Dead Ringers (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

This was a great watch. The acting was superb and I liked the dark storyline.

The original 1988 theatrical poster is spot on with its eerie description of this highly underrated psychological drama.Director David Cronenberg co-wrote the screenplay, which was based on the novel "Twins" by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland. The film is also loosely based on real-life events. Not having read the book makes no difference to the impact of this astonishing movie.Set in Toronto, Canada, the story follows a pair of gynaecologists who also happen to be identical twin brothers: Beverly and Elliot Mantle (Jeremy Irons, in a dual role).In life; Beverly is introverted and reserved, while Elliot is extroverted and confident. A pair of highly intelligent doctors; their work (specializing in treating female fertility problems) is cutting-edge, their home world private and secluded, their lives intertwined in every aspect.They live together, eat together, breathe together. If one goes out, upon return the other is regaled with every little detail of the events. They share each others’ lives: education, work, women, thoughts and dreams.Their equilibrium is thrown into disarray, when a women with an unusual medical condition enters their world. Claire Niveau (Geneviève Bujold), a troubled actress, becomes a wedge that slowly pry’s the brothers apart. She is the catalyst of their separation.What follows is a mesmerizing study of the lives of these troubled souls.Geneviève Bujold plays her part wonderfully, and is a deft counter-balance to the atmospheric sombreness and dread of the Mise-en-scène Cronenberg creates, with sharp lines, clinical tone and colour palette. She indeed brings a perfect element of both delicateness and power to Claire. She is a much needed contrast to the stoic yet profound performances of Jeremy Irons.Irons’ portrayal of the unsettlingly close identical brothers, is nothing short of a tour de force performance. One that should go down as one of the greatest ever. His subtle delivery and nuanced differentiation of Beverly and Elliot is a revelation to witness. He conveys the brothers’ inner torment with nothing but a look or a gesture. He utterly dissolves into the characters, allowing us to concentrate on the harrowing, disturbing downfall that unfolds before us.The soundtrack is also worthy of mention. The great Howard Shore, delivering again (much like his “Silence of the Lambs” effort) a unique, creepy, neutral, and subtle accompaniment.Sad and horrific, this tale is indeed hard to watch. It is a slow character study. It gets under your skin. Burning progressively to a logical, yet no-less powerful ending. Many people seem to rate this movie as boring, confusing, and tedious. Perhaps it went over their heads or there wasn’t enough explosions or guns or they are just too conservative. Indeed, much like other Cronenbergian pictures, it is not for the squeamish.Cronenberg fans have even criticized it and rated it low in this body of work. Why? I don’t know. It certainly would help your enjoyment if you are already a fan of his, but if this your first Cronenberg, it absolutely won’t be your last. Other fans, like myself, consider this to be one of his true masterpieces, alongside “Videodrome” and “Crash”.So if you’re up for a journey of “interesting” emotions and unsettling feelings, one filled with meaning and metaphors, and one of thrilling, masterful storytelling; switch the lights off, turn the sound up, and open your mind. 10 out of 10.

There's endless fascination with identical twins. Of course scientist love them as "co-twin controls" in nature-vs-nurture developmental studies. But beyond their lab rabbit status, their sibling relationship has always been imagined as something completely closed to outsiders. They can be like ordinary siblings, having separate lives and families. But often it seems the bond between them is so strong that they can't live apart. We kind of get that intuitively, but it's still spooky.Only saw one or two reviews acknowledge that this is a true story. I first heard about the subject of Dead Ringers in a New Yorker piece about the Marcus twins of New York. Cronenberg bought rights to the fictional version, a book called, Twins, and, being Canadian, moved the setting to Toronto. If the non-fiction story I remember is accurate, then the fictional movie version isn't at all far from fact. The twins seem to have a fetish for gynecology since childhood, and as adults share a high-demand practice. But their achievements in the field obscure the fact that the twins have never really grown up and consider their patients as parts of threesomes, which their twinness facilitates. Of course, with license given physicians, these two allow themselves to take liberties, such as substituting for each other without the patient's knowledge. Sooner or later, recreational fentanyl makes its entrance, and the twins begin their slide.Casting Jeremy Irons as both twins highlights the scary truth about identical twins: We all have our inner selves and outer selves, and what if our inner selves could also be our outer selves? Subconsciously...or consciously, identical twins consider themselves a single, indivisible being. Dead Ringers explores this "What if...." with a chilling detachment and dreamlike pacing that makes the merely spooky become Cronenberg's trademark body horror.

I really don't see how David Cronenberg makes the films that he does without going crazy. All of his movies are so cold, clinical, and moldy. Yet I have a respect for him. It takes a brave man to venture into this side of human nature again and again. While I'm not the biggest Cronenberg fan (I loved the fly, but didn't enjoy the brood) I have to say Dead Ringers is one of the better ones, if only for the performances by Jeremy Irons. If you've got a Jeremy Irons crush than this is your favorite movie ever. Because there is two of them. Beverley and Elliot who play twins that might be just a little too close for their own good.They share the same apartment, same profession, and even the same women. They are Identical, but drastically different psychologically speaking. Beverley is the sweet, emotional one who thinks he needs Elliot to lead a good life. And Elliot is the cold, manipulative, vindictive one who takes advantage of Elliot's emotional needs. The Two live together in the world's douchiest apartment until a woman (Always a woman!) enters into Beverley and Elliot's life. The woman is a troubled famous actress with her own dependency issues, drugs, and when she enters into a relationship with Beverley (Who she doesn't know is a twin) She accidentally contributes the both of the twins psychological downfall. Beverley and Elliot's identities become a fascinating mutant monster of their own as they seem to merge and fall-apart.Whereas The Fly seemed like a metaphor for AIDs, Dead Ringers feels like metaphor for addiction and co-dependency. Elliot and Beverley have spent their whole life together, and see each other almost as two halves of one person, rather than two separate people. It is so interesting how identity works, and how identities between people can often mutate into something truly horrific. While Cronenberg is famous for his body horror, the real horror here seems to be invisible, emotional, and that's what makes it so disturbing.

