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Deux
2002 Drama
Review
Director Werner Schroeter has acquired a reputation as an experimentalist filmmaker, hailed
by some as an underrated genius, reviled by others for being a peddler of self-indulgent
kitsch. Deux is arguably Schroeter’s most
ambitious, unsettling and repulsive work to date. The director certainly wastes
no time in alienating his audience; from the first ten minutes of the film it is clear
this is not going to be an easy ride. The narrative cuts haphazardly between seemingly
unconnected events, alternating between realism and stylised fantasy dream sequences,
periodically shocking the spectator with graphic images of lesbian sex and a woman being
slowly disembowelled. Having several actors playing multiple parts only adds to
the sense of artifice and utter confusion, which is a pity as there is manifestly a lot
of great acting talent on show – not least of which is Isabelle Huppert. The film’s
sheer relentless grotesqueness and self-indulgence is so extreme, so unbridled, so stomach-churningly
provocative, that it is hard to take any of it seriously.
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Director:
Werner Schroeter
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Bulle Ogier, Manuel Blanc, Arielle Dombasle Synopsis
Magdalena and Maria are two twin sisters who were separated at birth and know nothing
of the other’s existence. Maria runs away from the boarding school in which she
was brought up and finds work as a cabaret performer in the cafés of Marseilles.
Magdalena lives with her adopted parents and works in an art gallery. The two sisters
are joined by an invisible bond which draws them towards the same tragic conclusion.
Credits
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