Location: Rubenstein Arts Center Film Theater
Possession
(Andrzej Żuławski, 1981, 124 min, France/Germany, English, French, and German with English subtitles, 35mm)
Special 35mm Screening!
Banned upon its original release in 1981, Andrzej Żuławski’s stunningly 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 haunting performances ever captured on screen, Possession is cinematic delirium at its most intoxicating.
Isabelle Adjani, winner of Best Actress at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival
"It isn’t the operatic physical violence that we witness happening in Possession that’s so unnerving. It’s the psychic violence that people inflict on each other when a union is rendered asunder — the kind that makes someone going ballistic in a subway station seem tame by comparison — that makes this movie feel so painful, and so precise in terms of pushing hard on your pressure points. See it with someone you loathe." – David Fear, Rolling Stone
Screen/Society screenings are free and open to the public.
Parking Info: https://artscenter.duke.edu/parking
COVID-19 Info: https://cinematicarts.duke.edu/covid-19-information