Very well shot, moody, psychological thriller. Had seen years ago-1990's-on the sadly gone but not forgotten CBC Latenight movie. The CBC dropped their movies several years ago, a precursor of things to come from what used to be Canada's best broadcaster, now turned political mouthpiece which I no longer watch. Anyway, the movie, in typical Cronenberg fashion, is weird, intoxicating, shocking and finely acted. Anything with Jeremy Irons is top drawer!

Der Film stand schon lange auf meinem Zettel, der Kauf wurde nur von der Hoffnung hinausgezögert eine Version mit sowohl der deutschen als auch der englischen Tonspur aufzustöbern. Fehlanzeige! Also eben notgedrungen nur der deutsche Ton und endlich anschauen.Ich gebe zu, anfänglich hatte ich einige Schwierigkeiten, was das Einfühlen in den Film angeht. Die ruhige Inszinierung Cronenbergs, die langsam anrollende Handlung, die zunächst die Ausgangssituation klarstellen muss, und die (mit Absicht) wenig emotionale Untermalung durch Shores Score - all dies trägt zu diesem Effekt bei.Im Mittelpunkt stehen die eineiigen Zwillige Elliot und Beverly Mantle (Jeremy Irons in Doppelrolle), zwei erfolgreiche Gynäkologen, die in ihrer Abhängigkeit voneinander siamesischen Zwillingen ähneln und dies auch mehrfach ansprechen. Dabei könnten die beiden psychisch nicht verschiedener sein, bilden sie doch den (fast) perfekten Gegensatz zueinander, ein bizarres Einverständnis. Und eben jenes Einverständnis wird durch das Auftreten Claire Niveaus (Geneviève Bujold) gestört. Das plötzlich gegensätzliche Verlangen nach Nähe und Distanz, Gleichheit und Individualität treibt die Brüder unweigerlich dem Ruin zu. Elliots Abhängigkeit wird erst durch Beverlys Abkapselung deutlich und den daraus resultierenden Versuchen Elliots, die Verbindung aufrecht zu erhalten. Dabei schwankt der Zuschauer zwischen Sympathie und Abscheu, stets durch den jeweils anderen in der Waage gehalten: Wann immer der eine bedauernswert erscheint, nimmt der andere seinen Platz als der Widerwärtige ein.All dies gipfelt in der renaissance-artigen Komposition des finalen Bildes, welches die Tragik des Vorangegangenen einfängt und wiederspiegelt.Den Abzug des fünften Sterns verschuldet die Ausstattung der DVD. Ich schere mich wenig um das perfekte Bild, solange alle Details erkennbar sind und der Ton ist durchaus zufriedenstellend. Wie bereits erwähnt, vermag ich jedoch kein Verständnis für das Fehlen der Orginaltonspur aufzubringen. Zu gern hätte ich erfahren, wie sich Irons Stimme in seine (nebenbei bemerkt großartige) Darbietung einfügt bzw. diese ergänzt.Fazit: Wer gerne phychologische Abgründe und Untiefen ausgelotet sieht, dem sei dieser Film nahgelegt. Dead Ringers (im Deutschen inhaltlich treffend "Die Unzertrennlichen" genannt) ist gewiss kein Film für einen vergnüglichen Abend unter Freunden. Vielmehr sollte man ihn in aller Abgeschiedenheit schauen und wirken lassen.

I assume any potential customer for this French BD is familiar with David Cronenberg's output and the story, more or less of this film. The film in question is one of Cronenbergs best ( I possess 16 of his feature length films on DVD & BD - so I have seen a fair number of his movies) and Jeremy Irons double performance as the Mantle twins is very good. But the main reason for review is to let Cronenberg fans know that the FRENCH SUBTITLES FOR THE FEATURE FILM ' CAN ' BE REMOVED and the film enjoyed in English. As for the extras there's a 57mimute portrait of David Cronenberg in English with removable French subtitles, short feature's in English with forced subtitles, and a useless ( to me) feature all in French without English subtitles. The picture quality of the main feature is good, an improvement on the existing DVD, recommended. MPC.

Un des meilleurs film de David Cronenberg dont le sujet reste "humainement éternel" et qui peux être lu sur de nombreux niveaux comme d'habitude avec David Cronenberg. Techniquement sur ce Blu-ray: le son tout d'abord. Le son a été revu et très bien repris et revus sur chacun des canneaux. L'amplitude enveloppe très bien le spectateur et le rendu est meilleur, du très bon travail, voir parfait en 5.1. L'image à également subit une remasterisation. Il ne faut pas oublier que le film à plus d'une dizaine d'année, sortie en 1989, quelques plans de grains sont inpossible à éviter. Et même, leur élimination aurait peut être pu dénaturer le film. le maximum à été fait. Quelques séquences prennent en particulier une ampleur impressionnante. Les rouges et les bleu qui marquent le film, la lumière souvent froide est impressionnante. Un excellent travail. Blu-ray que je recommande sans hésitation. Du haut re-marstering...

Finally this Cronenberg classic on Bluray! Jeremy Irons gives the performance of his career in the twin roles of Doctors Beverly and Elliot Mantle. An excellent release and a must for any Cronenberg fan!