''L'Amant double'' (released in the United States as ''Double Lover'') is a 2017 erotic thriller

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

film written and directed by

François Ozon François Ozon (; born 15 November 1967) is a French film director and screenwriter. Ozon is considered one of the most important modern French filmmakers. His films are characterized by aesthetic beauty, sharp satirical humor and a free-wheeli ...

, based on the 1987 novel ''Lives of the Twins'' (also known as ''Kindred Passions'') by Joyce Carol Oates. It stars Marine Vacth as a young woman named Chloé who discovers that her lover is concealing a part of his identity.

Plot

Chloé, a dowdy museum attendant suffering depression and abdominal pain, consults a gynaecologist. She is told that no physical cause can be found and what she needs is a psychiatrist. She consults Paul, under whose sympathetic care she smartens up her appearance and reacts more warmly to people. In fact they have fallen in love, and they move into an apartment together. Unpacking things, she finds that Paul has changed his name and hidden his family details from her. In the street she sees Paul's double who, she discovers, is a psychiatrist named Louis. Booking a session with him, he is aggressive and she leaves. Next time, he virtually rapes her and after that she returns for more. It emerges that the violent Louis is the estranged twin of the gentle Paul. When Chloé's pain increases dramatically, she is taken to hospital and undergoes surgery. It is found that she was carrying her unborn sister, a parasitic twin, in her womb.

Cast

* Marine Vacth as Chloé *

Jérémie Renier (; born 6 January 1981) is a Belgian actor. His film debut was in the critically praised (1996), directed by the Dardenne brothers. He became better known to worldwide audiences in ''Brotherhood of the Wolf'' (2001) and (2005). The latter ...

as Paul and Louis *

Jacqueline Bisset Winifred Jacqueline Fraser Bisset ( ; born 13 September 1944) is a British actress. She began her film career in 1965 and first came to prominence in 1968 with roles in '' The Detective'', ''Bullitt'', and ''The Sweet Ride'', for which she rec ...

as Mrs. Schenker *

Myriam Boyer Myriam Boyer (born 23 May 1948) is a French actress. She appeared in more than eighty films and television shows since 1970. At the age of 18, she married with whom she had a son, Clovis Cornillac. From 1975 until his death in 1999 she was marri ...

as Rose *

Dominique Reymond Dominique Reymond (born 12 February 1957) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than seventy films since 1984. She has been to the Geneva Conservatory. Selected filmography References External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reymond, D ...

as Agnès Wexler

Release

The film was selected to compete for the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

in the main competition section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. It had its world premiere at Cannes on 26 May 2017, with a simultaneous theatrical release in France on the same day.

Critical reception

''L'Amant double'' received generally positive reviews from critics. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds a 71% approval rating based on 91 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Double Lover'' offers kinky pleasures that should thrill fans of classic erotic cinema while adding some uniquely transgressive European twists." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 70 out of 100 from 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

At the

8th Magritte Awards The 8th Magritte Awards ceremony, presented by the Académie André Delvaux, honored the best 2017 in film, films of 2017 in Belgium and took place on 3 February 2018 at the Square – Brussels Meeting Centre, Square in the historic site of Mont de ...

, the film received a nomination in the category of Best Actor for Renier.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Amant Double 2017 films 2017 thriller drama films 2010s erotic thriller films 2010s French-language films Belgian erotic drama films Belgian erotic thriller films Belgian thriller drama films Films about twin brothers Films based on American novels Films directed by François Ozon Films set in Paris Films shot in Paris French erotic drama films French erotic thriller films French thriller drama films 2010s French films