The Double (1971) User Reviews

Blue Jean

[Bezenby · 5/10 · 5 October 2017]

Poor Jean Sorel. He heads down to an underground car park to innocently park his car and some mysterious guy shoots him. As he hits the ground, instead of his life flashing before his eyes, an entire giallo film does instead, and not just the flashbacks of stuff that actually happened – this flashback contains his fantasies too!

You see Jean is a young(ish) businessman working for his father in Morocco, although mooching off him while his brother (Giacomo Rossi- Stuart) does all the hard work might be a better description. When we first meet Jean he's frolicking around the beach with his new wife Lucia (including some underwater noodling – that's one detailed flashback!). Lucia seems to be interested in a local hippy type who's wandering around the beach, which Jean isn't too happy with. He also keeps hallucinating that he's with another lady, which confused the hell out of me at first.

This other lady is Lucia's mum, and although Jean gets jealous of Lucia talking to the hippy (Eddie, his name is), he doesn't mind trying it on with her mum or becoming completely obsessed by her, and it doesn't help that she's hooked up with Eddie. This leads to Jean fantasising about shooting Eddie in the face with a rifle, which is a strange thing to have a flashback about.

Things jump between Rome and Morocco while Jean flirts with Lucia's mum, argues with Lucia, discusses the 'hippy movement' on a yacht and such like. It's all kind of trippy and disjointed and although it's quite different from your usual giallo madness, there's not enough of the usual giallo madness here. Although the ending was pretty daft.

Jean Sorel seems to have moved away from the Giallo genre following this and Short Night of the Glass Dolls – he was quite good though.

Does not stay with you

[jrd_73 · 5/10 · 12 March 2011]

I saw this under the title Love Inferno about five months ago. It begins with a man, Giovanni, being shot in a parking garage. What did he do to deserve this fate? The film flashes back to show how things went wrong for this playboy. While on honeymoon in Africa, Giovanni meets the sexy mother of his (attractive) wife. Since the mother is played by Lucia Bose, I can understand the guy's predicament. The mother-in-law is, needless to say, appalled by the advances of her daughter's new husband and instead takes up with a young hippie type. Jealousy and frustration follow. I was certain where the film was going but turned out to be only partially right. Ewa Aulin, certainly no wallflower either, plays the wife. After only five months, I'm having a hard time remembering much about the film. It was okay but don't expect an erotic thriller - the film is lacking on both counts.

Worth watching for Ewa!

[parry_na · 5/10 · 13 November 2019]

I can only be honest and make it absolutely clear: I find Ewa Aulin completely cute and stunning to look at. Even the voice dubbed on top of hers doesn't compromise that. Jean Sorel as Giovanni, whose recollections make up the bulk of this film, is a classically good looking gentleman. As a couple, however, Giovanni and Lucia share a tempestuous, jealous relationship. And that is what takes up most of the plot.

Despite the appealing quality of these two performers, their various dalliances aren't quite as interesting to watch as the writers seem to think, although Romolo Guerrieri's direction lifts it into a somewhat dream-like state. But the various liaisons are virtually all that happens. The main thrust of interest involves how Giovanni ends up in the predicament he's enduring when we first encounter him at the beginning of the film.

Despite the wafer-thin plot, this is as breezy, if undemanding, entry into the giallo genre - mainly because of the appeal of the two main players. My score is 5 out of 10.

Trash of the 1970's

[jromanbaker · 1/10 · 15 July 2021]

A great admirer of Jean Sorel I watched this unworthy rubbish, and although the mystery of the opening caught my attention the rest of the film did not. Lucia Bose, a long way away from Antonioni, I also admire, but definitely not here. Seeing Sorel I tried to focus on the great actor of ' Sandra ' directed by Visconti, and his role in Bunuel's ' Belle de Jour ' and Bolognini's ' From a Roman Balcony ' and wondered why he had accepted this mess of a scenario. This example of Italian cinema of the beginning of the 1970's showed to me how cinema was beginning to slide down into puerile eroticism (concentrating on the female body and considering the male body to be a substitute for the heterosexual males in the audience), and also into the domain of violence for its own sake with again the males in the audience having fantasies of violence of their own. But to return to the film in detail it has an appalling musical score, flashy and gimmicky camera work, and as I said I watched it for Sorel and yes, there were glimpses of the man who qualified for me as being the best actor of the previous decade. Saddening.

