Movies about doubles, doppelgangers, stolen identities and the like

Jerry Lewis: "Ja Ja Mein General But Which Way to the Front?"

Norman Wisdom: The Square Peg

(Almost the same plot as "Which Way to the Front?")

'Face Off', 'The Net'... 'Seconds' was on here the other night which sounds relevant but i haven't seen it yet. great title sequence though.

Have you seen Fassbinder's "Despair"? Not one of his better efforts it must be admitted.

King, Queen, Knave

Starring Barbara Valentin, David Niven (!), Mario Adorf, Gina Lollobrigida , Carl Duering , John Moulder-Brown

written by David Seltzer, David Shaw

directed by Jerzy Skolimowski(!!)

Barbara Valentin was a Fassbinder regular - she might even be in "Despair" but don't think she was

(so is king queen knave, for the "blind" first 30 pages or so alone!)

YEAH, by Tony Richardson. W/ Anna Karina and ?bloke from Fahrenheit 451? Set in Swinging London.1969.

trading places

been thinking about the concept of doubles so much lately. yes the new Twin Peaks but also reading Hollywood Babylon recently. i think there is something in it that gets to the core of the human psyche, it is something found throughout practices in various faiths as well as in pop culture and hyper consumerism. creation of and identifying with the avatar. the doppledanger. the scapegoat. i was thinking of how some people used to call David Lynch a pervert or sicko while being outspoken fans of his work, in essence he was a projection, a third party, that they could blame, while still participating in the viewing of the more extreme subject matter.

this is why Hollywood (hence Hollywood Babylon) is such a big theme in his work, it is an industry based on the creation of the personal myths. before the creation of the star system actors were just "Man getting on train" or "Woman being saved" but the legend of Hollywood changed all of that. now, the actor's name was in giant letters, their image literally "larger than life". this was a projection, a magical act that is naturally transfixing and mesmerizing. Hollywood offered "More stars than there are in heaven" while Crowley was proclaiming "Every man and woman is a star". people followed their stars with all of their hearts, with all the faith of a religious evangelical. they died for them.

around this time the influx of money and technology and atmosphere of suffrage, temperance/prohibition, pressure for regulation of the new industry, all kinds of social movements, in the midst the tabloid press (now all media, more or less) was created to feast off these new idols of the oft-craven Nouveau Riche. rich young people spend their money partying, many drugs now illegal were still legal, the prohibition of alcohol attracting to bootleggers and gangsters and drug dealers, and hanging over it all film as a new medium, possibly a flash in the pan where your career could end overnight. the Lindsay Lohans of the day who refused to play along with an entertainment industry far more exploitative than even now were thrown into sanitariums, treated with electroshock, or blacklisted, possibly as secret communist sympathizers, etc. many did not even make it that far and spent their lives chasing a dream in vain.

nowadays everyone is a star (Warhol) and everyone has a tabloid media constantly trying to morally judge them. everyone can create their own double, their own personas. no need for the Hollywood System, you can do this with your phone, you can use a webcam and reach more people live than Chaplin ever dreamed of. but is that really us? obvious allusion to Narcissus and the mirror screens we gaze into daily, liquid crystal displays of the persona we create, a persona that seeks to be validated. beware the trap of the echo chamber. the story of Narcissus and Echo has a dark irony to it, and hey, another story about doubles (Narcissus doing what Echo did and Echo helplessly watching him watch himself).