Dead Ringers

Dead Ringers

1988

Starring Jeremy Irons and Claire Niveau

Directed by David Cronenberg

Written by David Cronenberg and Norman Snider

Based on the true story of the Marcus twins and the novel "Twins" written by Bari Wood

116 minutes.  

Official Trailer

Set in Toronto in the 1980s, Dead Ringers is about successful gynaecologists, the identical Mantle twins, Beverly and Elliot. They share literally everything--from an apartment, to their clinical practice, to women. Elliot, the older brother and outgoing spokesperson of the duo, gets all the girls and then generously shares them with his baby brother Beverly, the more introverted but also more sensitive of the two.

They have a good thing going until the actress Miss Claire Niveau enters the picture, seeking their expertise on fertility because she desperately wants a baby and is unable because of her "trifurcated" cervix. Claire “contribut[es] a confusing element to the Mantle brother’s saga” as we will see below .
“Dead Ringers”. David Cronenberg. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. 1988.

Once Elliot lets Beverly try the movie star after seducing her himself, Bev quickly develops feelings for the pill-popping actress and realizes he does NOT want to share her with Elliot! This causes a huge crisis for them, and the more Bev pulls away from Elliot toward having a semblance of a real love relationship with another person, the more unstable he becomes.

Bev starts abusing drugs and begins losing his mind. Elliot tries to help him get clean but then decides to match his brother’s drug problem by taking pills himself to “fix” the problem. The twins become full-on drug addicts and destroy their professional lives as well as their own health and sanity. On their birthday, living in utter chaos, filth and disorder, they decide to “separat[e] the Siamese twins”--themselves in a gruesome murder/suicide.

The most important and pivotal scenes in this film were related to the downfall of the Mantle twins and the revealing of the inner thoughts. Scenes such as Beverly being caught injecting himself with drugs in his office, to him operating on a patient intoxicated, to using a gold plated surgical tool on a regular patient examination represented the downfall of the Mantle twins. Other scenes such as Elliot asking the two twins who payed a visit to his hotel room for one to call him Bev and the other to call him Elly, to Beverly turning into an emotional wreck after confessing to his brother that he was afraid that he couldn't have Claire to himself. Really confusing and deranged scenes such as those revealed some of the inner traits and personalities of both Beverly and Elliot.

Don’t forget about the little detail of sound, such as the diegetic sound effects of the Mantle twins on their patients with their rubber gloves, an odd sound in complete silence making the scene awkward and uncomfortable at times or even Bev using the Mantle retractor on a patient examination, the metal clinking and ripping noises, ouch! Scenes such as the separation of the Siamese twins with the sound of Beverly literally cutting open his own brother with very odd tools. Those noises offer such a vivid imagination of what it would be in reality.

Cronenberg uses lighting to great effect ...Bright lighting was used in positive moments. First it was used in the beginning as it showed the Mantle twins as little boys, starting their interest in female bodies. Onto them practicing in university, using their own creation that got denied by the professor. followed by them being recognized as the creators of the Mantle retractor onto Elliot collecting an award at a prestigious ceremony. While the rest of the film took place in overall dimmed lighting, mostly showcasing important and odd scenes, such as Berverly performing surgery while on drugs, Beverly's phone call to Claire's "mistress" who was his agent and the gruesome ending of separating the Siamese twins.

The film's plot was generally easy to follow. It started slow but as Claire Niveau comes in, it starts to pick up between the conflict and inner feelings of both Bevrerly and Elliot being shown. As the drug intake of Beverly led to his creation of his surgical tools, you can say it would lead to a climactic ending. But the separation of the Siamese twins was definitely a plot twist. although the dream of Claire separating the Mantle twins was kind of a hint towards the ending, it was definitely a weird unpredictable ending. We know at the ending that both of the twins are dead, but what we do not know is how did Beverly die in the clinic and what happened to Claire Niveau after. Therefor, things were left unexplained.

In terms of sets, at the beginning of the movie there were a lot of scenes taking place in a very neat, organized office. This showed the professional control and success of the brothers.  Later on in the movie, when the brothers were taking drugs the office became different--trashed with garbage everywhere, signifying the brother's lives falling apart.  

One memorable scene in the film was made so by the set. A very abnormal operating room, very dimmed, with bright lights only shinning on the area being operated on the female patient, along with one way windows for viewers to watch. There uniforms, all red, with several layers on top of each other, with a mask covering everything but their eyes. This scene where Beverly did surgery on a woman in those red uniforms, with the bright light shining on him, made the scene intense and suspenseful.

There were several scenes of foreshadowing in the film. On their birthday, relating to themselves as Chang and Eng in the most gruesome scene in the film. Elliot saw it coming, but beverly did not. The beginning of the film when they are young kids practicing being gynaecologists on a doll to becoming very successful gynaecologist as adults. As well, the dream Beverly had when he was connected to Elliot by the stomach with Claire in bed, while Claire was separating them in a graphic display of biting a chunk out of the organ which connected them. Which later proved that they were first "one" but she was the one who separated them.

Beverly and Elliot as main characters, began with clear motivations and personalities, but then they changed over time and became less distinct.  Elliott was a social charming ladies man who was confident and a little sociopathic in the way he treated his patients and women in general, but his coldness changed to caring and good sense when he tried to get his brother clean.  

