Deux

The associative Deux follows the different lives of a mother and her twin daughters Maria and Magdalena, who were separated at birth. Their lives often run in parallel, but sometimes they almost meet up. The women are deprived of maternal love and are emotionally unstable. One allows herself to be led by her lesbian feelings, the other makes friends with a strange man (Jean François Stévenin) who lives on the stage of an opera house. The camera moves between Marseilles and the Portuguese coast and records the women as they desperately search for their roots, but only find satisfaction in impersonal sex and in drama they evoke themselves. Deux focuses completely on the diva Isabelle Huppert, who previously played a role in Schroeter’s classic Malina and now takes on both roles of the twin sisters. The previous work of the idiosyncratic director Werner Schroeter also focused on the problems of his female characters. His fascination with theatrical drama, literature and opera music is again expressed here. With great feeling for decorum, he lays out a powerful and almost schizophrenic drama.