’s absolutely no point to me. Some people can’t enjoy a movie unless they attempt to understand every single nuance of the film they just viewed--if that helps them to get involved, then that’s great--but I don’t like spending a lot of time searching for answers that just aren’t there, or can’t be readily verified.

In this case, all that director Andrzej Zulawski has revealed is that he wrote the screenplay for this film while he was going through a divorce. So then it is perhaps not surprising that divorce plays a pivotal role in Possession; as it opens, Anna wants a divorce from her husband, Mark. The weirdest part about it is that the change seems sudden—as far as Mark is concerned, they were doing just fine. He demands to know why, and after much hesitation, Anna finally reveals that she found another lover, Heinrich, whom she has been seeing for over a year.

From here, we go into the typical range of emotions that we expect to experience in a drama dealing with a crumbling relationship: Mark pays a visit to Heinrich and questions his own shortcomings that might have played a role in their downfall, while Anna toggles between her two lifestyles, one as wife and mother, and the other as lover in a relationship with newfound freedom. But then we go into territory that goes unexplored in most similar films, as Anna slowly starts to lose her grip on reality. She neglects her child and disappears for days at a time, while Mark tries to hold everything together as best as he can, including taking care of Bob, their young child.

She’s gone more and more frequently, leaving Mark to question her whereabouts. Where is she spending a majority of her time? Does she have more lovers than just Heinrich? He hires a private investigator to get to the bottom of this mystery; the PI follows Anna to an apartment building. He calls Mark to let him know Anna’s whereabouts, before gaining entrance to her place by posing as the building manager. But what he comes face-to-face with in her bedroom is something beyond description, and it’s the last thing he sees before Anna kills him.

You know what? I’m just going to stop with the synopsis right here, because none of it really matters. As I alluded to from the outset, there’s really no possible way to tell exactly what’s going on: there are killings and creatures, and Mark even has an affair with a woman that looks exactly like his wife (and is, in fact, also played by Adjani). The movie often feels like a series of interconnected dreams, with only a vague resemblance to real life. The tradeoff is that this movie is pretty unpredictable, with the menacing, surrealistic atmosphere that would have been impossible to obtain with a more traditional narrative. Its ambiguity is also a big reason that it has any sort of fan base at all, with people still attempting to analyze every little detail. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that it also has, quite possibly, one of the greatest single acting performances of all time.

Sam Neill is just fine as Mark, the estranged husband, but the centerpiece of Possession is the jaw-dropping performance from Isabelle Adjani. Apparently, the facts state that shortly after this film was completed, Adjani suffered a nervous breakdown, and rumors persist to this day that it was the requirements from playing the character of Anna that pushed her over the edge. She has never verified or denied this, at least not that I could find, but just watching her completely envelope her character, going far beyond the call of duty, it’s easy to believe that it’s a strong possibility. Her Anna spends a good majority of the film losing her mind, screaming at her poor husband for the smallest of offences, and slowly losing her grip on reality.

It’s a strong, all-around performance. But it can all be summed up in one (in)famous scene in which she “miscarries” (whether it’s figurative, or literal—or both—within the confines of the story is another matter) all alone in a subway. The build-up, in which she screams, and writhes, and crawls all over the dirty floor is an epic one-woman show in and of itself, to speak nothing of the shocking way the scene ends. It also functions as the perfect introduction to this film: If you watch the clip and are still intrigued, you will probably like Possession a great deal. If you can’t make it all the way through, well, it’s probably good advice to stay far away. 

Because things get even weirder than that.

RECAP: Isabelle Adjani’s unbelievable performance, which just may be one of the greatest performance of all time, is the centerpiece of this surrealistic nightmare from director Andzrej Zulawski (RIP). The face-value “storyline” is simple, and concerns a husband desperate to find out what’s causing his wife to slowly go mad, but it’s completely obvious there’s much more to it than that. If you enjoy analyzing movies down to the final detail, this would be a great pick for you, whereas anyone that enjoys a more straightforward narrative will end up lost and/or frustrated. I’ll end this on a word of warning: Don’t be fooled by its simple, unimaginative title. It’s not a typical possession flick (if it even is at all), and only gets weirder and weirder as it rolls along.

RATING: 8/10

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Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997)

Director: Michael Cohn
Writer(s): Tom Szollosi and Deborah Serra, from a story by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Sam Neill, Monica Keena, and Gil Bellows

I had wanted to see Snow White: A Tale of Terror for a long time.  It first caught my eye when I was a teenager, but for whatever reason, I would always pass it up at the video store, probably in favor of more violent fare.  Then the older I got, the less and less it appealed to me, and I completely forgot about it.

That is, until I stumbled on it on an online streaming service.  My wife also really wanted to see it, to bring back memories of her own; she had watched a scary Snow White movie several times with her sister and mother when she was very young (ironic, considering her parents forbid movies like this from being anywhere near the house) and wanted to relive it again as an adult.  Eager for two different reasons, we settled in.

