The virtuoso and unpredictable François Ozon turns his hand to the erotic thriller in this febrile and fiendish psychological striptease. Chloé (Marine Vacth), a fragile young woman, falls in love with her psychoanalyst, Paul (Jérémie Renier). A few months later she moves in with him, but comes to suspect that her lover is concealing something from her: another side of his personality, perhaps, or something altogether more alarming. Picking up where Brian de Palma left off, Ozon’s adaptation of a Joyce Carol Oates’ story embraces the idea that we’re multifaceted when it comes to desire…

“The doubling imagery, the recurring spiral staircases, and so much else engulfing Chloé make this thriller unusually engrossing. Double Lover nods a bit to David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers (1988) and Roman Polanski’s The Tenant (1976), two arguably classic thrillers on doppelgängers and madness, and Mr. Ozon’s stylistic gymnastics sometimes bring to mind Brian De Palma, who made a film about good/bad twins early in his career. But Double Lover which Mr. Ozon ’freely adapted’ from the Joyce Carol Oates book Lives of the Twins, spins its influences into a frenzy that ultimately reveals the story to be very much its own thing. And a crazy, and eventually strangely moving, thing it is. As elaborate as its visuals are, the movie is also intimate. There aren’t many characters besides Chloé and the twins, which adds to the frisson late in the movie when the great Jacqueline Bisset makes her entrance.” Glenn Kenny, New York Times

“Nothing about this film feels remotely safe.” Alan Zilberman, Washington Post

“It’s like Dead Ringers meets Body Double with a kinky, winking full-frontal Gallic twist.” Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly

Screenings on March 23 at 10:30pm, March 25 at 9:35pm & March 27 at 4pm. For more information: www.viff.org