POSSESSION Review

"Because I'm the maker of my own evil..."

A cry for understanding at a time of unbearable betrayal. Something penned from the remote and raw part of the mind that draws no quarter in its depiction of feeling. Of blue dresses observed scarlet. Of cataclysmic events and the evils done in their wake. To each other in the childish and primal game of one-upsmanship. To children in neglect. And to ourselves, as the allure of pain is at least a new feeling.

"What can I do about it? Nothing..."

The actuals in Żuławski's portrayal of the above exacting. The cyclones of sacrifice shown with camera. The corner booth and its mirror in the café. The broad and desolate streets of West Berlin. It's shot wild and feral.

Adjani gives every ounce of what she's got to the project. I know it's a confirmation thing to say (in a good or bad sense), but you can just feel that she's distilling something so vulnerable and amazing every second. There are specifics to it — the subway being the best encapsulation — but you could pick any moment within and concept is proven. A triumph.

"Almost...Almost..."

One of the most extreme examples of "love will make you do crazy things", and testimony to a rephrasing with heightened adverb. Of the communions we make and how they blur the lines between right and wrong. Harm to all involved with seen and unseen knives. Living in dereliction vs. living in incessant distaste. Gaining a new and fresh and without errors-known life and the lengths gone to protect it as such. And of the rope around our chest constantly pulling us back and past. And of surviving the pull and making it out alive as shells of our former selves. Are we still us? Do we have a choice?

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The above was taken from my Letterboxd review.