Dead Ringers (1988)
Directed by David Cronenberg
Elliot, a successful gynecologist, works at the same practice as his identical twin, Beverly. Elliot is attracted to many of his patients and has affairs with them. When he inevitably loses interest, he will give the woman over to Beverly, the meeker of the two, without the woman knowing the difference. Beverly falls hard for one of the patients, Claire, but when she inadvertently deceives him, he slips into a state of madness.
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Cinematographer Peter Suschitzky went on to photograph David Cronenberg movies, The Fly (1986), Dead Ringers (1988), Naked Lunch (1991), and Crash (1996).
This film delivers brilliant performances, some trademark offbeat Cronenberg touches (think �surgical instruments for mutant women� � the same instruments used by the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello in the 1986 film Little Shop of Horrors), Lee Wilson�s technically innovative optical updates of the split-screen effect (allowing Irons to appear onscreen, talking to himself, in a virtually undetectable manner) and one of the strangest �true� stories to date.
From the parables of Shivers to the body obsession of The Fly , Cronenberg's cinema is the cinema of science.
David Cronenberg ("The Fly"/"Videodrome"/"Shivers") bases this intense psychological medical drama on a true story about identical twin gynecologists Stewart L. Marcus and Cyril C. Marcus, whose decayed bodies were found in their posh East 63rd Street pad.
David Cronenberg who made household tenants develop monster-parasites in "Shivers," brains explode in "Scanners," stomachs rip open in "Videodrome," and Jeff Goldblum look even more like an insect in "The Fly," makes twins of Jeremy Irons in "Dead Ringers," a Grimm's tale about two identical gynecologists who pool their identities -- and share their women -- with lethal consequences.
David Cronenberg, famous for "The Fly," "Scanners" and "The Dead Zone," cowrites and directs this visceral drama -- who better to document a regular checkup than a horror auteur?
But The Dead Zone and The Fly are horror classics (a true classic transcends its genre), sentimental stories beneath gross-out surfaces.
Dead Ringers is a phenomenal piece of filmmaking, easily one of Cronenberg's very best works -- and this is a filmmaker who rarely (if ever) makes a BAD movie, so please do feel free to rank Dead Ringers right next to The Fly, Videodrome, and The Dead Zone.
The secret may be that Cronenberg ( director of “ The Dead Zone ” and “The Fly”) approaches his trashy material with the objectivity of a scientist; it is his detached, cold style that makes the material creepy instead of simply sensational.
David Cronenberg, famous for "The Fly," "Scanners" and "The Dead Zone," cowrites and directs this visceral drama -- who better to document a regular checkup than a horror auteur?
David Cronenberg who made household tenants develop monster-parasites in "Shivers," brains explode in "Scanners," stomachs rip open in "Videodrome," and Jeff Goldblum look even more like an insect in "The Fly," makes twins of Jeremy Irons in "Dead Ringers," a Grimm's tale about two identical gynecologists who pool their identities -- and share their women -- with lethal consequences.
In 2004, The Criterion Collection put the film back into its proper perspective with this landmark two-disc set, their third Cronenberg title after the now out-of-print Dead Ringers and last year's Naked Lunch.
Looking at Videodrome in the context of the director's later work, what's most striking is how closely the almost musical rhythms and camera movements match those of, say, Dead Ringers and Crash.
But Cronenberg couldn’t have achieved his stature without some great films along the way: “The Dead Zone” (1983), “The Fly” (1986), “Dead Ringers,” “Violence” and “Promises.”
These days he's still kicking much ass on films like Eastern Promises and A History of Violence, but the Canadian-born David Cronenberg started his career with one hell of a genre streak: Shivers (1975), Rabid (1977), The Brood (1979), Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983), The Dead Zone (1983), The Fly (1986), and Dead Ringers (1988).
David Cronenberg ("The Fly"/"Videodrome"/"Shivers") bases this intense psychological medical drama on a true story about identical twin gynecologists Stewart L. Marcus and Cyril C. Marcus, whose decayed bodies were found in their posh East 63rd Street pad.