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Subway Screaming.

After closing out January with a revisit of the Dark Castle slasher remake House of Wax, Joe and I settled into our birthday month with Videodrome, kicking off four weeks of ‘Weird Sex’ films! Next up is Andrzej Żuławski‘s 1981 classic Possession, which is finally available to stream on Shudder again!

In the film, Anna (Isabelle Adjani) reveals to her husband, Mark (Sam Neill), that she is having an affair. Mark is devastated, and seeks out Heinrich (Heinz Bennent), the man who cuckolded him, only to receive a beating. After a series of violent confrontations between Mark and Anna, Mark hires a private investigator to follow her. Anna descends into madness, and it’s soon clear that she is hiding a much bigger secret — one that is both inexplicable and shocking.

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Plot: The marriage of Mark and Anna crumbles, leading to a series of intense arguments, gross-out body horror, brutal murders, and possibly an apocalyptic scenario.

Review: Director Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 horror film Possession was never a movie that was destined to be embraced by mainstream audiences, but there has always been an audience out there for the film – it has just had difficulty reaching the viewers that would get the most out of watching it. In the United Kingdom, the film was banned as a video nasty. For the U.S. release, forty minutes were whittled out of its 124 minute running time. Home video releases have come along and then gone out of print, and the DVDs and Blu-rays are going for prices some collectors probably aren’t willing to pay for something they’re not familiar with. But now Possession is streaming on the Shudder service, which may be...

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it)

The Movie: "Possession"

Where You Can Stream It: Shudder

The Pitch: "Possession" is a wild, piercing shriek of a film. Andrzej Żuławski's long-unavailable 1981 film follows a spy named Mark (Sam Neill) who grows increasingly desperate and disturbed when his wife, Anna (Isabelle Adjani), asks for a divorce. Anna herself isn't exactly acting normal; she's evasive and erratic and alludes to a relationship with someone else, plus there's a teacher at their child's school who looks just like her. All of this, though, is an extreme understatement compared to what we see on screen, because "Possession" is a frantic, shocking, logic-defying, funny, and fantastic film that defies nearly any explanation.

The movie is composed in large part of explosive scenes between Adjani and Neill,...

The confines of a theatre in occupied Paris provide the setting for a stew of stories in Francois Truffaut's The Last Metro - with the theatre a symbol of several types of escape. The war itself occupies one strand, as Marion Steiner (Catherine Deneuve) tries to mount a production following the departure of her husband - at least so far as everyone else is concerned. In fact, Lucas (Heinz Bennent) has embarked on an unusual 'escape', hiding out in the theatre basement, even giving notes on the current work in progress.

The theatre itself offers a slice of more traditional escapism for audiences to forget about the war and air raids for a couple of hours, before dashing for the last metro home in order to make the curfew. Meanwhile, newly hired star Bernard (Gérard Depardieu) isn't just playing a role onstage, he's also masking his resistance identity. As the cast rehearse and.

If you’re looking to take a break from binge-watching garbage television and exercise your brain during quarantine, film historian Annette Insdorf and 92Y might have a perfect solution for you. Beginning Sunday, March 29, you can take the online film course “Reel Pieces Remote: Classic Films with Annette Insdorf,” for five weeks every Sunday at 8 p.m.

The five films she has selected — all of them indisputable masterpieces — can be streamed on The Criterion Channel. You can view the film any time before the Sunday night class, along with a prerecorded introduction from Insdorf, followed by the weekly lecture that will also engage live group discussion. Signing up for the 92Y class includes a free Criterion Channel trial membership good for 45 days. The cost for the five courses altogether is $150 — not free by any means, if you’re in the position to enroll.

More from IndieWireThe Show Must Go On:...

