Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

The Possessed Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 5, 2019

When many Italian film fans think of the giallo genre, especially if they’re ruminating over the work of, say, Mario Bava and/or Dario Argento, they make take the idiom’s moniker literally and remember the incredible colors that both directors exploited in their offerings and which are also features in other directors' gialli. Films like Suspiria and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage can be phantasmagorias of almost psychedelic proportions at times, with what might even be deemed a lurid palette, and in that regard, The Possessed may instantly draw attention to itself simply by dint of the fact that it’s shot in very evocative (and times extremely high contrast) black and white. Part murder mystery (maybe), part ghost story (maybe) and part dreamscape (definitely), The Possessed is a curiously underappreciated effort that has a number of rather interesting elements, both in terms of what’s presented on screen, but also with regard to some of its “backstage” aspects. In the behind the scenes department, this is the sole (co-)directing credit for Franco Rossellini, nephew of Roberto and son of composer Renzo, who scored this film. Franco’s cousin Pia Lindstrom (daughter of Ingrid Bergman) is also in the film, making this something of a “family affair”. From a presentational standpoint, the film offers a near hallucinatory ambience a lot of the time, as down on his luck writer Bernard (Peter Baldwin) searches for a literally lost love of his named Tilde (Virna Lisi). As commentator Tim Lucas mentions, in a way The Possessed offers a disjunctive timescape (for want of a better term) that is similar to the conceit of Last Year at Marienbad , where you may not be sure of when something is happening, or indeed if something is really happening or simply being imagined.

On its surface, The Possessed is actually fairly straightforward, and in fact the basic story was evidently culled from some real life murders called the Alleghe Killings, after the scenic Italian village where they took place. Those who know Italian may wonder why the film’s English language title is The Possessed when its original Italian name is La donna del lago, which translates roughly to The Lady of the Lake, but these same folks may wonder why the film bears that name in its original language iteration. The reason is because one of the murder victims was reportedly found in a nearby body of water, and the film posits that her spirit may still haunt that spot.

The “literal” aspect of the film also includes two supporting characters, Mr. Enrico (Salvo Randone), the owner of the inn where Bernard stays, and his daughter Irma (Valentina Cortese, whose mere presence may drop a rather large clue as to her character’s character, so to speak). Bernard seems to have a history with both the inn and the family, part of which may be due to the fact that Tilde was evidently a maid at the place. But even in the supposedly non-subtextual scenes, there is nonetheless a feeling of a roiling undercurrent running rampant just underneath the everyday, mundane conversations. Even simple scenes, like Bernard chasing a “vision” of Tilde (which is weirdly reminiscent of a similar scene from another 1965 film, Doctor Zhivago), have a sinister underpinning, even if there’s nothing overtly odd or menacing about them.

But it’s in the weird interstitial scenes that seem to have been culled from Bernard’s dream (and/or nightmare) states that The Possessed achieves its most distinction. Both Lucas and some of the writing accompanying this release compare the ambience of the film to Antonioni, which I’m not quite sure I agree with, but there’s the same sort of surface stasis here that some Antonioni films also offer. In some ways, The Possessed plays like any number of horror films where a stranger ends up in an isolated place and finds the townspeople all just a little on the weird side. There’s a really fascinating dialectic here between what’s being portrayed and how everything feels (based at least partly on how it looks), and The Possessed may ultimately lead some viewers to think that they’ve been inhabited by some alien spectral entity. This is an often disquieting film, even if it is neither traditionally scary nor even gory as some gialli tend to be.

The Possessed Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Possessed is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the restoration:

The Possessed (La donna del lago) is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with Italian and English mono audio . Scanning and restoration work was completed at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 2K resolution on a pin- registered Arriscan. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, picture instability and other instances of film wear were repaired or removed through a combination of digital restoration tools and techniques. THe mono Italian and English language tracks were remastered from the optical sound negatives. The audio synch will appear slightly loose agains the picture, as the film's dialogue was recorded entirely in post-productions, as per the productions standards of the period. During a dream sequence scene at approximately 34 minutes during the English version, the sunch is noticeably loose, but this is as per the original release prints.

The film was graded on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master at R3Store Studios, London. A separate English language 35mm print was sourced from the VGI Archive for the English title sections.

All materials used in this restoration were accessed from Surf Film and the BFI.

This is an incredibly striking looking film, one that literally basks in some expressively deep blacks and widely variant grayscale, and this transfer recreates that often hallucinatory imagery with precision and a nicely organic appearance. Both "arty" framings and stylistic choices like pushed contrast or extremely soft focus play into things (as can perhaps be gleaned from some of the screenshots accompanying this review), and as such detail levels can understandably kind of ebb and flow at times, but in the "normal" looking sequences, things like the patterns on Bernard's suit jacket or the ornate wallpaper of the inn look very well detailed. Some very minor and unobtrusive damage has still made it through the restoration gauntlet, but this is a superb looking transfer of a very imaginatively shot feature.

The Possessed Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Possessed features Italian and English language LPCM mono tracks. My advice is to stick with the Italian language version, even if there's not a huge difference in mix levels or overall amplitude between the two, simply because the dubbing of Baldwin in the English track is pretty shoddy at times (I couldn't find any information about whether Baldwin himself voiced his work in the film). The film's sound design isn't nearly as hallucinatory as its visual element, and the mono track provides ample support for dialogue, ambient environmental sounds and score.

The Possessed Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Tim Lucas


• Richard Dyer on The Possessed (1080p; 25:12) is a video essay featuring Dyer, credited as a "cultural critic".


• Lipstick Marks (1080p; 11:52) is an interview with makeup artist Giannetto De Rossi. In Italian with English subtitles.


• Youth Memories (1080p; 16:20) is an interview with assistant art director Dante Ferretti. In Italian with English subtitles.


• The Legacy of the Bazzoni Brothers (1080p; 30:36) is an interview with Francesco Barilli, a friend of both co-director Luigi Bazzoni, as well as Luigi's brother Camillo. In Italian with English subtitles.


• Original Trailers

  Italian Trailer (1080p; 2:12)

  
  

  English Trailer (1080p; 2:12)

As usual, Arrow has also included a nicely appointed insert booklet.

The Possessed Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I had long heard of The Possessed but had never been able to track down a copy, and so I was really excited to finally get to be able to see it in this new Arrow edition. The film is patently weird, so much so that I still have questions about what actually happened, but it casts a rather potent spell on willing viewers, and it's really a rather remarkable feature on any number of levels. Arrow has provided a release with excellent technical merits and a nice supply of supplements. Highly recommended.