Philippe Leroy

Vigorously interrogating the commodification of femininity in consumerist culture, Jean-Luc Godard’s provocative masterwork is as stylistically adventurous as it is affecting. Far from a scintillating arrangement, adulterous love affairs are yet another symptom of bourgeois ennui and listlessness.

Building a bridge between noir and the then-nascent giallo genre, co-director Luigi Bazzoni’s innovative debut is an ominously atmospheric true-crime mystery. With liminal spaces reminiscent of Antonioni, The Possessed marries arthouse to grindhouse for a fevered tale of madness and murder.