Possession 4K UHD (1981) Umbrella

[The Great Owl]

I ordered this Umbrella 4K of Possession from Amazon just now, but am a bit nervous, since I own a Sony X700 and the Digital Bits review mentions that some players like this struggle with the disc.

I love my Mondo Vision standard Blu-ray set from a few years back, but this movie deserves a step up if the Umbrella 4K does, indeed, offer one.

[dcx4610]

This is one of those movies that you have to see in person to appreciate. It's the most grainy UHD I've seen in all of the best ways. When myself and others argue that film is grain and grain is film, this is the demo to show them of that. It's truly a beauty in motion.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I ordered this Umbrella 4K of Possession from Amazon just now, but am a bit nervous, since I own a Sony X700 and the Digital Bits review mentions that some players like this struggle with the disc.

I love my Mondo Vision standard Blu-ray set from a few years back, but this movie deserves a step up if the Umbrella 4K does, indeed, offer one.

That review was a bit weird, probably just a bad disc. No idea what he was going on about regions and whatnot, that's not how region coding works, sounds like he wasn't very knowledgeable

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I ordered this Umbrella 4K of Possession from Amazon just now, but am a bit nervous, since I own a Sony X700 and the Digital Bits review mentions that some players like this struggle with the disc.

I love my Mondo Vision standard Blu-ray set from a few years back, but this movie deserves a step up if the Umbrella 4K does, indeed, offer one.

My Umbrella Entertainment 4K of Possession played fine on my Sony X700, except for a brief one-second freeze that is common with my player for triple--layer BD-100 discs, although my player has the latest updates. In this instance, the freeze happens at the 1:42 mark (where Sam Neill's character is putting a body into a body bag), just as it does for the Digital Bits reviewer on one player. When I rewind the scene back and watch it again, the freeze is gone. It's just a minor hiccup with how my player handles triple-layer 4K UHD discs. BD-66 discs (like The Lost Boys) play without incident on my player, but I see the freeze occasionally on BD-100 discs. It is just a minor split-second annoyance that does not justify my breaking the bank to buy a top-of-the-line 4K player right now. I will just keep enjoying the Sony X700 until it inevitably dies.

Aside from that issue, with is a player issue and not a disc issue, Possession 4K looks downright remarkable. I will probably consider this to be the definitive edition for the movie in my collection. The closeups of the characters are beautifully detailed. The colors look wonderful to my eyes, although I am too lazy right now to go back and look at my Mondo Vision standard Blu-ray for comparison with regard to any alleged color push. Much of this film is supposed to look rather gray drab, being a Berlin Wall movie circa 1981, so I am under the impression that this 4K disc shows the film as it is supposed to look.

[The Great Owl]

Movie content thoughts...



I have always enjoyed cinema that explores the notion that we never actually love another person, but simply love our idealized perception of that person. When a loved one's behavior does not gel with the image of that person that has been build up in our psyche, disenchantment ensues. When we only act in cognizance of the idealized mental perception of a person that we have build up in our heads, we are, in effect, asserting our “possession” of that person instead of acknowledging that person's autonomy as an independent being. This question of whether or not it is possible to love a person in that person's actual totality instead of merely loving the way that we see that person is one that has surfaced several times in movies, namely in Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 science fiction masterpiece, Solaris, in David Cronenberg's 1979 body horror feature, The Brood, and in countless dramas about marriage and divorce.

In his 1981 psychological horror film, Possession, Andrzej Żuławski uses the Berlin Wall as a backdrop for the division that occurs when Mark, a spy played by Sam Neill, returns to West Berlin from a mission to find that his wife, Anna, played by Isabelle Adjani, is no longer in love with him and has been involved in an affair with an eccentric man, Heinrich, played by Heinz Bennent. In the midst of the traumatic breakup, one where the young son of Mark and Anna is tragically caught in the middle, we are introduced to a teacher, also played by Adjani, who enters the scene as a literal doppelgänger that represents Mark's idealized version of Anna, a kind-hearted incarnation who nurtures his son and tends to household duties. Anna, in turn, is undergoing an unnerving transition where she is braving unspeakable terrors in order to establish her own idealized lover.

The epiphanies experienced by both Mark and Heinrich when they respectively realize that Anna is her own person who does not belong in full to either of them are the stuff of screen nightmares, complete with imagery that demands a strong stomach. Sights that might come off as over-the-top or garish in a lesser movie are portrayed with a chilling verisimilitude because of the extent to with all three of the main actors give their all and beyond to their roles. Adjani, in particular, was put through the wringer during her every moment onscreen, but especially during a grotesque miscarriage/birthing sequence where her character thrashes around in a subway corridor. (During the new millennium, this subway scene was used to great effect in a music video for the Crystal Castles electroclash song, “Plague.”) Adjani's work here may even be my favorite actress performance of all time.

I first saw Possession a decade ago, and was left with a “What in the world did I just watch?” befuddlement when the credits rolled. I have since grown to adore this movie, despite all of its uncomfortable visceral content, but I will probably still be grappling with certain narrative nuances even if I sit through it hundreds of times. I often prefer such head-scratchers to big-budget action-packed computer-generated effects extravaganzas, because I am challenged to kick the ideas around in my head for days, weeks, months, or even years to come instead of simply forgetting what the movie was all about as soon as I walk out of a theater.

This is a tremendous work of art that does not spoon-feed its audience. If you find yourself curled up in a fetal position on the living room floor after you finish this one, then be assured that this is probably how everyone involved in the production wanted you to react.

[THS]

There's lots of talk about upcoming 4K releases of this movie, is there a deterrent about this Umbrella release?

