Possession of Andrzej Żuławski. Exorcism attempts
by Jérôme d'Estais
Publisher : Deep Red (January 2019)
Language : French
Number of pages : 112 pages
Since adolescence, the author has maintained an intimate and visceral relationship with Possession (1981) by Andrzej Żuławski, a sprawling and constantly regenerated work. Where does the fact that a film can thus take possession of our body and our soul come from? That an actress (Isabelle Adjani) plunges us into such an intense state of trance? Undoubtedly from his metaphysical motifs dug to the blood to flush out a more personal truth, even if painful, even repulsive. Or the masks that the film takes on, at the same time all genres, at the same time all films, at the same time each one, in the labyrinth of a narration which interweaves landmarks and tracks the better to blur them. This book is as much an attempt to approach the mystery of an abstract and physical masterpiece as a way of understanding an obsession. Starting by taking over the very places where Żuławski's film was born, in Berlin; by penetrating into its cosmos, full of meaning and signs, to restore a semblance of order and coherence, aware of the fact that, just as no vision has ever dried it up, no interpretation will ever take away from the film, neither its strength nor its mystery. The Trials, Exorcisms of Henri Michaux serve as a text psychopomp throughout these thoughts. Just as Possession was for its director his double as much as an exorcism put into images, this essay is an attempt to tame this magnificent monster that has become ours.