Sexy thriller that provides a different take on the common Giallo formula

[The_Void · 7/10 · 14 May 2006]

Like Luigi Cozzi's The Killer Must Kill Again, and Aldo Lado's Short Night of the Glass Dolls, Romolo Guerrieri's The Double has tried to do something a little different with the common Giallo formula, and like the latter film; this one isn't entirely successful, although it's certainly an intriguing take on Italy's finest style of film-making. The plot is narrated via a series of flashbacks, and while this gives the film a rather disjointed feel, the talented director ensures that every scene flows well and is relevant to the plot. The focus of this movie isn't on murder, despite someone being shot in the opening scene and it's always clear that the characters are the star of this show. The film revolves around Frank; the man shot at the beginning, as he lies in a pool of blood, he thinks back to how he got into that position - a story that centres on the mother of his nineteen year old girlfriend. Frank is an architect living off his father's allowance and he's also a jealous lover. He doesn't like his girlfriend seeing an American holidaymaker, also staying in Morocco - but he also can't resist the lure of his girlfriend's sexy mother...

The Moroccan locale that makes up the first part of the movie is beautifully shot, and director Guerrieri delights in overlapping his beautiful scenes with a catchy score from Armando Trovajoli. The film doesn't include a lot of tension or suspense, but The Double does manage to retain the viewer's interest by way of the characters' motivations. The film bathes in the glow of the people in the story, and this is one of the movie' strongest elements. The Double is brought to life by Jean Sorel, who takes the lead role. While his character is something of an interloper between the others in the plot, Sorel does well with what he has. Lucia Bosé and Ewa Aulin are both good as the female leads, and the director delights in capturing as much of their flesh as possible. The fact that the movie doesn't feature the stylish murders or exciting chase sequences that have made the sub-genre famous will leave some disappointed; and I've got to say that's true for me. Films such as The Forbidden Photos of a Lady above Suspicion have proved that sex and characters can carry a Giallo, but this one doesn't quite manage it. However; The Double is an interesting film and one that fans of Giallo will not want to miss.

A fun giallo with some definite original ideas

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 16 January 2021]

Giovanni (Jean Sorel, Perversion Story) is shot in an underground car-park by a mysterious man and as he dies, he flashes back on his life - including jealousy, adultery and worse - in this 1971 giallo known here as The Double.

While vacationing in Morocco with his stunning girlfriend Lucia (Ewa Aulin, Candy, Death Smiles On a Murderer, Death Laid an Egg), Giovanni grows jealous of an American named Eddie (Sergio Doria, Cave of the Sharks). In retaliation, he forces himself on Lucia's mother Nora (Lucia Bose, The Legend of Blood Castle) and then becomes obsessed all over again that she's also in love with Eddie. To top all of that off, he soon finds the American's body in her apartment, so he disposes of the body to protect her. But if she wasn't in the country when it happened, who killed the man?

Oh yeah, and between being caught in a mother-daughter triangle with Lucia and Nora, there's also the gorgeous - and face-painted in one scene - Marilù Tolo to deal with.

Romolo Guerrieri also directed another giallo I really enjoyed, The Sweet Body of Deborah, and his artistic sensibilities elevate this film as well, starting with the Sunset Boulevard conceit of the main character getting killed off before we discover anything about him. And even more interesting is the fact that the more we learn of him, the less we like Giovanni.

Totally, entirely godawful, in every way. Messy, slovenly crafted, lacking any value.

