Movie Review: Cosmos

Cosmos

Directed by: Andrzej Zulawski.   

Written by: Andrzej Zulawski based on the book by Witold Gombrowicz.

Starring: Sabine Azéma (Madame Woytis), Jean-François Balmer (Léon), Jonathan Genet (Witold), Johan Libéreau (Fuchs), Victória Guerra (Lena), Clémentine Pons (Catherette / Ginette), Andy Gillet (Lucien), Ricardo Pereira (Tolo), António Simão (Curé).

 

There are certain times that I have to admit that I just don’t “get” something – and Andrzej Zulawski’s Cosmos is one of those times. The late Polish director, who died earlier this year, is one of those auteurs that is beloved by a small circle of cinephiles, but who has never really broken out wider than that. In the wake of his death, and the many wonderful pieces on him that I read, I did go back and watch what is probably his most famous film – 1981’s Possession – a horror film about a martial breakdown, with a terrific performance by Isabelle Adjani that is disturbing, unsettling and unforgettable. Having loved that film, I figured I should watch Zulawski’s finale film – Cosmos – which premiered on the Festival Circuit last year, and then released in a few theaters this year – before hitting VOD, and got mainly strong reviews. It is one of the oddest films of the year – and one of the most confounding. And I will admit it – I don’t get this one. I don’t get what precisely Zulawski was going for here, so it becomes harder to judge if he succeeded in doing so.

 

The story is about a law student named Witold (Jonathan Genet), who fails an exam, and has a week to prepare for a makeup. Along with his strange friend Fuchs (Johan Libereau) – who has some sort of ill-defined job in the fashion industry – they end up as guests in a sort of bed and breakfast, run by a family of eccentric nutjobs – which is fine, because Witold and Fuchs are just as nuts. Witold says he’s going to study- and also write his novel, which sounds like a bunch of stream of consciousness insanity. Fuchs disappears for stretches of time every night, and comes home baring more and more signs of physical violence that no one mentions. The house is presided over by a banker named Leon (Jean-Francois Balmer) and his paranoid wife (Sabine Azema, with her trademark wild red hair intact). Witold is driven mad with obsession over two younger women – the maid, Catherette (Clementine Pons) with a deformed mouth, and beautiful Lena (Victoria Guerra), who is married to a boring banker. When Witold goes walking in the woods, he finds various animals have been killed and hung by their necks – mainly birds.

 

I honestly don’t know what this all means – or was supposed. On one level, I was reminded of Luis Bunuel – the strange, surreal setting, the concentration on the mundane problems of the upper class, who trap themselves together for no good reason – yet I’m not sure what the target of all that satire is. On another level, the film really does seem to be about madness – who Witold drives himself insane with his writing, and his fixation on the two very different women. How Lena goes a little crazy herself as no one sees beyond her beautiful exterior. How the parents have long ago gone mad, showing everyone what future awaits them. The film throws in references of everything to Sartre to Steven Spielberg – to what end, I don’t know.

 

To be fair, the movie can be a fairly inspired piece of lunacy. The early scenes, when you’re trying to make sense of it all (unaware that you never will), can be fun – as are the closing scenes, which was long after I stopped caring that I couldn’t figure out what was going on. This was Zulawski’s final film – but also his first in 15 years. He clearly had something he wanted to say with the film. I’ll be damned if I have any clue what that was however. This is a film I simply don’t get – if you do, more power to you.

Classic Movie Review: Possession (1981)

Possession (1981)
Directed by: Andrzej Zulawski   
Written by: Andrzej Zulawski and Frederic Tuten.
Starring: Isabelle Adjani (Anna / Helen), Sam Neill (Mark), Margit Carstensen (Margit Gluckmeister), Heinz Bennent (Heinrich), Johanna Hofer (Heinrich's mother), Carl Duering (Detective), Shaun Lawton (Zimmermann), Michael Hogben (Bob).

Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession has got to be one the best, what-the-fuck-was that? movies in history. This is a film that won the Best Actress Prize at Cannes in 1981 for its star Isabelle Adjani – giving one of the best unhinged performances you will ever see – and yet for years the film only existed in a badly truncated form and was one of the notorious “video nasties” in the UK – a group of banned films over there. Possession is a bizarre and disturbing film to be sure, and although you’re likely to find it in the horror movie section, I’m not entirely sure it belongs there. Certainly the first hour of the film really doesn’t – and even as it descends into complete chaos in its later stages, scary isn’t the word I would to describe the film. Then comes the ending which, to be honest, I have no idea how to unpack – but which utterly and completely disturbed me.

The film is about a couple – Anna and Mark (Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill) who are separating for reasons they either cannot quite understand, or at least say aloud. He has worked as some kind of spy – but he’s done now. But Anna still wants to leave – and won’t really explain why. The couple have a son – but are among the most neglectful parents imaginable. The first hour of the film really is about this marriage disintegrating – and how these two people both love and hate each other, and really do try and hurt the other one. We aren’t given much in the way of backstory for this couple – but it’s fairly to assume that neither has been faithful – although Anna has also left her lover, Heinrich (Heinz Bennett, in perhaps the films strangest performance, which is saying something) – and it doesn’t take Mark long after Anna leaves, despite his attempts to get her back, before he’s sleeping with someone else as well. The first hour is almost like an Ingmar Bergman films – Scenes from a Marriage perhaps – in how it depicts these two people as their marriage falls apart.

But something is not quite right here – something beyond their marriage. Anna has moved to an apartment by herself – and it’s rather rundown. Mark has hired a Private Detective to follow her – and although he finds out where she lives, he then disappears. Later, his partner (in every sense of the word) also finds her – and also disappears. To say more, would be to give away some of the films surprises – although to be fair, I don’t think I could spoilt them even if I tried. Needless to say, this get crazy and disturbing – and performances that were already ratcheted up to 11 start going even crazier. Adjani’s freak-out (which is using a nice word to describe it) on an abandoned subway platform is so over-the-top that it should be laughable. Yet, she is so fiercely committed in that scene – and Zulwaski films most of it in one take, holding her in that moment, that it becomes truly disturbing, even before fluids start to flow. Adjani has always been a great actress – but she has never been better than she is in this movie – and few other actresses have been asked to do more in a movie. Throughout the movie she plays a wife, a mother, a sex object, a pawn, a maniac, and several other different things – and yet they all make sense in this context – all as one woman. Neill cannot quite match Adjani – but boy does he try. He glowers insanely throughout the back half of the movie, and has to carry it a little bit near the climax.

It will surprise no one that Zulawski was going through a divorce when he wrote and directed Possession. It feels like akin to David Cronenberg directing The Brood (1979) at the time of his divorce as well – another bizarre body horror film that can be taken as misogynistic if you wanted to see it that way, although I would argue both have more going on beneath the surface than it appears (man, I really need to watch The Brood again – soon). The film is disturbing and gross in many ways – I wouldn’t blame you if you hated the film, as it is bizarre and over-the-top, and clearly imperfect. It’s also a film though that gets your skin, and is genuinely disturbing and unnerving. This isn’t a film that I found scary watching – yet it’s a film that will haunt my dreams forever.

I think I have had a hard time with this review – getting across precisely what the experience of watching Possession is like – and I think because I’m not sure I’ve ever quite had an experience like it. They want you to think this is a horror film with its marketing – the posters, the DVD box art, etc. But it’s far more disturbing than that. That’s because like all great horror films, no matter how outlandish things get, the fear is rooted in reality. Perhaps the best thing I can say about Possession to get you to watch it is this – when it was over, I simultaneously wanted to watch it again, immediately, and also never see the movie again and purge it from my mind. If that sounds like a recommendation to you – and it’s meant to be – than Possession is for you.