The question of what was cut has puzzled me in regards to this movie. The USA version is 123 mins but the french (i think) is 127mins so this begs the question of what did they get that we didn't.
Any one know the answer to this?
alpha
My guess is nothing. Film runtimes are notoriously inaccurate. For example, one person could be counting the end credits and another may not. One might be reporting the "official" runtime (which may pertain to a workprint or rough cut), as provided by a film studio, whereas one might have timed it himself. Also, there is the issue of PAL-format speedup, by which the European video version of a film will be 4% shorter than the film version of the same movie (which wouldn't explain this particular case, but still happens a lot).
In any case, with such a small difference, my guess is that it's nothing... However, it certainly could be lost footage, considering the prudish American audience. If it's missing anything, my guess is that it's some sexual content, rather than violence.
I'm thinking it's PAL speed-up as well. There was a North American censored version, but it was cut mainly for running time, which made the movie even less coherent.
Do The Mussolini! Headkick!
Yeah, I've seen that cut version [ I'm fortunate enough to live next to a video rental shop that stocks a ton of old horror VHS tapes ]. Whoever altered the film apparently wanted to transform it into something resembling The Exorcist or The Omen. From what i remember, all the sex/violence is intact, but what little remains of this movie's 'linear plot' is cut and mangled to the point of absolute incoherency, so they didn't succeed in emulating the aforementioned films very well in the end. Also, stock music is added [ Children chanting Bible verses, i think ] and the overall score is totally different. Maybe I'll rent it again, because i actually liked this alternate version for what it was. ^_^
"Cain and Abel will go to Heaven... if they can make it through Hell!" -Los Hijos Del Topo
What about the Australian R4 release of this movie which are supposed to be the complete and uncut version,is this the full length version ?
And whatabout the Spanish R2 release - la Posesion, is this uncut ?
The back of the US DVD case states that it runs 123 minutes, so this is either an error or it's been tranferred from a pal master in which case it may suffer from pal speed-up even though it is NTSC. As far as im aware, all dvd versions miss a frame in which two eyes appear in the goo during the scene with adjani in the subway
shareHere is the correct running time & cut status of the PAL & NTSC DVDs of Possession.
1) U.S. (Anchor Bay) 2:03:33min NTSC (Out Of Print) uncut
2) Japanese (Cinefil Imagica) 2:3:24min NTSC (Out Of Print) uncut
3) Spanish (Filmax) uncut 1:58:30min PAL uncut
4) South Korea (Yonce Digital Media Co. LTD) 1:58:14min NTSC (Bootleg)cut by 5min
Anchor Bay has a good progressive transfer and is not interlaced.
However the BIGGEST DIFFERENCE between these versions is the Soundtrack. There is about 20+min of music missing from Spanish & Japanese versions. These versions have identical soundtrack, which is completely different from the Anchor Bay version. For a detailed list of missing music cues check here:
http://andrzej-zulawski.com/AZF/viewtopic.php?t=15
5) Greek (Art Free) 1:58:27min PAL uncut
It's a good transfer in 1.66:1 anamorphic, but there's only FRENCH audio!
Greek subtitles.
Available on E-bay for about 9 U.S. dollars including shipping.
i have the original US VHS tape and i was wondering what had happened to the scene where the pals of her hands split open and eyeballs appear. i have the dvd double feature that came out awhile ago and the director makes no comment about that scene being missing or added by its US distributors... any ideas what's going on with that?
share"i have the original US VHS tape and i was wondering what had happened to the scene where the pals of her hands split open and eyeballs appear. i have the dvd double feature that came out awhile ago and the director makes no comment about that scene being missing or added by its US distributors... any ideas what's going on with that? "
Wow! That scene sounds like a shot in the Jackson 5 music video for "Torture". Have you seen the video and do you think it was inspired by or a rip-off of Possession?
I have the Director's Approved German DVD release which is UNCUT and English Friendly.
Also the only English writing on the DVD cover says, about the film, It's About a Woman *beep* an Octopus
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