[I_Ailurophile · 1/10 · 4 February 2023]

In the spirit of supreme generosity I will assume that the source material, a novel by Libero Bigiaretti, is written well, and that the incoherence, incohesiveness, and sloppiness of the film is owed entirely to its writers and director Romolo Guerrieri. This would be laughable if it weren't so laborious to watch. The dialogue is terrible (the best lines in the film are nothing more than a quotation of Allen Ginsberg), characters are just poorly written all around with little if any rhyme or reason, and the scene writing is equal parts scattered, senselessly melodramatic, and sometimes simply pointless. Plot development comes off as meager and tiresomely haphazard; somehow one still manages to glean a vague, loose sense of story - though it's not convincing, and just altogether weak. It certainly doesn't help that the editing is so needlessly curt and choppy, with sequencing being particularly rotten. This is true not least as the picture semi-regularly bounces us back to the opening scene, a man dying in a garage, as he recalls the recent events we're otherwise watching; such back and forth is absolutely unnecessary, and serves only to draw one out of the viewing experience. Let's not beat around the bush: this is just rotten.

Carlo Carlini's cinematography is generally blandly suitable, though in some instances decidedly overzealous. Where Guerrieri's direction is concerned, meanwhile, the first words to come to mind are "dull" and "unpracticed." I suppose Armando Trovajoli's compositions for he score show some promise - or at least, they might if they weren't so glaringly repetitive. There aren't that many distinct themes on hand, and in fact it at least feels as though there are only two that get used over and over again, with a single unique theme to show up in the last ten to fifteen minutes. Every now and again it seems like the cast is performing well, appropriate to the needs of any given moment, yet mostly they don't. In fairness, considering how shoddy the writing and direction are, it might not be their fault. As if to emphasize the point, a little after the one-hour mark there's a scene where Lucia asks Giovanni if he's still mad at her. Thanks to the awful writing we have no idea what quarrel she might be referring to; thanks to the floundering acting, it doesn't seem like either person cares about the conversation at all.

Oh, and about that "vague, loose sense of story" one may possibly ascertain. Elsewhere on The Internet one can read a synopsis of the plot of 'The double' and gain definite understanding of the tale that Guerrieri is trying to impart with at best extremely mixed results. I wouldn't recommend it, however, for when all is said and done, the narrative at large is plainly insipid, all but amateurish. Any amorphous feelings of tension that might kind of sort of manifest in the last act are squashed, to the point that we are made to feel like fools, for how nonsensical (and, of course, poorly written and executed) the ultimate revelations are. I repeat my hope that this feature is not a true reflection of the novel it's based on, for if it is, that speaks very, very poorly to author Bigiaretti as much as all involved in this production. Well, maybe not all, as one might say the crew behind the scenes put in good work. "Might" is the furthest I can get with such evaluation, however, for at best this is such a chore that it's impossible to care about such contributions; at worst, one might just say that their work was just as putrid as everything else here.

I don't care who you are. I don't care what your interests are when it comes to cinema. There is no reason for you to watch this. It's among the clumsiest, most gawky, actively aggravating movies I've ever watched. I may, in fact, need to reassess my ranking of the worst movies I've ever seen, because 'The double' is indisputably below the bottom of the barrel, and countable among the lowest of all company. It makes 2019's 'A karate Christmas miracle' look passable by comparison, and The Beatles' woe-begotten TV movie 'Magical Mystery Tour' seem fun. I feel like less of a person just for the fact of having wasted my time on this. Please do not make the same mistake that I have. Avoid this, forever.

I didn't get it

[dopefishie · 3/10 · 12 December 2022]

I didn't get it. Who's the double? What was the point of the film? There are no answers here.

There are some great actors here, but unfortunately, they are wasted. Jean Sorel does the best he can here. Unfortunately, his character is thoroughly unlikable... which is a bad trait in a protagonist. What makes it worse is that he is killed within the first 5 minutes. Everything we learn about him leading up to his death makes us less sympathetic to him: he's jealous, he's a loser, he's a rapist.

