Dead Ringers (film)
Encyclopedia
Dead Ringers is a 1988 psychological
horror film
starring Jeremy Irons
in a dual role as identical twin gynecologists. Director David Cronenberg
co-wrote the screenplay with Norman Snider; their script was based on the novel Twins by Bari Wood
and Jack Geasland. The film is very loosely based on the lives of Stewart and Cyril Marcus
.
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 "trifurcate;" she has an abnormal reproductive system. Beverly describes her internal arrangement as having "three doorways," which means she probably will not be able to have children. Beverly tells Niveau that her condition is "fabulously rare."
Beverly mistakes Claire's male assistant for her lover and comes to believe that she's cheating on him. This sends him into clinical depression
, prescription drug abuse
and delusions about "mutant women" with abnormal genitalia. Beverly seeks out metallurgist Anders Wolleck and he constructs a set of bizarre gynecological instruments for working on these mutant women, even using them once on a real person. Beverly is then put on administrative leave by the hospital board after collapsing on a patient. The board holds the surgical tools as evidence of a disturbed mind, Beverly's decline affects Elliot and they perform a surgical procedure to 'separate' themselves.
passed on the role because he was not comfortable with the idea of playing gynecologists and William Hurt
turned it down because “it is hard enough to play one role” and the script eventually landed on his desk.
Initially, Irons had two separate dressing rooms and two separate wardrobes which he would use depending on which character he was playing at the time. Soon he realized that “the whole point of the story is you should sometimes be confused as to which is which,” after which he moved to a single dressing room and mixed the wardrobes together, and found an “internal way” to play each character differently, using the Alexander technique
to give them “different energy points,” which gave them slightly different appearances.
Jeremy Irons
' performance was highly acclaimed and won Best Actor awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association
and the New York Film Critics Circle. When Irons won the Academy Award for Best Actor
in 1991 for Reversal of Fortune
, he thanked Cronenberg in his acceptance speech.
It is the favorite Cronenberg film of Korean director Chan-wook Park and was voted for in the 2002 Sight and Sound Poll by Lalitha Gopalan. In 1999, Rolling Stone
listed Dead Ringers as 95th on their list of 100 Maverick Movies. Total Film
placed Dead Ringers 35th on their list of the "50 Greatest Horror Movies Of All Time" while Entertainment Weekly
placed it 20th on their list of The 25 scariest movies of all time. In 2004, the Toronto International Film Festival Group named Dead Ringers the 6th best Canadian Film ever made. It was named one of "The Top 10 'True-Story' Horror Movies of All-time!" by Bloody Disgusting
.
Although Dead Ringers closely follows the case of Stewart and Cyril Marcus
, director Peter Greenaway
claims himself and his film A Zed and Two Noughts as the source for Dead Ringers.
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
starring Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
in a dual role as identical twin gynecologists. Director David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
co-wrote the screenplay with Norman Snider; their script was based on the novel Twins by Bari Wood
Bari Wood
Bari Wood is an American author of science fiction, crime and horror novels.-Life:Bari E. Wood was born in Jacksonville, Illinois in 1946, grew up in and around Chicago, and graduated from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois with a degree in English...
and Jack Geasland. The film is very loosely based on the lives of Stewart and Cyril Marcus
Stewart and Cyril Marcus
Stewart and Cyril Marcus were identical twin gynecologists who practised together in New York City. On July 19, 1975, they were found dead due to withdrawal from barbiturate addiction in their Manhattan apartment at 450 East 63rd Street....
.
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, while the women remain unaware of the substitution.When Beverly becomes attached to the troubled actress Claire Niveau (Geneviève Bujold
Geneviève Bujold
Geneviève Bujold is a Canadian actress best known for her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in the 1969 film Anne of the Thousand Days, for which she won a Golden Globe Award for best actress and was nominated for an Academy Award....
), it upsets the equilibrium between the twins. It turns out that Niveau is a "trifurcate;" she has an abnormal reproductive system. Beverly describes her internal arrangement as having "three doorways," which means she probably will not be able to have children. Beverly tells Niveau that her condition is "fabulously rare."
Beverly mistakes Claire's male assistant for her lover and comes to believe that she's cheating on him. This sends him into clinical depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
, prescription drug abuse
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
and delusions about "mutant women" with abnormal genitalia. Beverly seeks out metallurgist Anders Wolleck and he constructs a set of bizarre gynecological instruments for working on these mutant women, even using them once on a real person. Beverly is then put on administrative leave by the hospital board after collapsing on a patient. The board holds the surgical tools as evidence of a disturbed mind, Beverly's decline affects Elliot and they perform a surgical procedure to 'separate' themselves.