Welcome back to another Let’s Scare Bryan to Death! This month, you’re getting a double shot of spooky analysis as I’m joined by not one, but two guests. Liam O’Donnell and Justin Lore are co-hosts of the Horror Business podcast (part of the Cinepunx network), where they take deep dives into movie pairings that range from classics to some that I’ve never even heard of before. After no small amount of discussion (see: arguing) about choosing some movie options for me, they settled on a list that included the 1981 Andrzej Żuławski film, Possession. Now, fair reader, you may be wondering, “Bryan, isn’t that the movie where a woman has sex with an octopus creature?” Yes, it’s that very same film!

If nothing else, morbid curiosity meant I needed to check this one out. Possession stars Sam Neill as Mark, a spy who returns...

Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Possession is playing March 12 - April 11, 2016 in the United States.In and out, my mind goesIn and out, he goesTo show me it’s cruelMy trust in youBerlin is drowning me— “Drowning in Berlin,” MobilesIt begins on foot, and ends in the heavens. On 13 February 2014, I took a night off from watching films at the Berlin Film Festival and rode the U-Bahn to Moritzplatz. Between 1961 and 1990, when the German capital was divided, Moritzplatz was one of several stations known as the last in West Berlin: after passing through it, trains proceeded through a succession of ‘ghost stations’ located within (and under) Gdr terrain, not stopping again until the line re-emerged on the ‘more democratic’ side of the Berlin Wall.Above ground, it’s less than 300 feet from Moritzplatz to the corner of Sebastianstrasse and Luckauer Strasse: location of...

In 1962, two filmmakers met in a room at Universal Studios to discuss (what else?) cinema. Those directors were François Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock. (Providing assistance was French-language translator Helen Scott.) Together, they talked for over 50 hours, poring over every film the old master ever made. In 1967, Truffaut published what has universally come to be known as an essential text, titled Hitchcock/Truffaut, which contains rich and detailed transcripts of the extraordinary conversation.

Filmmaker Kent Jones‘ documentary about this historic meeting of the minds is now out, which inspired The Film Stage to look back at some of the forgotten, overlooked, and underrated films from these two beloved directors. The following ten titles contain all of the nuance, mystery and joy that we’ve come to expect from Hitchcock and Truffaut, with many overlapping themes and stylistic sensibilities.

Please enjoy the list, and don’t forget to suggest your own favorites in the comments.

One of the reasons why we love horror films is the dangerous sex appeal – especially in slasher films from the 80s. Although most teenagers in these slasher films suffer brutal deaths after they engage in such sexy behaviors, there is something still strangely and erotically appealing about sex in these horror films. But what about the monster sex scenes? Do they have the same effect on spectators? Are monster scenes sexy? Maybe we’re getting too far ahead of ourselves - what qualifies as a monster sex scene? For the purposes of this list, I am only examining non-human sex – although one human might be involved in the act, at least one monster must be present: whether it be a re-animated head without a body, a creature with several legs, an alien, a ghoulie; basically anything that isn’t human and has undergone some process of “evil-i-zation” qualifies as a...

The Renaissance Theater in Berlin has announced that actor Heinz Bennent, best known in Europe for his work on the stage, died this morning at the age of 90. His career spanned over 150 roles in more than 20 theaters and, beginning in the late 60s, on screen. He performed for Ingmar Bergman in The Serpent's Egg (1978) and From the Life of the Marionettes (1980), for François Truffaut in The Last Metro (1980; he was nominated for the César Award for Best Supporting Actor), for Volker Schlöndorff in The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975) and The Tin Drum (1979; his son David played Oskar) and for Andrzej Żuławski in Possession (1981). He appeared in several European television productions as well, but as the German Press Agency emphasizes, he first love always remained the theater.

Update, 10/15: For the New Yorker's Richard Brody, "his final screen performance, in Benoît Jacquot's Princess Marie, from 2003, is an extraordinary one,...

