FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: Possession [DVD] [2002]

Possession [DVD] [2002]
enlarge	Director: Neil LaBute Actors: Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam, Jennifer Ehle, Lena Headey Studio: Warner Home Video Category: DVD List Price: ~~£13.99~~ Buy New: £2.07 as of 20/11/2009 19:56 GMT details You Save: £11.92 (85%) New (18) Used (13) Collectible (1) from £0.96 Seller: great_entertainment Rating: 15 reviews Sales Rank: 5085 Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired), Italian (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Italian (Subtitled), Dutch (Subtitled), Arabic (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), German (Subtitled), Romanian (Subtitled), Bulgarian (Subtitled) Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over Region: 2 Discs: 1 Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 98 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 UPC: 732190022264 EAN: 7321900222648 ASIN: B00006LA7S Theatrical Release Date: November 28, 2002 Release Date: May 5, 2003 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Amazon.co.uk Review With its complex twists and turns, AS Byatt's doorstopper of a novel IPossession/I is hardly the kind of tale that translates easily to film, even though its switches in time across more than a century are intrinsically filmic. In this adaptation the basic story revolves around two modern-day academics, Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow, a class act, all ice and severe hair) and the young American Roland Michell (the charmingly diffident Aaron Eckhart). They find themselves thrown together as they track a secret love affair between two fictional Victorian poets, Randolph Henry Ash and Christable LaMotte (Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle, both of them eminently convincing costume-drama veterans). As our two modern-day sleuths uncover the truth they (surprise, surprise) find themselves falling for one another. p Director Neil LaBute may have strayed from familiar territory (INurse Betty/I) but he's managed to translate book to screen with compelling directness, and much credit should go not only to the four leads, but also to Lena Headey, who plays the tragic Blanche Glover, LaMotte's rejected lover. Overall it's a very lyrical movie, visually a treat for the eye, with the period detail beautifully caught and much beautiful scenery to be had. And the score itself, by Gabriel Yared, seems to encapsulate England in its pastoral beauty. Yes, of course the intricacies of the novel are much simplified, with some characters written out altogether, but its central spirit is retained and it makes for an ultimately compelling experience. p BOn the DVD:/B IPossession/I has a pleasingly sharp and well-defined picture quality that makes the most of the fabulous visuals. However, extras are limited. As well as a list of cast and crew and the usual scene selections and theatrical trailer there's the option of watching the film accompanied by LaBute's commentary, which is enlightening first time around but probably not for repeated viewing. --IHarriet Smith/I

