Dead Ringers (film)

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Dead Ringers

Theatrical poster for Dead Ringers
Directed by David Cronenberg
Produced by Marc Boyman
David Cronenberg
Written by Novel:
Bari Wood
Jack Geasland
Screenplay:
David Cronenberg
Norman Snider
Starring Jeremy Irons
Geneviève Bujold
Music by Howard Shore
Cinematography Peter Suschitzky
Editing by Ronald Sanders
Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox
Release date(s) Flag of Canada 8 September 1988 (premiere at TIFF)
Flag of the United States September 23, 1988
Flag of the United Kingdom 6 January 1989
Running time 115 min.
Country Canada / USA
Language English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Dead Ringers is a 1988 psychological horror film starring Jeremy Irons in a dual role as identical twin gynecologists. The screenplay was written and directed by David Cronenberg, and is very loosely based on the lives of Stewart and Cyril Marcus.[1]

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Elliot and Beverly Mantle are identical twins and highly successful gynecologists. Elliot, the more aggressive and confident of the two, seduces women who come to the Mantle Clinic. When he tires of them, the women are passed on to the shy and passive Beverly, unaware of the substitution.

When Beverly becomes attached to the troubled actress Claire Niveau (Geneviève Bujold), it upsets the equilibrium between the twins. It turns out that Niveau is a triphicade, she has an abnormal reproductive system. Beverly describes her internal arrangement as having "three doorways" and probably won't be able to have children. Beverly tells Niveau that her condition is "fabulously rare".The actress' rejection of Beverly sends him into clinical depression, prescription drug abuse and delusions about "mutant women" with abnormal genitalia. Beverly seeks out a metalurgist and he constructs a set of bizarre gynocological instruments for working on these mutant women, even using them once on a real patient. Beverly is then put on administrative leave by the hospital board. The board holds the surgical tools as evidence of a disturbed mind. Due to the twins' codependent relationship, Beverly's breakdown eventually causes Elliot to follow.

[edit] Cast

Jill and Jacqueline Hennessy, themselves identical twins, made their film debut in this movie.

[edit] Responses

Dead Ringers won the Genie Award for Best Canadian Film of 1988.

It is the favorite Cronenberg film of Korean director Chan-wook Park[2] and was voted for in the 2002 Sight and Sound Poll by Lalitha Gopalan, who ranked it 4th [3].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Maslin, Janet (October 2, 1988). "Ringers": the Eerier, the Better. The New York Times.
  2. ^ Neil Young's Film Lounge (August 22, 2004). Park Life.
  3. ^ BFI | Sight & Sound | Top Ten Poll 2002 - How the directors and critics voted

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films by David Cronenberg

"Transfer" • From the Drain • Stereo • Crimes of the Future • Shivers • Rabid • Fast Company • The Brood • Scanners • The Dead Zone • Videodrome • The Fly • Dead Ringers • Naked Lunch • M. Butterfly • Crash • "Camera" • eXistenZ • Spider • A History of Violence • Eastern Promises
v • d • e
Genie Award Winners for Best Motion Picture

The Changeling (1980) • Les Bons débarras (1981) • Ticket to Heaven (1982) • The Grey Fox (1983) • The Terry Fox Story (1984) • The Bay Boy (1985) • My American Cousin (1986) • Le Déclin de l'empire américain (1987) • Un Zoo la nuit (1988) • Dead Ringers (1989) • Jésus de Montréal (1990) • Black Robe (1991) • Naked Lunch (1992) • Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993) • Exotica (1994) • The Confessional (1995) • Lilies (1996) • The Sweet Hereafter (1997) • The Red Violin (1998) • Sunshine (1999) • Maelström (2000) • Atanarjuat (2001) • Ararat (2002) • Les Invasions barbares (2003) • Les Triplettes de Belleville (2004) • C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) • Bon Cop, Bad Cop (2006) • Away from Her (2007)