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 morningThe 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 LaterCatch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tipsafter newsletter promotionNeill 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
Rachel Reeves to try to reassure City investors after unexpected UK GDP fall
Rachel Reeves will attempt to shrug off the UK’s anaemic economic performance at her Mansion House speech next week, after the latest official figures showed the economy unexpectedly shrank in May.The chancellor is expected to say the City is at the heart of her vision for sparking economic growth, as she battles to seize back the narrative after worse than expected GDP figures, and a bleak warning from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) about the state of the public finances.The economy shrank by 0.1% in May, the Office for National Statistics said, fuelled by sharp declines in manufacturing and construction.It was the second month of contraction in a row after a 0
Rubio in bind as he seeks to reassure south-east Asia, even as it faces Trump tariffs
Even as they face among the most punitive tariffs globally, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has sought to reassure south-east Asian countries of Washington’s commitment to the region, saying they may get “better” trade deals than the rest of the world.In his first official visit to Asia, Rubio met the foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Malaysia on Thursday, telling his counterparts that the US had “no intention of abandoning” the region. His visit came days after Donald Trump renewed his threat to impose severe tariffson many south-east Asian countries if they did not strike deals by 1 August.The region, which includes countries that rely on exports and manufacturing, has been among the worst hit by Trump’s trade war.Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines and Indonesia were sent letters this week warning they would face tariffs ranging from 20-40% – levies that Rubio said were being discussed with Asean countries
AI-generated child sexual abuse videos surging online, watchdog says
The number of videos online of child sexual abuse generated by artificial intelligence has surged as paedophiles have pounced on developments in the technology.The Internet Watch Foundation said AI videos of abuse had “crossed the threshold” of being near-indistinguishable from “real imagery” and had sharply increased in prevalence online this year.In the first six months of 2025, the UK-based internet safety watchdog verified 1,286 AI-made videos with child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that broke the law, compared with two in the same period last year.The IWF said just over 1,000 of the videos featured category A abuse, the classification for the most severe type of material.The organisation said the multibillion-dollar investment spree in AI was producing widely available video-generation models that were being manipulated by paedophiles
Children limiting own smartphone use to manage mental health, survey finds
Children are increasingly taking breaks from their smartphones to better manage their mental health, personal safety and concentration spans, research has revealed.They are reacting to growing concerns that spending too much time online can be harmful by taking control of their own social media and smartphone use rather than relying on parents to enforce limits, according to experts.The number of 12- to 15-year-olds who take breaks from smartphones, computers and iPads rose by 18% to 40% since 2022, according to the audience research company GWI, drawing on a survey of 20,000 young people and their parents across 18 countries.Prof Sonia Livingstone, the director of the LSE’s Digital Futures for Children centre, said these findings were echoed in soon to be published research, which has found that children and young people are trying various options to manage how their online lives affect their wellbeing, including taking a break from social media, distracting themselves from negativity online, seeking more positive experiences on the internet and in some cases quitting social media altogether.Livingstone said: “Children have got the message – from their parents, the media, their own experiences – that too much social media isn’t always good for them
No one ever got rich writing off Novak Djokovic, but even he can’t stretch time for ever | Jonathan Liew
We can’t tell how much is left for tennis’s ultimate champion, but semi-final defeat by Sinner could be the moment Project 25 was buried for goodThe Moment comes at the start of the third set. Nobody in tennis can spot a Moment like Novak Djokovic. The Moment is where he lives, breathes, puts gluten-free food on his family’s table. What happened before was irrelevant. You can rattle and bully him
‘You can’t keep slowing the game down’: Root wants to limit number of ball changes
Joe Root has called on authorities to limit the number of times Test sides can ask umpires to check potentially misshapen balls, after the morning of the second day at Lord’s was characterised by complaints and exchanges, with the ball being changed twice, and a drinks break being extended while India’s captain, Shubman Gill, argued with the umpires about the quality of one of the replacements.Jasprit Bumrah refused to comment on the balls, saying: “I work very hard and bowl a lot of overs, so I don’t want to say any controversial statements and get my match fee deducted. We were bowling with the ball we were given and that’s how it is.”But Root sympathised with the task facing Dukes, who hand-produce the balls used in Test matches in England. “This summer has been a bit of an anomaly for us
HSBC becomes first UK bank to quit industry’s net zero alliance
Supersize me: recreating Pret’s £13 miso salmon super plate at home
Louis Vuitton says UK customer data stolen in cyber-attack
The CEO who never was: how Linda Yaccarino was set up to fail at Elon Musk’s X
Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano III: undisputed women’s junior welterweight championship – live updates
Dagnall try extends St Helens’ winning run over Leeds and lifts them into third