Check it out here - in a news interview about Possession back in 1981 (I think), they show the scene with Adjani going crazy in the subway station. Just after she smashes her groceries on the wall, you see a little bit not kept in the final cut. They should have kept it because that little bit looked real scary:
http://www.ina.fr/video/CAA8100729001
Has anyone seen this before?
I have definitely seen it. Actually, the scene is longer than that. Gets way crazier. Not to spoil anything but she miscarries in an unimaginable sequence shot beautifully, which of course proved extremely trying on Adjani. Hope you get to see the whole thing.
waste yourself before others do. uh huh.
Hi uzeus,
That's actually not what I'm talking about. I have seen the whole film - I know about the miscarriage scene. The point I was making was that there is a little bit that is cut from the scene in the finished film that they showed in this clip from Cannes during the release of the film. When she smashes her groceries against the wall, she suddenly grabs the wall, dips her head forward and starts growling. This is NOT in the finished version. In the version on the director's cut (including the Anchor Bay and the new Mondo Blu-ray release), after she smahes her groceries against the wall, the scene cuts to Adjani flipping her hair around and flailing about. The new Mondo Vision Blu-ray (as well the Anchor Bay version) omits the wall-grabbing scene altogther. That's what I was talking about...
Yes. I now see what you mean. I saw this small sequence followed by the interview about ten years back after i had seen the movie four times. I remember now thinking this was an extended/unedited sequence for the theaters.
Despite the cut, kudos to the whole cut of the scene even w/o the wall grab. Can you imagine a similar scene of the same madness magnitude today making it out of the edit?
What a movie though, what an experience. Certainly in my top three of all time.
waste yourself before others do. uh huh.
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The cut off bit you are referring to was only ever in the severely cut American release. It's of Adjani in the midst of the miscarriage scene, looking at her hands where two eyes are liking back at her. The creature was born from the fluids she leaked out, mixed with a bit of sand left behind from maintenance workers. Zulawski had initially put this in his script but it was cut out of his final version. But added back in the early American release which was butchered by censors. I have not seen this eye segment, but I can imagine what it must be like, and terrifying is the word to describe it!
Zulawski took inspiration from the Jewish mythical demon, the Golem, a creature made out of earthy clay/sand/dirt to have his doppelgänger being brought into our world. Just one small piece of how truly brilliant and philosophical Possession really is!
curious_chaos: I own both the American version and the full European version. I have seen the part with the two eyes in her hands looking back at her (in the American version). However, that wall-grabbing scene I am talking about (I don't know HOW many times I've explained this already), is NOT in either version! This must have been an original sequence that was shot and used only in promotional viewings - in this case, that full scene (in which she grabs the wall, dips her head and starts growling) was supplied to news media. But it was never used in any official version - be it the cut American version or the full European version.
And the part about the fluids mixing with the sand left behind by maintenance workers. That might have been originally written in the script - but anything to do with sand left behind by maintenance workers doesn't appear onscreen (either in the American version or the European version). Unless the fluids mixing with the sand is merely conjecture and supposition...
Wait, so was that miscarriage before the monster came into the picture? That was supposed to have sparked the entire thing? When i watched it i figured that freakish miscarriage was a result of her banging the monster.
shareDingus Studley: The miscarriage scene is a flashback to how the monster was created. Actually, it's not really a miscarriage. People always seem to think it is...what is happening is that Anna has a lot of repressed guilt, shame, anger and desire. All those suppressed emotions come up to the surface and then physically manifest into the external reality in the form of this monster. The monster is, therefore, the product of Anna's guilt, shame, desire, anger, etc.
share