Isabelle Adjani’s career isn’t as well known today as it should. The French actress/singer is one of the most prolific in European cinema, with her career spanning over 50 years. She’s still very active today with all kinds of roles. The cabinet where she keeps her awards is probably full of César trophies, as she’s the only performer in history to have won five of those.
If this is the first time you’ve heard about her, then it’s time to go back and dig into the past. Chances are you’re missing out on one of the best actresses in generations.
Curiously, one of her best performances isn’t talked about too often. As usual, horror is undermined as the place where scenic arts don’t apply and dramatic performances aren’t recognized. Adjani’s performance of Anna (and her doppelgänger Helen) in Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 film Possession is riveting and excruciatingly haunting. The cult status of the film just grows every second, and frequently Adjani’s stills are shown in lists of this nature.
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So, why isn’t Adjani’s work in Possession more widely acknowledged?
A Family Outcast Becomes a Victim
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But a victim of what exactly? In Possession, a spy returns home to West Berlin, Germany, to find Anna, his wife, isn’t the same loving mother and wife she once was. Her behavior is erratic, and even when she admits she’s having an affair, her husband Mark can’t understand how to react. They resort to explicit violence when they can’t agree to anything, and their son is neglected because Anna keeps forgetting things. In the beginning, Anna is a monster, and Żuławski’s complex film sparks from this.
Mark (Sam Neill in a performance that’s similar in tone to Adjani’s) decides to hire a private investigator to see where Anna spends most of her time. This allows Mark to connect more with his son. When he drops Bob in school, he realizes the boy’s teacher eerily resembles Anna. It seems the film will portray a man trying to solve a mystery.
Think again. Possession isn’t a film like any other. The second half is a mysterious exploration of trauma and psychosis, represented by the materialization of the twisted nature of Anna’s pathological sentiment. She becomes a victim of something controlled by some version of her sanity that’s still wandering around, but that drifts away further every second.
If you think we’re entering spoiler territory, we’re not. We won’t reveal what happens, but even if we did, we wouldn’t try to explain the direction of the film. It’s still open to interpretation.
Adjani’s Performance is Essential, But Possession Isn’t a Showcase.
By checking out the trailer for Possession, or even by looking at the stills, you would think Adjani’s journey is full of dramatic skills, typical of other genres. Nevertheless, Żuławski’s direction is grounded on a nightmarish canvas. The effort is shared by everyone else on the film. It’s just that Adjani shines as the scapegoat for the dark fantasy element that leads into full psychological chaos.
It isn’t a pretty performance. It’s magnetic because it’s impossible to look away from, and because of Adjani’s depiction of a crisis that’s framed inside a universe where anything can happen. If you look, for example, at the subway scene, when Anna physically manifests a downward spiral, you would think that this is ’80s European cinema’s representation of a nervous breakdown. If only it were that simple. Anna submits to her own lack of boundaries, as evidenced by her manner of emotional self-harm and realization of something dark growing inside of her body and mind.
For Adjani, this is a pivotal scene that confirms once and for all why her performance is important. The actress is able to embody a dark mystery taking over her life. Anna lets go of her agency, and this is the first time in the film when there’s no control on what will happen to Anna and Mark. They had everything in their hands, but they are now the weakest link in a scheme that’s unlike anything we’ve seen in cinema. A mix between fantasy, nightmarish Lovecraftian expression, and the disturbing manipulation of a mind under distress.
The Power of Mystery in Possession
Adjani’s performance is one for the books. That’s a given. Looking back at Possession, more than 40 years after it was released, you would think the enigmas would be solved. At least some of them.
Yet Possession is still as cryptic as ever. It isn’t an easy film to watch, and some of its violence is gut-wrenching, but it’s nothing compared to the film’s portrayal of madness, and what is born out of it. Because there are actually two clear things about Possession. First, you may have many questions once the credits roll, but the answers you get are upsetting enough to leave you shaken for some time. Second, it’s Isabelle Adjani’s greatest horror performance of her career, and possibly of all time.
