Possession (1981 film)

Possession
On a slate gray background, a naked woman is seen from the waist up. Tentacles replace her hair, tie her hands behind her back, and run under her breasts.
French film poster
Directed byAndrzej Żuławski
Screenplay byAndrzej Żuławski
Adaptation and dialogue by
Produced byMarie-Laure Reyre
Starring
CinematographyBruno Nuytten
Edited by
  • Marie-Sophi Dubus
  • Suzanne Lang-Willar
Music byAndrzej Korzyński
Production
companies
  • Oliane Productions
  • Marianne Productions
  • Soma Film Produktion[1]
Distributed byGaumont
Release dates
  • 25 May 1981 (1981-05-25) (Cannes)
  • 27 May 1981 (1981-05-27) (France)
Running time
124 minutes
Countries
  • France
  • West Germany[1]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2.4 million[2]
Box office$1.1 million (US only)[3][4]

Possession is a 1981 psychological horror drama film directed by Andrzej Żuławski and written by Żuławski and Frederic Tuten. The plot obliquely follows the relationship between an international spy (Sam Neill) and his wife (Isabelle Adjani), who begins exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking for a divorce.

Possession, an international co-production between France and West Germany, was filmed in West Berlin in 1980. Żuławski's only English-language film, it premiered at the 34th Cannes Film Festival, where Adjani won the Best Actress award for her performance. The screenplay was written during the painful divorce of Żuławski from actress Malgorzata Braunek. While not commercially successful either in Europe or in the United States, with the latter only receiving a heavily edited cut on its initial release, the film eventually acquired cult status and has been more positively appraised in later years.

  1. ^ a b "Possession". Filmportal.de. Archived from the original on 18 March 2023. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
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