Cast
- Jeremy IronsJeremy IronsJeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
— Beverly Mantle / Elliot Mantle - Geneviève BujoldGeneviève BujoldGeneviève Bujold is a Canadian actress best known for her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in the 1969 film Anne of the Thousand Days, for which she won a Golden Globe Award for best actress and was nominated for an Academy Award....
— Claire Niveau (as Genevieve Bujold) - Heidi von Palleske — Cary (as Heidi Von Palleske)
- Barbara Gordon — Danuta
- Shirley DouglasShirley DouglasShirley Jean Douglas, OC is a Canadian television, film and stage actress and activist. Her acting career combined with her family name has made her recognisable in Canadian film, television and politics.-Personal life:...
— Laura - Stephen LackStephen LackStephen Lack is a Canadian painter and a film actor best known for his role as the lead character, Cameron Vale, in David Cronenberg's film Scanners.-Life:...
— Anders Wolleck - Nick Nichols — Leo
- Lynne Cormack — Arlene
- Damir Andrei — Birchall
- Miriam Newhouse — Mrs. Bookman
- Jill HennessyJill HennessyJillian Noel "Jill" Hennessy is a Canadian actress and musician known for her television roles on Law & Order and Crossing Jordan.-Early life:...
— Mimsy (as Jillian Hennessy) - Jacqueline HennessyJacqueline HennessyJacqueline Hennessy is a Canadian journalist, television host, and occasional actress. She is the identical twin sister of actress Jill Hennessy. Hennessy is of Irish, Italian, Swedish, French, and Ukrainian descent...
— Coral- (Jill and Jacqueline Hennessy, themselves identical twins, made their film debut in this movie as twin prostitutes)
- Jonathan and Nicholas Haley - young Beverly Mantle / Elliot Mantle
Production
In his commentary on the DVD, Jeremy Irons mentions that Robert De NiroRobert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
passed on the role because he was not comfortable with the idea of playing gynecologists and William Hurt
William Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
turned it down because “it is hard enough to play one role” and the script eventually landed on his desk.
Initially, Irons had two separate dressing rooms and two separate wardrobes which he would use depending on which character he was playing at the time. Soon he realized that “the whole point of the story is you should sometimes be confused as to which is which,” after which he moved to a single dressing room and mixed the wardrobes together, and found an “internal way” to play each character differently, using the Alexander technique
Alexander Technique
The Alexander Technique teaches the ability to improve physical postural habits, particularly those that have become ingrained and conditioned responses...
to give them “different energy points,” which gave them slightly different appearances.
Responses
Dead Ringers won the Genie Award for Best Canadian Film of 1988.Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
' performance was highly acclaimed and won Best Actor awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association
Chicago Film Critics Association
The Chicago Film Critics Association is an American film critic association.-Members:Current members include:*Sarah Knight Adamson*Zbigniew Banas*Shelley Cameron*Dave Canfield*Vittorio Carli*Erik Childress*Camerin Courtney*Bonnie DeShong...
and the New York Film Critics Circle. When Irons won the Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
in 1991 for Reversal of Fortune
Reversal of Fortune
Reversal of Fortune is a 1990 film adapted from the 1985 book Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case, written by law professor Alan Dershowitz...
, he thanked Cronenberg in his acceptance speech.
It is the favorite Cronenberg film of Korean director Chan-wook Park and was voted for in the 2002 Sight and Sound Poll by Lalitha Gopalan. In 1999, Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
listed Dead Ringers as 95th on their list of 100 Maverick Movies. Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
placed Dead Ringers 35th on their list of the "50 Greatest Horror Movies Of All Time" while Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
placed it 20th on their list of The 25 scariest movies of all time. In 2004, the Toronto International Film Festival Group named Dead Ringers the 6th best Canadian Film ever made. It was named one of "The Top 10 'True-Story' Horror Movies of All-time!" by Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is a website that covers horror movies with reviews, interviews and news. It is currently run by Brad Miska, and Tom Owen. According to one source, the site has 1.5 million unique visitors and 20 million page views each month. It is widely considered to be the "world's most...
.
Although Dead Ringers closely follows the case of Stewart and Cyril Marcus
Stewart and Cyril Marcus
Stewart and Cyril Marcus were identical twin gynecologists who practised together in New York City. On July 19, 1975, they were found dead due to withdrawal from barbiturate addiction in their Manhattan apartment at 450 East 63rd Street....
, director Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway, CBE is a British film director. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular...
claims himself and his film A Zed and Two Noughts as the source for Dead Ringers.