Possession (2002) - DaaVeeDee

Possession (2002) (DVD) (*)

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Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Danish ( Subtitles )
English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
English ( Subtitles )
Finnish ( Subtitles )
French ( Subtitles )
German ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
German ( Subtitles )
Greek ( Subtitles )
Hebrew ( Subtitles )
Icelandic ( Subtitles )
Italian ( Subtitles )
Norwegian ( Subtitles )
Polish ( Subtitles )
Portuguese ( Subtitles )
Slovenian ( Subtitles )
Spanish ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
Spanish ( Subtitles )
Swedish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Spain ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
98 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Special Features:
Commentary
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 2002 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Neil LaBute

Written By:
A.S. Byatt
David Henry Hwang

Actors:
Gwyneth Paltrow ..... Maud Bailey
Aaron Eckhart ..... Roland Michell
Jeremy Northam ..... Randolph Henry Ash
Jennifer Ehle ..... Christabel LaMotte
Lena Headey ..... Blanche Glover
Holly Aird ..... Ellen Ash
Toby Stephens ..... Fergus Wolfe
Trevor Eve ..... Cropper
Tom Hickey ..... Blackadder
Georgia Mackenzie ..... Paola
Tom Hollander ..... Euan
Graham Crowden ..... Sir George
Anna Massey ..... Lady Bailey
Craig Crosbie ..... Hildebrand
Christopher Good ..... Crabb-Robinson

Synopsis:

In Neil LaBute's film adaptation of A.S. Byatt's Booker Prize-winning 1990 novel, Aaron Eckhart (who has starred in all of LaBute's films) plays Roland Michell, an American academic researcher, working in London, who discovers some important letters written by a famous Victorian poet, Randolph Henry Ash (Jeremy Northam [Gosford Park]). Ash was presumed to have been totally devoted to his wife, but Roland finds letters written to another unnamed woman, and soon determines that the intended recipient was another, less well-known poet, Christabel LaMotte (Jennifer Ehle of Sunshine). Roland contacts Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow), an expert on LaMotte's life and work, who tells him that LaMotte couldn't have had an affair with Ash because she lived most of her life with a female companion, Blanche Glover (Lena Headey), in what was apparently a romantic relationship. Despite Maud's skepticism, the two begin to investigate, and uncover a wealth of information about the affair between the two poets. Period scenes of the illicit relationship between Ash and LaMotte are intercut with the contemporary investigation of the two academics. Roland and Maud initially fight their attraction to each other, but as the pair find more evidence of the historical and tragic romance, they find themselves overcoming their own resistance to romantic entanglement. Possession was kicked around as a film project for a long time before LaBute became interested. Director Sydney Pollack originally was slated to film a screenplay by David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly), who receives a credit on the finished film. When LaBute took over the project years later, he reworked the screenplay with Laura Jones (The Portrait of a Lady).

Roland Michell is an Americian trying to make it in the difficult world of British Academics. He has yet to break out from under his mentor's shadow until he finds a pair of love letters in the textbook that once belonged to one of his idols, a famous long dead Victorian poet. Michell, after some sleuthing around, narrows down the suspects to a woman not his wife, another well known Victorian poet. Roland enlists the aid of a Dr. Maud Bailey, an expert on the life of the woman in question. Together they piece together the story of a forbidden love affair, and discover one of their own. They also find themselves in a battle to hold on to their discovery before it falls into the hands of their rival, Fergus Wolfe.

Romantic drama. A literary researcher discovers a letter at The British Museum suggesting that the Poet Laureate to Queen Victoria, Randolph Henry Ash, may have had an affair with another, less well-known poet named Christabel LaMotte. The researcher has hopes that the letter will make his fortune and decides to investigate further, enlisting the help of LaMotte's niece Maud Bailey, an academic who is herself researching a book on her aunt but is certain that she was carrying on a lesbian relationship with a woman named Blanche. As the two modern-day academics undertake their research, they find themselves on the verge of re-enacting the love affair that took place 125 years earlier.

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 28 January, 2010.