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by THS

There's lots of talk about upcoming 4K releases of this movie, is there a deterrent about this Umbrella release?

The Umbrella contains the official, theatrically released, 4K SDR restoration of Possession as commissioned by the rights holders and completed by French studio Le Chat Qui Fume.

For this restoration, Le Chat Qui Fume completed exhaustive research through historical materials, including the OCN, theatrical prints, historical interviews, etc. The goal of the restoration was to make the 4K restoration (the same one on the Umbrella disc) as close as possible to the film's theatrical exhibition at time of the film's release.

Later this year or next, Second Sight is planning to also release this movie on home video. It is likely to be an HDR transfer, and probably will have some changes in highlights and color temperature to take advantage of HDR. Second Sight's restoration will focus on input from the movie's original cameraman and notes from their previous Blu-ray restoration.

Thus, just by the nature of the approaches, it is likely the Umbrella disc will be most reflective of the original theatrical exhibition, while on the other hand the Second Sight will likely have some modern visual enhancements that people may find pleasing. So I would plan your purchase based on which of those approaches sounds better to you.

[Kyle15]

Who cares? This movie is old and made by old men who are dead. The Second Sight release will look like how they want it to look now and that's valid and also correct.

[Verisimilitude1984]

I still remember the director approved version of The French Connection on blu-ray...let's wait and see.

[HundredYearLurker]

Apologies, not a sock just a long-standing lurker with love for Żuławski! I've followed this thread closely, and I have the Mondo Blu-ray, the Second Sight Blu-ray, and Le Chat 4K. This is one of my favorite movies.

I don't want to delve into director (or DP's) intent here, I'll leave that for others to divine. I certainly don't know better than any of you what that should be, but I do know what I like.

My favorite release so far is the Second Sight BD. It takes the Mondo transfer with the warmer, more saturated color timing and the non blown-out highlights - generally noticeable in every room with windows - and adjusts the Mondo black levels more properly.

I've gone back and forth with Le Chat's 4K, which I presume is very close to Umbrella's if not entirely identical. Perhaps it's just me, perhaps it's just that I'm used to this film looking a certain way, but I've not been able to cotton to Le Chat's 4k. There's a good increase in detail and spatial resolution, but where The Great Owl notes that "this film is supposed to look rather gray drab, being a Berlin Wall movie circa 1981", I feel like the drab, muted, and very cool color timing detracts from the intense emotional expressionism conveyed by the Mondo/SS releases.

And I really don't like the blown-out highlights as seen in every single interior with windows. I don't feel Berlin imposing itself on its inhabitants, the oppressiveness of those shots is lost, and I can't help but feel that we're supposed to see those cityscapes - but again who am I to argue director/DP intent? I just know what works for me.

Great Owl, I encourage you to take out your Mondo copy and watch the intro back-to-back with the Umbrella. Also, if you could, please check the interior window scenes. I know you're much more about the movie than the specs, but I'd love to know your thoughts on this as you've also lived with this movie for many years.

At this point, I think I have all current transfers, assuming Chat and Umbrella are essentially identical, and am currently awaiting Second Sight's presumed 4K release and anything from Mondo so long as they're still kicking (and I don't think we know). I'm hoping SS/Mondo time the new scan more closely to their BD releases with warmer, somewhat more saturated colors and without the blown-out highlights. And of course with that sweet, sweet FIM encode.

[dcx4610]

I love the Le Chat's release. Some of the highlights are definitely blown out and I'm iffy on the color timing but outside of that, the grain....oh the grain. It's the most grain heavy and raw film I think I own on UHD and it looks amazing in motion. Also, when you get to the school scene, the color is rich and striking.

That said, it's not perfectly English friendly so Umbrella will have it beat there. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what Second Sight will do it with it but I do think they'll get a little revionist and probably try to clean it up a bit like they did with Texas Chain Saw Masscare.

Either way, I'm keeping my Le Chat edition as it feels like a real collectors item and a great release but the Second Sight version will probably end up being my go-to version for watching it. I have faith in them.

Umbrella and the same spine font logo on their movies hurts just as much as Kino. If Second Sight wasn't also doing it though, I'd get their version.

[NahRoots]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

Who cares? This movie is old and made by old men who are dead. The Second Sight release will look like how they want it to look now and that's valid and also correct.

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by NahRoots

It's called being an objective new age 2024 realist.

[Deciazulado]

6 months later and discussing the same old thing?

is the way back machine..

Possessed?

[Show spoiler]

[DaylightsEnd]

Second Sight, please release your 4k already. The sheer anticipation combined with the oxygen-poor air in here are working against our cumulative well-being.

[An4h0ny]

[Show spoiler]

Just arrived.

[zombeaner]

Why is this disc listed as a US release on the front page review?

[Bugg]

Originally Posted by zombeaner

Why is this disc listed as a US release on the front page review?

Probably because it can be purchased through US Amazon. Occasionally when stuff that isn't region locked gets carried by US Amazon, it gets mixed in with the North American titles and will even show up in the sale banner at the top.

[Brian81]

I picked up the Umbrella to replace the LCQF edition. I wanted the book and especially the butchered US cut for collector purposes. This is one of my favorite films.

[bradnoyes]

Just watched this. First off, Sam Neill in this looks exactly like my dad looked when I was a kid so I spent most of this movie having weird memories of my childhood and wondering if Sam Neill is actually my dad. It’s fascinating because Sam Neill was born around the same time my dad was born and he didn’t look like my dad in Jurassic Park, but he looks just like him here, so maybe Sam Neill and my dad switched places sometime between those two movies.

Despite all the confusion, I thought it looked great.