Remember
those “sexy” mystery thrillers based on cheap psychoanalysis and,
generally speaking, bogus psychology riddled with the clichés of
genitalia symbols serving as their foundations? They might have
emerged in the late 70’s, reached their peak in the 80’s and
continued to drag through the 90’s,
finally moving to the new natural habitat on cable TV and video
platforms in the new millennium. They were usually cheap and trashy,
but still fun enough to give them a chance. And if they were done
with skill and zest, like those directed by Brian de Palma,
they could be watched repeatedly both as guilty pleasures and as
exercise in style.
It
is a bit of a surprise that the French director François Ozon,
known for his knack both for mystery thrillers and fearlessness to
tackle the topics of sexuality while remaining light-hearted in tone,
had not taken such a project before. And with Double Lover, a
loose adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ pulp novel Lives
of the Twins, he goes all in, playing with mirrors, off-kilter
framing, split images and architecture porn in a manner that could be
described as frigid chic. Ozon approaches the depths of camp, but
keeps the film above the surface, while keeping the whole thing just
the right nuance of weird.
The
film opens with an unnecessary shot of a young woman getting her hair
cut short probably because opening it with the following shot of a
stretched vagina for the gynecological exam transforming into a
vertically-set eye would be a bit too much. We are introduced to the
same young woman named Chloé and played by the titular star of
Ozon’s Young and Beautiful, Marine Vacth, complaining
about abdominal pain. Since the reason for that cannot be found
anywhere in her body, it is ruled psychosomatic, so Chloé is being
advised to try going to psychotherapy with Dr Paul Meyer (Belgian
actor Jérémie Renier, seen often in Dardenne brothers
films). After a number of sessions, her pain is deemed cured, she
falls for her therapist, he falls for his patient and they move in
together.
But
one day, coming back from her work as a part-time guard at modern art
museum, she sees him with another woman outside his former office.
Back home, she finds his old passport with another surname and old
photos of two identical-looking children. He denies everything, from
being there to not being the only child, so she begins her own
investigation by getting an appointment there under a false name. The
new therapist in Paul’s old office introduces himself as Louis
(also Renier), Paul’s twin brother. However, his methods are a bit
different: he berates and borderline rapes his patients, but Chloé
falls for him too, while her mind dives deeper and deeper into chaos.
As
we know, she is not the most reliable narrator in the world, so
everything that ensues – love triangle and even threesome with the
twins, reversion of roles in sex in a particular scene with a
strap-on, nightmares, the return of the abdominal pain, pregnancy,
her cat, Louis’ cat, “crazy cat lady” neighbour,
secrets of the past... – can take part both in reality and in
dreams. Who is gaslighting whom? Is Louis real or just a figure of
imagination? If so, whose – hers or Paul's? All we know is that
there is more than we are able to see on screen in carefully arranged
scenes followed by Philippe Rombi’s brilliant score cues.
The
silliness of the source material maybe calls for a filmmaker who
would make it downright bizarre fest, like Almodovar, but Ozon
follows some other cues. The plot closely resembles Cronenberg’s
Dead Ringers and Ozon is also not afraid to play with body
horror, so here is the first hint. Then, there are traces of
Hitchcock via de Palma like in much of Ozon’s work in the
mystery and thriller field, here spiced up with Rosemary’s
Baby-era Polanski and dream / nightmare logic of David
Lynch. With intelligent casting (Jaqueline Bisset’s
double role is a bonus) and directing the actors away from their
usual types (Renier’s proletarian appeal is being transformed into
something more sophisticated, still on the line of machismo and in
the case of Louis, with a note of psychoticism) and past their
limitations (that goes for Vacth, a former model), Double Lover
simply works because it does not take itself too seriously. It might
be superficial, but it is fun and well done one.
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