The inspiration for today's post derives from hearing the very great news about Richard Ayoade's new project called The Double, based on the novella by the génial Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
One of The Double's motives is the idea of a Doppelgänger, a double of a living person which according to various folk beliefs, brings bad luck or even performs the role of an omen of death. Interestingly, there are testimonies that people like Abraham Lincoln or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe have witnessed the Doppelgänger experience.
The motif of Doppelgänger is not a novelty to the cinema.
In the old days, mirrors that produce a distorted image could take responsibility for the occurrence of this Doppelgänger. Or the fact that somebody might have had an unknown twin sibling.
Nowadays, the scriptwriters use the sinister motif in a more creative and metaphoric way.
In the Double Life of Veronique Kieslowski explores the idea of being-not-alone in the world, having a genuine 'double' who goes through a parallel life to us. The French Veronique (Irene Jacob) has this particular intuition and she's not mistaken: there is Polish Weronika (Irene Jacob, aussi), who shares a similar life path and equal dedication and talent to music. The sudden death of Veronique's counterpart makes her intuitively change her directions in life.
In Aronofsky's recent Black Swan, in one of the first scenes that portends Nina's (Natalie Portman) forthcoming insanity, the main character passes her look-alike in the corridor. Soon, the ballerina discovers that she has a 'double' in her group, Lily (Mila Kunis), who yearns to take her place. In order to maintain her part in the Swan Lake, she not only has to prove her talent, but fight her competitor, the double. Yet, the 'real' double of Nina is her dark, Jekyll side that impersonates the black swan.
In Fincher's Fight Club, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) breaks the mundane life routine of the main character (Edward Norton) by introducing him to the mysterious underworld of street-fighting. Their relationship is a mixture of brotherhood and rivalry; it's quite elusive. Only in the very end, we learn that Tyler was a real 'double' of the narrator.
