Andrzej Żuławski's masterpiece begins as a divorce drama and ends somewhere outside human comprehension. Isabelle Adjani's performance — including the legendary subway scene — remains one of cinema's most physically committed pieces of acting, the kind that visibly tears the actress apart on screen.
Andrzej Żuławski films a divorce as a Cold War tentacled apocalypse in Berlin. Isabelle Adjani's subway scene is the film's argument: the body can break before the marriage does.
Andrzej Żuławski's marital collapse twists into Cold War metaphysics and tentacular horror — every viewer leaves describing a different film.
Possession. Andrzej Żuławski shot it in West Berlin while his marriage fell apart. Isabelle Adjani plays a woman whose extramarital affair takes on a tentacled, screaming form in a Berlin subway. She has said the film almost broke her permanently. Cannes Best Actress, 1981.
Andrzej Żuławski films a divorce as obsession-monster in Berlin. Isabelle Adjani's subway scene is the film: the body cannot contain the wanting.
