Latest news with #Possession
The Guardian
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Is Possession about a harrowing divorce or a woman with an octopus kink? Why not both?
Andrzej Żuławski's Possession is genuinely unhinged and utterly unforgettable. Żuławski called it 'a very true-to-life autobiographical story', which it is: when he made it in 1981, his own marriage had just collapsed, and as portraits of divorce go, Possession is a pretty spectacular one. But Żuławski also once described Possession as a film about a woman who 'fucks with an octopus', which it is too. A co-production between France and West Germany that was shot in West Berlin by a Polish director, Possession opens as Mark (Sam Neill), a spy, returns home and finds that his wife, Anna (Isabelle Adjani), wants a divorce. She's having an affair, she reveals, ostensibly with Heinrich (Heinz Bennent) – exactly the kind of lofty weirdo you'd hate your wife to dump you for. Mark reluctantly turns over custody of their young son, Bob, but soon discovers Bob is being left unattended for long periods by Anna, who is increasingly erratic and keeps disappearing. Mark hires a private investigator to find out who she is seeing – or what she is seeing. Something is not quite right about Possession from the start, and that's long before you get any tentacle sex. Even how it looks is a bit wrong: West Berlin is somehow both creepily clean and decaying, and haunted by an overwhelming sense of paranoia. (Anna and Mark's apartment looks out on to the Wall, which means we get shots of real patrolling soldiers.) Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning The dialogue is strange and stilted, reminiscent of David Lynch and David Cronenberg. Anna and Mark's frantic arguments often devolve to the point where nothing they say makes sense – though who hasn't felt like that during a fight with a loved one? Even time itself doesn't seem to work properly; Mark loses three weeks at one point, and it is never remarked on again. But Possession gets truly bizarre when the identity of Anna's real lover is finally revealed: a bloody, tentacled creature she's been hiding in a decrepit apartment. Alien designer HR Giger told Żuławski to hire special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi to make his frisky extraterrestrial. (For his next film, Rambaldi designed an equally grotesque alien: ET.) Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Neill and Adjani are remarkable as an anguished couple at the end of their tether. They are completely fearless: they shout, throw furniture, harm themselves and each other. Neill has called it 'the most extreme film I have ever made in every respect … I think I only just escaped that film with my sanity barely intact.' In probably the film's most harrowing scene, Adjani screams and throws herself around a subway tunnel for what feels like hours. Much has been said about her reported breakdown after Possession – mostly by Żuławski, who spoke about her apparent suicide attempt like it was good promotional fodder. But for her part, Adjani has called Possession 'only the type of film you can do when you are young … It was quite an amazing film to do, but I got bruised, inside out.' Possession straddles many worlds: it won acclaim and Adjani best actress at Cannes, and was also banned in the UK for many years as a video nasty. It's not quite horror, but it is often horrifying, filled with dread and only occasionally bloody. The British film critic Mark Kermode has said that both times he programmed Possession at a festival, someone in the audience passed out. I don't believe anyone who claims they really know what Possession is about. That secret may have died with Żuławski. But it is an enjoyable puzzle to mull over. Are you watching something actually happen, or some kind of emotional truth instead? Is it deeply misogynistic, or actually a scathing portrait of male inadequacy? Perhaps it is both. Is it about how divorce reduces us to our worst, or a woman fucking an octopus? Perhaps it is both. Possession is available to stream on Prime Video in Australia, the UK and the US. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
The Guardian
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Is Possession about a harrowing divorce or a woman with an octopus kink? Why not both?