Beverly was more shy and anxious, and actually cared a lot for someone other than his brother. His character changed in the film in the sense that he wanted to have a healthier distance from the sick dependency he had on his brother, but he was too weak to separate and became deranged and dangerous. It was unfortunate to see such successful men such as the Mantle twins to be consumed by their inner feelings towards each other. You can visibly notice the darker sides of both Beverly and Elliot as the film goes on.

Claire Niveau was a very important role in this film, she was the dynamite to the bedrock of the Mantle twins' success. She's a female actress with a very rare condition that affects her ability to do the one thing she truly wants that is to have her own child. To deal with that, she carries an infectious drug problem that spreads onto Beverly and eventually Elliot.

Jeremy Irons took a very difficult challenge and killed it playing two totally different people through the whole film carrying different personalities and emotions, the intro and the extrovert, the tough and the brittle, the professional and the emotional, the leader and the wreck. As Claire said, “Beverly’s the sweet one and you’re the shit!”. All throughout the film, different scenes with different scenarios Jeremy Irons had to keep up with and not mix up roles unless requested . It was only when the twins started to fall apart, when Claire Niveau came into the picture that their personalities were starting to get mixed up intentionally because they were showing some traits from deep down that they both share.

As well as Genevieve Bujold, a golden globe Canadian actress from Montreal, doing a great job portraying a famous female actress with a drug problem who has to live the rest of her life knowing she can never have kids do to her rare conditions of having three cervixes. She portrayed Claire Niveau, as a self contained, confident female actress who just wants to have her own child and won't consider herself a woman until she does. But unfortunately, as played out in the film, she is told that she could never have her own child.

Dead Ringers definitely does bring up several questions, some big, some small. For example, a small question would be: is it ethical to share a woman, without her even knowing that she is sleeping with two different people ? We also are faced with the question of twins and the closeness they have: do identical twins truly have that bond with each other that haunts them in their sleep and that they feel each other's pain?

Bigger issues include .....power of doctors/surgeons who you trust your life with? at times to be using or be intoxicated on drugs while dealing with you. For example, intoxicated Bev, operating on a unconscious women, injuring her using freakish tools which may not be qualified to be using on humans and which everyone around him was not familiar with them at all. The power men can have over women in scenarios such as a male gynecologist operating and controlling the female's ability to use her most unique gift that is making a child. Also, obsessive love is apparent in this film with Beverly being obsessed with Claire and literally ruins himself at points in the film with sadness and drugs.

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Overall, it was an interesting film to watch, to see Jeremy Irons play two different characters in the same scene, with good actors, good effects and and a very special ending leaving you questioning. But, with every good film there are flaws. At times, it was confusing to tell Elliot and Beverly apart, not knowing if it was the writer's intentions or not. The overall story of the film was fluent, starting slow and escalating to a very climactic ending.

Course connections.

1. One of the most interesting scenes in the film, a unique one, is when Elliot answers his hotel room door to two identical women. They enter and Elliot had a special request, for one of them to call him Elliot, while the other one calls him Beverly. Like he has two personalities within him. This relates to Tulpamancy. Also, at the beginning of the film when Beverly would go to dinners instead of Elliot and play him, even with women, it’s like he uses a different personality instead of his own, “you were great, seductive and charming as usual” -Beverly letting Elliot know how “he” was at dinner (which was Bev who went not Elliot), as well when Elliot would mention to Beverly “just do me” meaning let my personality control your body and you will do fine.
2. Freud's concepts can be found throughout the film. One in particular is womb envy, Beverly and Elliot's profession is to maintain and fix the female's superior gift that men do not have, which is to carry and give life. Womb envy in short is the unexpressed anxiety that some men feel in natural envy of the biological functions of women, this anxiety affects their social views of women. There for, due to their envy of the female's abilities, the Mantle twins made their legacy based on helping, enhancing even controlling the females superior ability over the males. Even the way they look at females is different than usual. Because all they do is evaluate and operate on the inside of them, the part of the females that can make them SUPERIOR to males.
3. Objectification, especially of women, was a theme running through this film Seeing or using a female as an object can be seen several ways in this film, using their patients (all females) as a tool for their success, being gynaecologists, as well, using females as a toy, Bev: “We share everything” Claire “I’m not a thing”, “Bev, you’ve got to try the movie star, she’s unbelievable”- Elliot. As a harsh as it sounds, it was definitely present in this film. Elliot who always gets the women, would always be eager to share his women with Beverly and share experiences, without these women knowing they are two different people.

Related Links

• Besides Dead Ringers, which was a confusing, bizarre type of horror film, have a look into 7 other of David Cronenberg's "twisted films" 

7 other Twisted movies by David Cronenberg. 

• If you found the Mantle twins portrayed very weird traits and possible abilities, check five real life stories of twins "creepier than any horror movie."

5 creepy twin stories

Questions:

1. Do you think sharing women they slept with was a way for them to express their own incestuous homoerotic feelings toward one another without actually doing it? Explain.  
2. The mantle twins have had a strong connection their whole life. Living together, working together, they had good chemistry, of course until Claire Niveau enters the picture and brings out some hidden feelings they both have towards each other. But, if Claire Niveau would have never been in their lives, would their chemistry last forever, or eventually fall apart like it did in the film ?
3. "What do you think about the concept of "self" between Beverly and Elliot? Were the twins sharing one single self split between two bodies?"  

Works cited:

“Dead Ringers”. David Cronenberg. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. 1988.

“Dead Ringers(1988)”. IMDb. web. November 3rd, 2016.