ALSO SHOWING
L’amant Double (18)
Revolving around a neurotic woman who becomes embroiled in a bizarre relationship with twin psychiatrists, mercurial French director François Ozon’s latest gleefully rushes into the explicitly psycho-sexual horror territory beloved by David Cronenberg and Brian De Palma. An audacious opening shot puts us on intimate terms with Marine Vacth’s Chloé, whose gynaecologist refers her to a shrink in an effort to get to the bottom of the psychosomatic stomach complaint that’s been plaguing her since childhood. What she finds in Paul (Jérémie Renier) is an analyst whose skills are so soothing and effective, she’s soon cured of her ailments and depression and moving in with him to begin a romantic relationship. But the harmony is quickly disrupted upon discovering Paul has a twin brother, Louis (Renier again), another psychiatrist with a very different approach to therapy to that of his sibling. What follows is a deliciously outré erotic thriller as Chloé submits to Louis’s more sexually aggressive techniques and Ozon piles on the doubling imagery, underscoring it with dialogue exchanges about genetic dominance before wigging things out further with kaleidoscopic fantasy sequences and body horror contortions that further blur the line between what is and isn’t real in its protagonist’s world. A late appearance from Jacqueline Bisset ups the intrigue, but it’s the way Ozon keeps the film teetering on the brink of silliness without losing faith in the pulpy appeal of the story that makes this such a blast from its first frame to its shattering final shot.