Andrzej Żuławski's Possession is genuinely unhinged and utterly unforgettable. Żuławski called it 'a very true-to-life autobiographical story', which it is: when he made it in 1981, his own marriage had just collapsed, and as portraits of divorce go, Possession is a pretty spectacular one. But Żuławski also once described Possession as a film about a woman who 'fucks with an octopus', which it is too. A co-production between France and West Germany that was shot in West Berlin by a Polish director, Possession opens as Mark (Sam Neill), a spy, returns home and finds that his wife, Anna (Isabelle Adjani), wants a divorce. She's having an affair, she reveals, ostensibly with Heinrich (Heinz Bennent) – exactly the kind of lofty weirdo you'd hate your wife to dump you for. Mark reluctantly turns over custody of their young son, Bob, but soon discovers Bob is being left unattended for long periods by Anna, who is increasingly erratic and keeps disappearing. Mark hires a private investigator to find out who she is seeing – or what she is seeing. Something is not quite right about Possession from the start, and that's long before you get any tentacle sex. Even how it looks is a bit wrong: West Berlin is somehow both creepily clean and decaying, and haunted by an overwhelming sense of paranoia. (Anna and Mark's apartment looks out on to the Wall, which means we get shots of real patrolling soldiers.) Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning The dialogue is strange and stilted, reminiscent of David Lynch and David Cronenberg. Anna and Mark's frantic arguments often devolve to the point where nothing they say makes sense – though who hasn't felt like that during a fight with a loved one? Even time itself doesn't seem to work properly; Mark loses three weeks at one point, and it is never remarked on again. But Possession gets truly bizarre when the identity of Anna's real lover is finally revealed: a bloody, tentacled creature she's been hiding in a decrepit apartment. Alien designer HR Giger told Żuławski to hire special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi to make his frisky extraterrestrial. (For his next film, Rambaldi designed an equally grotesque alien: ET.) Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Neill and Adjani are remarkable as an anguished couple at the end of their tether. They are completely fearless: they shout, throw furniture, harm themselves and each other. Neill has called it 'the most extreme film I have ever made in every respect … I think I only just escaped that film with my sanity barely intact.' In probably the film's most harrowing scene, Adjani screams and throws herself around a subway tunnel for what feels like hours. Much has been said about her reported breakdown after Possession – mostly by Żuławski, who spoke about her apparent suicide attempt like it was good promotional fodder. But for her part, Adjani has called Possession 'only the type of film you can do when you are young … It was quite an amazing film to do, but I got bruised, inside out.' Possession straddles many worlds: it won acclaim and Adjani best actress at Cannes, and was also banned in the UK for many years as a video nasty. It's not quite horror, but it is often horrifying, filled with dread and only occasionally bloody. The British film critic Mark Kermode has said that both times he programmed Possession at a festival, someone in the audience passed out. I don't believe anyone who claims they really know what Possession is about. That secret may have died with Żuławski. But it is an enjoyable puzzle to mull over. Are you watching something actually happen, or some kind of emotional truth instead? Is it deeply misogynistic, or actually a scathing portrait of male inadequacy? Perhaps it is both. Is it about how divorce reduces us to our worst, or a woman fucking an octopus? Perhaps it is both. Possession is available to stream on Prime Video in Australia, the UK and the US. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
Time of India
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Sci-fi movie lost to censorship got 100% rating; even film negatives were destroyed due to controversy. Check plot, cast
An Epic That Never Was: Plot Details On the Silver Globe poster (Image Source: IMDB) A Fragment Resurrected Legacy of a Lost Classic In the realm of science fiction cinema, few projects are as mystifying and tragic as On the Silver Globe , a 1970s film that was halted mid-production and partially destroyed by the government that funded it. The Polish film, directed by Andrzej Żuławski—renowned for works such as Possession (1981) and Fidelity (2000)—was intended to be an ambitious, philosophical space epic. However, the movie never saw full release due to political interference and remains one of cinema's most captivating unfinished per Unlilad, On the Silver Globe was adapted from a series of lunar novels written by Żuławski's great-uncle, Jerzy Żuławski. Production began in the mid-1970s and featured an ensemble cast including Andrzej Seweryn, Jerzy Trela, and Grażyna Dyląg. The story followed a group of astronauts who land on the moon and establish a new civilization. Over time, their descendants evolve into a society that regards a visiting Earth scientist, Marek, as a prophesied plot was rich with allegorical layers, blending existentialism, mythology, and science fiction. However, the film's critical undertones—particularly its perceived commentary on authoritarian regimes—did not sit well with the then-communist Polish government. As a result, in a rare and drastic move, the Ministry of Culture ordered the production to be stopped in 1977. According to Seweryn, the cast and crew were powerless to resist the decision, as all Polish cinema was under state control. Despite efforts to appeal the order, the project was abruptly shut down, and portions of the filmed negatives were deliberately a decade