It seems like some of his fantasies are played out alongside his memories, and it's sometimes difficult to know the difference between fantasy and memory. In the end, it doesn't add up to anything. I guess I missed the point.

Dreamy and breezy Italian fun

[Red-Barracuda · 8/10 · 28 July 2012]

A man called Giovanni is shot in an underground car park by an ominous old man. The rest of the story is told in disjointed flashbacks that piece together the scenario that resulted in this situation arising. It turns out that Giovanni is an idle playboy who has affair with his young wife's mother while holidaying in Morocco. The mother ends up taking up with an American drifter and Giovanni is consumed with jealousy; murder follows.

The Double is a pretty interesting thriller. Its structure is one of the primary reasons why. The way in which scenes are edited together in a non-chronological way gives it a mysterious and dreamlike feel. The soundtrack accentuates this tone, seeing as it's a score that can best be described as breezy. The film benefits from the presence of Jean Sorel as Giovanni. Sorel starred in several gialli from the time and always seems to put in a solid turn. Also of note is Ewa Aulin as Sorel's young wife. Aulin had earlier appeared in the ultra-weird Death Laid an Egg, here she is also good and cute as a button; she even has time for an extended naked underwater swim, which was nice.

This is a good film. It isn't a typical giallo; it's more of a psychological thriller. It's well acted and directed and it isn't particularly predictable. If you like Italian thrillers then you should like this too.

In the pantheon of great Italian thrillers

[Oliver_Lenhardt · 8/10 · 1 October 2002]

First I must confess that I'm not a big fan of gialli. I've seen enough of them to know that they almost invariably play gleefully on the audience's prurient and senselessly violent impulses, and, to boot, a good percentage of them are inept in the filmmaking department. There usually isn't much of interest for someone looking for quality cinema. THE DOUBLE is one of the exceptions.

The film shares its flashback structure with Claude Sautet's poignant French drama LE CHOSES DE LA VIE. In addition, "The Double" would be a very fitting companion piece to Aldo Lado's MALASTRANA, a giallo which it closely resembles, and which also stars Jean Sorel.

Frank (Sorel) is an indolent playboy living off proceeds from his father's business. As the film begins, Frank drives his Citroen into a Rome parking garage and is shot by a mysterious bearded man. The remainder of the story is a series of flashbacks, as the dying Frank recollects how he arrived at his present circumstance: Frank was married to the lovely but dimwitted Lucia(Ewa Aulin), but secretly pined after her mirror-image, more sophisticated mother Nora(Lucia Bose). When Nora became involved with an American drifter, Eddie(Sergio Doria), Frank was green with envy. Things spiral out of control....but not as one would expect. By the climax, the moral comes into focus: Keeping one's passions unchecked can lead to ruin. Not exactly a new notion, but it's intriguingly explored here.

"The Double" is not without its flaws. The (customarily, for an Italian film) incongruous folk music and the anything-goes attitude towards sex and lounging about are badly dated; early sections of the film are languorous and convoluted; the final scene is not quite clear, at least in the version I saw. I would love to see a subtitled incarnation of the film, as dubbing is oft disconcerting and poorly recorded.

Director Romolo Guerrieri is the real star of the proceedings. His commanding style and aplomb with the intercutting is impressive. There are countless striking visual flourishes throughout.

enjoyable if insubstantial

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 5 October 2015]

This is all most enjoyable if insubstantial. It looks good and sounds good throughout. Jean Sorel effective, as ever, without seeming to put himself too far out. Just a raised eyebrow is often all he needs to do to convey to us his thinking. Bit bewildering at times with much flashing back and forth but the two ladies help, both Lucie Bose and Ewa Aulin as mother and daughter are easy on the eye, in and out of their clothes. Many films of this time had prolonged sequences somewhere in them where half naked lovers ran along a beach or galloped horses in the surf or ran into sunlight through cornfields but this film, at times, seems to consist of just those dreamy (but insignificant) moments.