Honestly, my biggest fear going in was that I would be bored out of my mind.  While my wife is a huge fan of fairy tales in general (like a lot of women), I tend to avoid them like the plague (like most men).  Obviously, I knew this was geared more toward adults, but seeing as how it had two big-name stars (in Sigourney Weaver and Sam Neill), I just expected it to be a watered-down horror film with a lot of talking and very little imagination.  Boy was I wrong.

The coolest aspect is that it is more or less a fairy tale in name only.  Sure, it borrows events and basic ideas from Snow White, but, for example, there is no one ever called “Snow White” in it.  Just as none of the seven dwarves, who in this movie are seven miners (and only one of whom is actually short), are ever referred to by name. 

As the film opens, Frederick Hoffman (pronounced “Free-der-ick”; played by Sam Neill) and his wife Lilliana are taking a carriage ride through the woods, on their way back home.  Lilliana is several months pregnant and appears as if she could burst open at any time.  Then tragedy strikes:  The carriage hits a fallen tree trunk, causing a wheel to fall off, and causing the carriage—and the accompanying horse—to slide down an embankment.  Lilliana is injured, and will not survive; her dying wish is for Frederick to cut open her stomach and deliver the child.

That child is Lilli, the “Snow White” of the title.  After a few years of raising Lilli on his own, he is finally arranged to marry a noblewoman known as Lady Claudia (Sigourney Weaver).  Jealous at the idea that Claudia will take time away from her and her father, Lilli hates her right off the bat—by the time the story progresses to her teenage years, the hatred has grown mutual.

One night, during an event in their large castle, Lilli defies her stepmother’s orders by wearing an old gown that used to belong to her biological mother.  At first, her father is shocked, but then grows to love the idea and the two of them spend the night dancing together.  Infuriated by this, Claudia retreats to her room, where she is taken under the spell of an evil mirror, and vows to kill her stepdaughter by any means necessary, which then becomes the film’s entire focus.

Snow White: A Tale of Terror is a dark film to be sure, and I don’t mean it’s not well-lit; it deals with some themes that truly shocked me, and also features a small helping of some rather brutal (though simulated) animal cruelty that will no doubt be hard for some to stomach.  But what really elevates this beyond typical genre fare is the area I feared it would falter: its imagination.  For example, while under the spell of the mirror, everything that Claudia does in the mansion, is reciprocated wherever Lilli is.  So, for example, when Claudia goes on a rampage down a mansion hallway, spinning and tipping over large decorum, her spinning causes a tornado in the woods where Lilli is staying, and the tipped-over statues become falling trees that spell danger for her and the dwarves. 

These little nuances, of which there are many, really help to maintain the fairy tale atmosphere, while still imbuing it with its own brand of unique creativity.  It’s a fine-line to toe, but director Michael Cohn is up to the task.  He’s also game to coax an excellent performance out of the entire cast, but Sigourney Weaver steals the show as Claudia, whose gradual descent into madness and pure evil feels eerily authentic.  Rather than overplaying her role, which seems to be the preferred tactic of many actors playing a villain role, she keeps her performance grounded, and the effect is far more chilling--not to mention eerily human--than if she would have gone overboard.

Monica Keena is also good as “Snow White”, but the approach the writers took to her character is rather weird:  She is technically the aggressor in her relationship with Claudia, absolutely refusing to have anything to do with her, while Claudia at least tries to tolerate her.  I’ve actually read many people say that they preferred Claudia’s character, simply because Lilli is so callous and cold toward her new stepmother that they found her hard to root for.  The writers also stumble a bit with the “dwarves”, as they don’t really seem to know what to do with them.  Several of them appear in just a couple scenes, and only one interacts with her at length—in other words, most of them are just throwaways, included only to create more similarities between this and the source material.

Despite these flaws, Snow White: A Tale of Terror manages to be surprisingly good.  Director Cohn’s success here is rather unexpected, given that his entire filmography up to this point consisted of just two films: A below-average sci-fi movie (Interceptor), and a mild thriller starring Ally Walker and Martin Sheen (When the Bough Breaks).  Startlingly, you would think a movie like this would have jumpstarted his career, but he did not make another movie until 2014, with Sacrifice, a little-seen (it’s only been reviewed by 14 people on the IMDb) and boringly-titled thriller that sounds like millions of other thrillers (though it did get a slightly above-average review from Variety).  It’s kind of a shame that he wasn’t given more opportunities, because this showed exactly what he was capable of.

RECAP: Snow White: A Tale of Terror is a surprisingly imaginative film, featuring an amazing central performance from Sigourney Weaver as the evil witch.  But make no mistake:  This is a dark, dark film that tackles some disturbing issues head-on, so keep the little ones away.  The special effects (especially the makeup) are really well done.  The biggest complaint is the writing, which doesn’t do much with the “dwarf” characters, and oddly makes Lilli the initial aggressor in her relationship with Claudia (rather than eliciting sympathy by making her a victim).  Flaws aside, though, it’s a fascinating film, and one that has enough tricks up its sleeve to hold the viewer’s attention from the beginning, to the end.

RATING: 7/10

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