in limbo, Żuławski returned to the unfinished footage in the late 1980s. Though he couldn't complete the movie as originally envisioned, he decided to release what he could. Missing sequences were substituted with scenes from daily life in Poland, and Żuławski used narration to explain the gaps during the film's debut screening at the 1988 Cannes Film the result was an incomplete version of the original concept, critics and cinephiles praised its haunting imagery and intellectual depth. Despite its fragmented nature, On the Silver Globe has earned a rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a testament to the film's lasting never completed, On the Silver Globe remains a poignant example of artistic ambition stifled by political censorship. Its partial release still resonates with audiences and film historians, not just for what it is, but for what it could have been. Reviewers continue to commend its originality and audacity, with one noting that even in its incomplete state, the film's emotional and visual power endures. Żuławski's vision, though obstructed, managed to transcend suppression—securing its place in cinematic history as a lost but legendary work.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
12 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Miley Cyrus, Ty Segall, and More
All products featured on Pitchfork are independently selected by Pitchfork editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Condé Nast may earn an affiliate commission. Miley Cyrus, February 2025 (Kevin Mazur/Peacock via Getty Images) With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week's batch includes new albums from Miley Cyrus; Ty Segall; Caroline; Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko; Matt Berninger; Shura; Yeule; Aesop Rock; Obongjayar; Qasim Naqvi; Rome Streetz & Conductor Williams; and Photographic Memory. Subscribe to Pitchfork's New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.) After winning the Record of the Year Grammy for 'Flowers' last year, Miley Cyrus took a logical next step that so often eludes pop stars at the highest level: She leaned into her weirdest, most experimental impulses for an album that panders to nobody but herself. Enter Something Beautiful, a wily pop opus with contributions from a diverse array of indie artists. Executive-produced by Cyrus and Shawn Everett, the sprawling album balances its outré intentions by keeping a handle on the most durable pop influences—'the Beatles and Elvis and David Bowie and Prince like Madonna, these are all pop artists,' Cyrus told Apple Music. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Buy at Rough Trade Possession isn't the usual Ty Segall record as of late. The longtime psych-rock staple co-wrote the album with filmmaker Matt Yoka to be a collection of American stories about hopeless kleptomaniacs, urban explorers, and other people who slip through the cracks. Segall sounds looser and sunnier on these songs, harkening back to his older sound while allowing the vibrancy of Yoka's imagination—which previously took shape solely in the visual world of Segall's albums Goodbye Bread, Manipulator, and Emotional Mugger—to lead toward low-heat grooves ('Fantastic Tomb') and Bowie-style classic rock ('Possession') when it may. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Caroline's debut album built an outpost at the intersection between post-rock, emo, and campfire folk. Three years later, the follow-up, Caroline 2, expands outward in every direction, pairing scraggy, strummed chorales with heart-on-sleeve mantras and distorted furore. The London octet enlisted Caroline Polachek for lead single 'Tell Me I Never Knew That,' one of many moments that feels like the work of not just a band but a community. 'The first record was a compilation, but this one is a declaration,' as singer-guitarist Jasper Llewellyn put it in press materials. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Ukrainian composer and avant-garde electronic musician Heinali has spent the past few years contributing to the growing trend of fusing electronic music with medieval folk. On Гільдеґарда, the album recorded from his new show with Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko, he draws from the work of Hildegard von Bingen to explore further the intersection of those genres. The 12th-century abbess, composer, philosopher, and visionary becomes a thrilling subject when backed by modular synths, Ukrainian folk singing, and high medieval music. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp The National's Matt Berninger made his second solo album, Get Sunk, around his move from Los Angeles to Connecticut. After a period of writers' block—and a sense he was 'drowning' in his own voice—he cracked open a new songwriting idiom, before assembling musicians including Booker T. Jones, Hand Habits' Meg Duffy, National touring member Kyle Resnick, and members of the Walkmen, mostly recording with Berninger in a basement. 'Our heart's are like old wells filled with pennies and worms,' he said of the album's themes. 'I can't resist going down to the bottom of mine to see what else is there. But sometimes you can get yourself stuck.' Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Shura glides between rallying and confessional synth-pop on I Got Too Sad for My Friends, the six-years-coming follow-up to Forevher. The British singer-songwriter applies her lithe pop sensibility to topics such as social anxiety, pandemic isolation, and, as ever, the tumult of love on the Luke Smith–produced album, which features guest turns from Cassandra Jenkins, Helado Negro, and Becca Mancari. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade In a shapeshifter career, Evangelic Girl Is a Gun is Yeule's most disarming transformation yet. Having mastered hyperpop heaters and meteoric alt-rock, the singer-producer-songwriter summons trip-hop ooze and industrial sleaze on an album that is both a total reinvention and, on the synth-pop-grunge hybrid of songs like 'Eko,' a consolidation of the adventuring spirit that has made Yeule one of the defining artists of the decade. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade On Black Hole Superette, Aesop Rock presents the late-night convenience store as a symbol of the modern condition. The Long Island veteran—assisted by likeminded rappers Lupe Fiasco, Homeboy Sandman, Open Mike Eagle, billy woods, and Elucid—invites us into surreal lyrical mazes as he stumbles, half-asleep, through a vortex of consumerism and encroaching tech. Watch the hallucinatory 'Checkers' video for a window into the dreamworld. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Paradise Now is a renewed mission statement from Obongjayar, the Nigerian musician whose hyperactive fusion of Afrobeat, soul, and hip-hop has made him a sensation in his adopted hometown of London. The album adds volleys of synth-punk and summery electropop to his eclectic palate, explored with collaborators including producer Kwes Darko, Fontaines D.C.'s Carlos O'Connell, and, on 'Talk Olympics,' Little Simz. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Dawn of Midi drummer Qasim Naqvi flexes his skills as a composer on his latest album for Erased Tapes, Endling. Haunted by a phrase from a dream his wife had one night—'God docks at death harbor'—the Pakistani American artist conceived of a 'tone poem' about, he's said, 'the last human on the planet—an endling, traversing a world centuries into the future. A world decayed and mutated into a strange amalgam of the natural and artificial.' Moor Mother features on the undulating ambient refractions of 'Power Down the Heart.' Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade New York rapper Rome Streetz and superstar producer Conductor Williams unite for their debut collaborative album in Trainspotting. Williams' freewheeling production snips hooks from jazz and gospel while his collaborator knots together dense verses on industry greed on the Tribe-referencing 'Rule 4080,' expanding the vintage style the pair explored on Rome Streetz's 2022 album, Kiss the Ring. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Photographic Memory is the solo project of Los Angeles producer, singer, and songwriter Max Epstein. I Look at Her and Light Goes All Through Me, his third album, shares some of the maximalist sensibilities of collaborators like Militarie Gun and Jane Remover, neutralizing lashings of overdriven excess with oases of introspective, melodic emo and shoegaze. Guests include Winter and Wisp. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
Japan Today
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Today
Virtuosic guitarist Ty Segall finds a new sweet spot on his laid-back 'Possession'
By KRYSTA FAURIA Much of the virtuosic guitarist Ty Segall's prolific career has been characterized by a sludgy, almost primal, intensity. But his 16th LP crystalizes a new, less-aggressive era for the indie rocker, as he trades in his additive synths for strings and horns — all while maintaining his singular garage-psych. 'Possession' isn't Segall's first album to reel in his trademark heaviness. Following the release of his 2021 record 'Harmonizer' — the apex of a Black Sabbath-inspired, electronics-assisted sound he had for years — the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has mellowed out and gone more analog in the myriad solo projects he's released since. There was his 2022 mostly acoustic album, 'Hello, Hi,' as well as his instrumental 'Love Rudiments,' an avant-garde, percussion-focused record, which he dropped less than a year ago. But with 'Possession,' Segall seems to have found a kind of sweet spot that balances force with restraint in this new phase of his discography. His signature psychedelic sound and distorted guitar solos are still there, like in 'Shining' and the album's title track. But the songs are also subdued and refined, with a surprising arrangement of strings and horns on songs like 'Skirts of Heaven' and 'Shoplifter.' Despite that addition of new instruments, there's a kind of back-to-basics sound to the record, bringing to mind the soulful, easy-listening rock bands of the '70s like Cheap Trick and Steely Dan. This album also marks a lyrical shift, thanks in part to the fact that he co-wrote it with his longtime friend, documentary filmmaker Matt Yoka. He brings a clear narrative framework to Segall's poetic, sometimes opaque, writing style. 'Neighbors' daughter sentenced dead / her toes directed downward / The washer woman a victim too / the village's obsession,' Segall croons of witch trials on 'Possession,' the only song on the album which Yoka wrote solo. That emphasis on storytelling also brings a kind of depth to the songs, which often wade into poignant themes like, mortality and success, topics not often overtly broached on Segall's previous records. 'What you gonna do when the money's gone / And everyone you know is dead,' Segall sings on 'Fantastic Tomb.' 'When you're standing naked on the lawn / You think about the life you led.' And while he brings in highbrow instruments like cellos, pianos and trumpets, there is plenty of discordance. It matches the existential dread of songs like 'Buildings' and 'Alive.' And yet, the album maintains a kind of laid-back sensibility in comparison to much of Segall's earlier work. Last year while promoting his 14th solo LP, 'Three Bells,' Segall told The Associated Press that he was trying to be less prolific. He's since recorded an album under a new band with Color Green's Corey Madden, Freckle, as well as two more solo LP's, including 'Possession.' Segall's failed resolution is to the benefit of his fans, even as he pushes himself into creative directions he's yet to go before. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
