Max Landis on Possession

Isabelle Adjani's award-winning performance anchors this most unusual and little-seen marital nightmare from Polish director Andrzej Zulawksi, which won plaudits in Europe in its 123 minute version but played off as a horror programmer in America after losing 26 minutes. Imagine Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage set in Berlin with special effects by Carlo Rambaldi. The seldom astute Vincent Canby of The New York Times characterized it as "a veritable carnival of nosebleeds", which is pretty typical of the US critical reaction at the time.