David Cronenberg
Inseparabili

THE REVIEW

Dead Ringers (Inseparabili)

Year: 1988

Director: David Cronenberg

Actors: Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold

The Mantle twins are revolutionary, brilliant gynecologists who focus on female infertility and scientific research, and they are at the top of their field.

Elliot is the outgoing one, a ladies' man, extremely rational and cold. Beverly is shy, introverted, and entirely dedicated to his work.

The Mantle twins are embarking on an extraordinary professional career, but things are destined to change radically with the arrival of a patient, a famous film actress who cannot have children.

Dead Ringers (Inseparabili) is a unique film by a unique director, with an excellent lead actor.

In my opinion, it is one of Cronenberg's best films.

Defined as his film of maturity, Dead Ringers differs from the previous works of the Canadian director.

Up until now, we are in 1988, Cronenberg had directed horror films or those with science-fiction elements.

Instead, Dead Ringers is a highly dramatic, intense film. Horror is, as always, present even in this film, it even self-references (see: The Brood), in a gruesome dreamlike scene.

This time, however, there are no infected, mutants, or brutal murders.

This time there are two twins (inseparable) played by a simply formidable Jeremy Irons.

Jeremy Irons, until then, had mostly starred in costume films, had performed successfully in theater, and took on the challenge of portraying something completely different, appealing to another segment of the audience that wasn't his, and won the bet.

Up until now, in cinema, the portrayal of twins was mostly proposed in the comedy world, where they often depicted two twins identical in appearance, perhaps speaking in unison, or in some thrillers, were poles apart in the sense that one represented good, the other evil. The good twin and the evil twin.

This time, however, we face two complex personalities that Irons skillfully delineates with refined and almost imperceptible touches, in the gaze, in the posture, in the tone of voice, in the haircut. But these differences are truly subtle; they are identical in appearance, yet such differences are indeed noticeable.

The film is slow, icy, unsettling, distressing, disturbing, in the best tradition of Cronenberg. The soundtrack is almost entirely absent. Almost entirely shot indoors, with an icy, cold cinematography, just like the work tools (hey by the way, take a look!) that the Mantle twins created to examine women's uteruses.

The dialogues are excellent too, the screenplay is solid and original, it's an unmissable film.

Enjoy watching!