An inexperienced young actress is invited to play a role in a film based on Dostoyevsky's 'The Possessed'. The film director, a Czech immigrant in Paris, takes over her life, and in a short time she is unable to draw the line between acting and reality. She winds up playing a real-life role posing as the dead wife of another Czech immigrant, who is manipulated by the filmmaker into commiting a political assassination.
Acting
Kaprisky's physical breakdown—she actually injured herself on set.
Direction
Żuławski's signature camera: always moving, always violating personal space.
Cinematography
Sickly neon Paris that looks like it's sweating through its own skin.
Director
Andrzej Żuławski
Valérie Kaprisky
Ethel
Francis Huster
Lucas Kessling
Lambert Wilson
Milan Mliska
Patrick Bauchau
Ethel's Father
Gisèle Pascal
Gertrude
Roger Dumas
André
Jean-Paul Farré
Pierre
Olivier Achard
1st Assistant Director
Yveline Ailhaud
Rachel
Michel Albertini
Maurice
Marianne Basler
Young Anarchist
Nathalie Bécue
Dresser
Lucas Belvaux
François
René Bériard
Bishop Shlapas
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Żuławski made this immediately after his divorce from Isabelle Adjani, and many read it as his toxic love letter to destroying beautiful women on camera.
The Dostoyevsky source is a feint—this is really about Żuławski's own relationship with French cinema, the immigrant artist cannibalizing himself to belong.
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