By Liz Lopez
Fantastic Fest 2021 offered many features and short films, as well as Repertory Screenings. Possession (1981), a film by Andrzej Żuławski, starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill, with a new 4K Restoration had the U.S. Premiere on Saturday of Fantastic Fest 2021 in Austin.
Banned upon its original release in 1981, Andrzej Żuławski’s highly choreographed nightmare of a marriage unraveling is an experience unlike any other. Professional spy Mark (Sam Neill) returns to his West Berlin home to find his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani, in a role that earned her Best Actress at Cannes) insistent on a divorce. As Anna’s frenzied behavior becomes ever more alarming, Mark discovers a truth far more sinister than his wildest suspicions. With its pulsating score, visceral imagery, and some of the most grueling performances ever captured on screen, Possession is cinematic delirium at its most intoxicating.
To celebrate the release of the restoration, Metrograph will present a program of some of the most iconic cinematic divorces, from An Unmarried Woman to Desert Hearts; a double bill of films featuring Sam Neill; and two films by collaborators and Possession devotees Amy Seimetz and Kate Lyn Sheil.
Following the U.S. Premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Possession will make its West Coast Premiere at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles and will open theatrically and digitally exclusively at Metrograph on October 1 before expanding to theaters nationwide on October 15. For more information on the theatrical release, visit metrograph.com
124 minutres / Color / English
Source: A Metrograph Pictures release