Possession

  • Friday, Feb 13

  • Saturday, Feb 14

Showtimes updated on Tuesday evenings
Legend
OCOpen Captioned
Special Content
35mm
SFSensory Friendly

Possession

Positioned somewhere between allegory and uncanny psychological truth, horror and gothic love story, Andrzej Żuławski’s notorious, 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) 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. Żuławski mined his own painful divorce for inspiration for a film that saw Adjani take home Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival before being banned by the UK and heavily censored by the U.S. for its initial theatrical release. Forty years later it was ranked among Sight & Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time, while clips of Adjani’s spectacular subway tunnel meltdown have become a popular internet meme.

This Valentine’s Day weekend, we’re celebrating the most romantic holiday of the year by acknowledging the ways love can make us feel just a little bit crazy. Catch Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, Albert Brook’s Modern Romance, and see the new release of Emerald Fennel’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

"The polar opposite of a date movie... Neill and Adjani are both at the height of their powers here, free of ego and fearless."
Phelim O'Neill, The Guardian
"Possession is like nothing else—an uncompromising and idiosyncratic vision of the divisions that exist around, between and within us all."
Anton Bitel, Little White Lies

This film is part of the following initiatives:


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The Jacob Burns Film Center is proud to receive generous support from:

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