Film Review
Classic film noir and Shakespearean tragedy are handsomely interlaced
in this gripping psychological drama, George Cukor's darkest and most
compelling exploration of the human psyche. A riveting central
performance from Ronald Colman, in the role that won him his only
Oscar, makes
A Double Life
one of cinema's most harrowing and revealing incursions into the
fraught existence of the professional actor. The noir stylisation
(in particular Milton Krasner's moody high contrast cinematography) is
entirely appropriate for a film about a man who is struggling to hold
together his fractured identity as his striving for perfection in his
art takes him to the brink of reason and beyond, into the abyss of
mental derangement.
Those who most associate the name George Cukor with light-hearted
comedies such as
Adam's Rib (1949) and lavish
musicals like
My Fair Lady (1964) will be
surprised by
A Double Life, a
film that languishes in the bleak, comfortless hinterland of the
darkest films noirs. With a murder sequence that gives the famous
shower scene in Hitchcock's
Psycho (1960) a good run for
its money in its sheer visceral nastiness and heightened sense of
terror, this is a film that pulls few punches and convinces us that the
same human being is capable of harbouring two quite distinct natures,
one a gentle sophisticate, the other a vicious savage that is incapable
of containing its baser impulses. It is not much of an
exaggeration to say that
A Double
Life is one of the most disturbing films ever to come out of
Hollywood. It is certainly one of cinema's most convincing
portrayals of insanity.
Ronald Colman is not an actor who is renowned for playing
monsters. With his clipped accent, benign personality and noble
bearing he would appear to be the epitome of the English officer
class. So to see him undergo a Jekyll and Hyde transformation in
this film, to see him not merely playing Othello but actually
becoming the ill-fated Moor, being
totally consumed by the part to the extent that he is virtually
unrecognisable, is indeed the stuff of nightmares - one of the few
genuinely shocking moments that cinema has given us. Just as
memorable as the scene in which Coleman brutally dispatches a ravishing
Shelley Winters (in the role that established her as a major Hollywood
film actress) are the utterly chilling staged sequences from the last
act of Shakespeare's
Othello.
By replaying the same scene (Desdemona's murder) from different angles,
Cukor shows us the protagonist's diabolical transformation from two
perspectives - internally, as it is experienced by the actor, and
externally, as it is seen by his ex-wife - and the effect is truly
terrifying.
As the tension builds to a memorably grim climax, in which the outcome
is all too predictable yet nonetheless traumatic to watch, the audience
cannot escape being both appalled and moved by the mental
disintegration of an actor who must live his part in order to fill the
void that is his own barren identity. The Faustian connection is
easily made - every time an actor takes on a role, he is entering into
an agreement with the Devil, risking his soul so that he may for a time
live the life of another. What perhaps makes
A Double Life so shocking, so
unforgettable, is that it leaves us with a sense of how malleable the
human psyche really is, and how easy it is to unlock the cage that
contains the savage that is our other self - the monster we most dread.
© James Travers 2011
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next George Cukor film:
Adam's Rib (1949)
Film Synopsis
Anthony John is a renowned stage actor who, against his better
judgement, allows himself to be coaxed into playing the lead role in
Shakespeare's
Othello.
The part of the jealous husband who ultimately murders his beloved wife
turns out to be appropriate for John, for he has a jealous streak and
still claims ownership of his ex-wife Brita. Gradually, whilst
playing the role to great acclaim, John becomes taken over by the
character of Othello and soon finds it difficult to distinguish reality
from the workings of his strained imagination. In his mind, Brita
is still his wife, the wife he passionately adores. His publicity
agent Bill is a scheming villain who intends to rob him of his
wife. Then he meets Pat Kroll, a waitress in an Italian
restaurant, and finds her strangely alluring. One night, whilst
visiting Pat at her lodgings, John is overtaken by his stage persona
and becomes a psychotic killer...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.