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 15 1 2 3 Next » A Must See September 4, 2003 Kevin Hart (Telford, Shropshire United Kingdom) 29 out of 30 found this review helpful You will not be disappointed with either the book by A S Byatt (over 500 pages) or the DVD/Video. Although the film adaptation differs in several places from the book, which should be read first, you will be moved by both. The cinematography and the acting are both excellent: a look at the cast list will confirm the depth of acting ability. The changes in time in the film from 1859 to the present day, and back again, are simple and magnificent. The direction of this film is first class. The use of real UK locations, particularly Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, will appeal to the well-travelled viewer. You cannot fail to be moved by this historical and romantic drama. Glossy, still vaguely intellectual, and well worth watching May 14, 2003 Julia Hawkins 11 out of 11 found this review helpful I can't understand why this didn't do better on its cinematic release. True, I'd read the book and contrary to all expectation (having found previous Byatts pretentious and turgid) greatly enjoyed it, so I may have been biased. But even making allowances for a natural partiality I still think this is an excellent adaptation and an eminently watchable film with a stellar cast. Moving, at times tragic, ultimately redemptive, all of that... Maybe the problem is that no-one turns into a half-naked blue superhero at any point...pThe adaptation really is splended, and the cast act their socks off. True, they are all infinitely better-looking than any academic I've ever met (I would have pursued English Lit beyond postgrad level if it had been populated by lecturers, even caddish and sneaky lecturers, who resembled Toby Stephens), and I can only imagine that the reason underlying Aaron Eckhardt's poor career progress is that he must have been spending so much time in the gym, rather than the library. They also live in beautiful houses, and cinematographically the film is a delight. But above all the story - which still, despite its compression from a huge doorstop of a discursive narrative to a fairly short film, manages to retain at least vestiges of the debate about, as Maud Bailey puts it, the awful things that men and women do to each other - remains a glorious detective story through the windings of love, literature and some very unethical antics in libraries.pLoved it. A Joy to Watch July 28, 2003 Terence Hebberd (Calpe, Alicante Spain) 17 out of 18 found this review helpful For me this is one of those magical films that make one bless the invention of the cinema and its present day era of complete artistic achievement and competence. Beautifully photographed using enchanting settings (Lincoln has never looked more lovely) and with a music soundtrack that perfectly underlines the romantic story within a story and the growing attraction to each other by the present day principals, an English professor played by Gwyneth Paltrow (with a beautifully modulated English accent) and an American research student in London winningly played by Aaron Eckhart. Paltrow and Eckhart who are trying to discover whether a 19th Century Poet Laureate had an illicit affair with a female poet when all the historic evidence points otherwise. The way the mystery unravels is heartrendingly romantic and as the poets, Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle are perfectly cast. Captivated, I didn't want the film to end but at least was compensated by the beautifully sung tenor aria that floated out over the final credits. English or Anglo-American cinema at its very very best. A film of the highest quality and one I am grateful to own and be able to play over and over again. drowning with love... April 10, 2003 Groovy Plant (London, UK) 8 out of 9 found this review helpful 'possession' is the tender trap, a tonic for a lovesick mind.pi watched 'possession' time and time again at the cinema; head up, front row. i will watch the DVD whenever i can; it is a privelege to be able to own a copy.psince the cast and the screenplay are so fatefully interlinked, i shall say, in my view the casting was superb. jeremy northam has all the qualities of a respectable poet laureate, and the sexual appeal to match that of jennifer ehle, his leading lady.paaron ekhart has been much maligned as not being the equal of gwyneth paltrow. i simply dismiss that sort of talk. the point of mr ekhart's character is that he feels inferior, to be looked down on by maud bailey (paltrow) and this is the impression the viewer recieves, from the first images of roland mitchell (ekhart) working studiously, to the dramatic realisation of maud bailey's ancestory. the decision to alter the character from a working-class englishman (in a.s byatt's novel) to an american perhaps makes the inferiority of roland mitchell less obvious to the british audience who would instantly understand the relationship between different social classes.pthe film is split across two generations; but they are seamlessly linked. Neil LaBute's film is a triumph, the beauty of which shall be revered for many generations to come.pit is a 'feel-good' film, to make one long for love. Victorianism has to be revisited urgently May 28, 2006 Jacques COULARDEAU (OLLIERGUES France) 8 out of 9 found this review helpful Delicate and precious, the film deals with a very embarrassing victorian reality about the poet Ash and his female lover Lamotte. This latter had made the choice of lesbianism, one way to escape the victorian fate for women : to be a totally subservient wife. She falls in love with the poet through a long correspondance and finally yields to desire and passion. She will be pregnant and will deliver in France away from prying eyes. Her female lover will kill herself and she will forever lose her poet-lover, the father of her daughter. She will have lost everything, including her own daughter who will consider her as a distant aunt and will forget to bring her the letter her own father, the girl being completeley unaware of the identity of the man she encounters in the countryside, had entrusted her with for her aunt/mother. Hence the possible renewing of the relation will die away and the secret will disappear. The film though is not very clear on one point. The investigation is jointly managed by an American research assistant and a professor, Maud Bailey, who is presented as a descendent of Lamotte, who is known as having had no male lovers. This of course tells us at once that this Lamotte must have had a lover and the film then becomes the search for the identity of this great great great grandfather of Maud's. The surprising element is that this Maud had not investigated before, though and because she had no lead, but what they both find could probably have been found earlier if it had been looked for, if Maud had really been serious about that lover of a great great great grandfather, which she had not once and for all locked Lamotte in her lesbianism. Till at least the American research assistant comes along... The film though is extremely interesting because of the mirror image the two modern characters send us : they are shy and definitely unwilling to enter a love affair of any kind, both the man and the woman, this time for no victorian reasons at all though the motivations are not clear : modern time desire of both men and women to be autonomous and free from such dependence as sex and love ? Maybe. Probably. Thus the film gets into a higher dimension that implies victorianism was not a monstrous period but only a step on a long road that leads to the freeing of individuals of both sexes without falling in promiscuity and other non-ethical attitudes. We are living in a period where ethics are becoming again the guidelines of individual lives. The film also gives us a nice foot-note about the unethical practices of some university professors and personnel to put their hands on some documents that had been entrusted to a tomb and whose existence had been discovered by some other colleagues who these dishonest professors and personnel are trying to rob of their discovery : such acts are quite common in the academic world, even if marginal, though at times some may feel justified in asking the rhetorical question of how much marginal. br / br /Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne br / Showing reviews 1-5 of 15 1 2 3 Next »

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