Veteran German actor Heinz Bennent died on October 12. He was 90. The Aachen-born (July 18, 1921) Bennent never became an international name despite several important roles in international films. Among those were Ingmar Bergman's Anglo-German drama The Serpent's Egg (1978), opposite Liv Ullmann and David Carradine; François Truffaut's The Last Metro (1980), which earned Bennent a Best Supporting Actor Cesar nomination; and Andrzej Zulawski's Franco-German psychological thriller Possession (1981), with Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill. Bennent's German films include Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta's The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975); Schlöndorff's Academy Award winning drama The Tin Drum (1979); and Ute Wieland's Im Jahr der Schildkröte (1988), which earned Bennent a Best Actor German Film Award. Heinz Bennent's children, Anne Bennent and David Bennent, are both actors. David had the lead in the World War II-set The Tin Drum, playing the boy/midget who never grows neither up nor old while...

Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.

This Week’s New Instant Releases…

Promised Lands (1974)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Documentary

Director: Susan Sontag

Synopsis: Set in Israel during the final days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, this powerful documentary — initially barred by Israel authorities — from writer-director Susan Sontag examines divergent perceptions of the enduring Arab-Israeli clash. Weighing in on matters related to socialism, anti-Semitism, nation sovereignty and American materialism are The Last Jew writer Yoram Kaniuk and military physicist Yuval Ne’eman.

Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Heino Ferch, Hannah Herzsprung, Gerald Alexander Held, Lena Stolze, Sunnyi Melles

Synopsis: Directed by longtime star of independent German cinema Margarethe von Trotta, this reverent...

Possession

Stars: Sam Neill, Isabelle Adjani, Michael Hogben, Heinz Bennent | Written and Directed by Andrzej Zulawski

Upon rejoining his wife (Adjani) and child (Hogben) after a period of absence, Mark (Neill) discovers his spouse is leaving him. Initially, he believes she is leaving him for her lover, the portentous Heinrich (Bennent) but Anna (Adjani) has an even more sinister lover. One with more tentacles.

A bright eyed and bushy tailed Sam Neill stars in this wacky psychological horror, directed by Andrzej Zulawski, in which a couple’s marriage breaks down in cataclysmic mental and personal destruction. Although Possession was one of the original banned video-nasties, it also won an award for best actress in Cannes and nominated for a BAFTA.

More than one critic has compared Possession to Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist and not without reason. Both films study the simultaneous romantic, mental and sexual destruction of warring couples...

Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0 Chicago – The Criterion Collection continues its foray into the world of HD with one of the most beloved directors of all time, taking a film already in the collection and giving it the HD treatment while simultaneously releasing a new edition of one of his later films. The legend is Francois Truffaut and the films are “The 400 Blows” and “The Last Metro”.

The “continuing series of important classic and contemporary films” has long-included “The 400 Blows” but this marks the first time that the film has been available on Blu-Ray. Criterion just started doing Blu-Ray and they are wisely alternating bringing some of their most popular films to the format along with issuing new releases on it.

The 400 Blows was released on Blu-Ray on March 24th, 2009.

Photo credit: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection

“The 400 Blows” is actually Truffaut’s first film. Released in 1959, this classic...

DVD Playhouse—March 2009

By

Allen Gardner

Let The Right One In (Magnolia) An awkward 12 year-old boy, ignored by his mother and the target of bullies, finds himself drawn to his new neighbor: a girl his own age who only appears at night, and seems herself to be as lonely an outcast as he. Haunting film from Sweden is best described as The 400 Blows meets Nosferatu, and contains some of the most haunting imagery of any film in recent memory. Truly a unique and memorable work. Bonuses: Deleted scenes; Featurette; Photo and poster gallery. Widescreen. Dolby 5.1 surround.

Paramount Centennial Collection Paramount offers two more classic titles, restored, remastered and loaded with extras. Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch A Thief stars Cary Grant as a retired jewel thief trying to enjoy his sunset years on the French Riviera with a minimum of drama, until he catches the eye of a high-maintenance heiress (Grace Kelly,...