Watched Possession (1981)

I love the 80s era of movies. I wasn’t usually a big fan of black and white movies (until I saw Psycho), so the 70s and 80s were the extreme years I would go to when looking for something to watch.

I came across Obsession in a selection of films about doppelgangers (who doesn’t know, usually these are evil doubles of a character who are the complete opposite of the main character). By chance, today Facebook showed me a frame from the same film, and I decided that this was a clear sign to watch it. So… what made it stand out among the others?

Mark and Anna are going through a difficult time in their relationship. One day, when Mark returns from a business trip, it becomes clear that something has changed. Love is no longer burning, but smoldering, and he tries to figure out what exactly has changed in their lives. It quickly becomes clear that Anna has another man, and she is trying in every way to leave her husband for him. However, the persistent Mark does not give up trying to return Anna to the family.

The beginning of the film is quite difficult and this is the moment when everything seems incomprehensible to you and you almost want to give up, because the chronology of the events that occur does not give an understanding of what caused the breakup in the first place. Certain answers begin at the moment when Mark hires a detective who must follow Anna to understand where exactly she disappears. In the end, it becomes clear that Anna has her own secrets, which exist not only in relation to her husband Mark, but also in relation to her lover Heinrich.

I haven’t seen the old version of Suspiria (I’ll have to catch up), but certain scenes from Obsession make me wonder if the remake’s creator was inspired by that film. Other elements (the difficulty of relationships) reminded me a bit of von Trier’s Antichrist, albeit with a lower level of brutality in the pair (though…). But at the same time, the film forces you to look at yourself from different angles.

To a lesser extent, the film is about religion, which is reflected in the form of Anna’s thoughts that exist in her, Faith and Chance exist, and these “two sisters” fight among themselves. One of them wants to be with her family, with Mark and the child. The other, on the contrary, wants some bright sensations and a free life. As such, an allusion to the situation when a person likes her family life but, at the same time, she wants new sensations. The second side of the film is the search for the ideal partner. Although each of the characters sees love in each other, at the same time, he lacks something that he tries to find somewhere on the side. In another person, who would fill the world with exactly what he/she needs. It is about the eternal search for the ideal partner, which does not exist, and which you try to create in your imagination.

The film tells the story of what would happen if each of us got what we wanted, and the price we have to pay to get what we want.

Is this movie worth watching? Its genre combines detective, horror and drama. Although, I would add a little more thriller. If you like these genres – I highly recommend watching it, as well as to connoisseurs of Lars von Trier’s films