Double Lover

"Deception is part of the attraction."

2017 1h 48m FR

😐

6.1

MID

★6.1TMDB · 591

RomanceThrillerDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Chloé, a fragile young woman, falls in love with her psychoanalyst, Paul. A few months later she moves in with him, but soon discovers that her lover is concealing a part of his identity.

“Deception is part of the attraction.”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

AMC Plus Apple TV channelSubscription

AMC+Subscription

Fandor Amazon ChannelSubscription

Cohen Media Amazon ChannelSubscription

Cineverse Amazon ChannelSubscription

Amazon VideoRent

Apple TV StoreRent

Google Play MoviesRent

YouTubeRent

Amazon VideoBuy

Apple TV StoreBuy

Google Play MoviesBuy

YouTubeBuy

Cast

Marine Vacth
Chloé
Jérémie Renier
Paul / Louis
Jacqueline Bisset
Mme Schenker / Chloé's Mother
Myriam Boyer
Rose
Dominique Reymond
Gynecologist / Agnès Wexler
Fanny Sage
Sandra Schenker
Jean-Édouard Bodziak
Young Psychoanalyst
Antoine de La Morinerie
Psychoanalyst 1

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: François Ozon
Writers: Philippe Piazzo, François Ozon
Languages: French
Countries: Belgium, France

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 60% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 9 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Belgium, France.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by François Ozon, shot by Manuel Dacosse. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Philippe Rombi. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Laure Gardette shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Marine Vacth and Jérémie Renier and Jacqueline Bisset carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Deception is part of the attraction.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

François Ozon directs. Manuel Dacosse behind the camera. Philippe Rombi scores. Laure Gardette cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in Belgium, France. Dialogue in French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Earned back only 60% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
2Released 9 years ago.
3International production across 2 countries: Belgium, France.
4Directed by François Ozon, shot by Manuel Dacosse. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Philippe Rombi. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Laure Gardette shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Marine Vacth and Jérémie Renier and Jacqueline Bisset carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Deception is part of the attraction.".
9IMDB entry: tt6367558 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Released under 22 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Manuel Dacosse
Original score: Philippe Rombi
Editing: Laure Gardette
Production design: Sylvie Olivé
Costume design: Pascaline Chavanne
Makeup / hair: Franck-Pascal Alquinet
VFX supervisor: Charles-e Farkas
Sound: Aymeric Devoldère
Runtime: 108 min · 1h 48m
Status: Released
Budget: $7,110,000
Box office: $4,248,574
Return: 60% of budget
Original language: FR
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Double Lover (2017)

Also by

François Ozon

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Stephen Campbell2019-04-22
★ 5/10
Not nearly as smart as it thinks it is His tone is both apologetic and defensive. Molly continues to stare at him, amazed. She sees again in her mind's eye that other Jonathan as as he'd materialised on the street - sees again the way he merely glanced at her, unseeing, uninterested, as he passed her by. As if they didn't know each other and were not lovers and of course they didn't know each other, were not lovers...Molly recalls speaking his name as if it were a magic talisman that might make things right: Jonathan. But the man's name was James. - Joyce Carol Oates; _Lives o__f the Twins_ (1987) From prolific French auteur François Ozon (Sous le sable; 8 femmes; Frantz), L'amant double [Double Lover] is partly a study of sexual obsession, partly an oneiric mystery (think Neil Jordan's In Dreams), and partly a conventional thriller (more whoisit than whodunnit). "Freely adapted" from Joyce Carol Oates's 1987 novel Lives of the Twins (published under the pseudonym Rosamond Smith), and written by Ozon and Philippe Piazzo, the film tells the story of Chloé (Marine Vacth), a woman with a fragile mental state, who falls passionately in love with her psychoanalyst, Paul (Jérémie Renier). Within a few months, she has moved in, however, as time goes by, she slowly starts to learn of a significant part of his identity which he has been concealing. Imagine, if you will, Vertigo (1958) remade by someone like Gaspar Noé or Lars von Trier, and you'd be some way towards getting a handle on Ozon's latest; completely barmy (you know you're in strange territory when the second shot of a movie is, quite literally, an internal shot of a vagina). As one would expect from Ozon, the aesthetics are solid - the film is built upon an inventive visual style employing juxtaposition, pseudo-split screen, and copious amounts of shots with one person in the frame proper, and the person to whom they're talking only visible in reflection. The sound effects are also excellent and really jolt you out of your seat on a couple of occasions. Similarly, the acting is strong, with both Vacth and Renier unrecognisable in their respective roles. However, the melodramatic and self-congratulatory plot is an absolute mess. Many of Ozon's standard tropes are here; a dissection of the academic middle class/intelligentsia, an examination of the schism between appearance and reality, an attempt to elucidate the mind of a complex woman, a psychoanalytical bedrock, the mutability of identity etc. But it's all diffused through an utterly farcical narrative, which fails to get even the basics right. For example, sex is a central theme, but by the time we get to the fourth or fifth sex scene, it has completely lost its potency (compare, for example, Abdellatif Kechiche's infinitely superior La vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2, (2013) where sexuality is just as central, but which features only two sex scenes). The same goes for the increasingly ridiculous plot twists, once you get to three or four and you're still in the first half of the movie, you just stop caring. Ozon has always been hit and miss, for every Sitcom (1998) and Swimming Pool (2003), there's an Angel (2007) and a Ricky (2009), and L'amant double is, in the end, a rather pointless film that seems to think it's saying something exceptionally profound about desire and identity. It isn't.

Production companies