Double Lover

If you like your thrillers psycho and sexual, offering more than a dose of Hitchcock and De Palma, François Ozon’s 17th film is tailor-made for you. Ozon started out his career with a series of dark and thrilling sexual fantasies. He returns to that terrain here, albeit with an added session of Freudian psychotherapy. Chloé (Marine Vacth) experiences stomach aches that her doctor feels are more psychological than physical, so he gives her the number of a therapist. She ends up in a relationship with the therapist, Paul, But after they move in together, Chloé sees Paul in a part of town that’s nowhere near his practice. But is it Paul? Ozon’s camera explores the outer limits of his subject’s fragile psyche, as well as going places that might make some blush. In doing so, he has fun playing with our perception of reality, whilst offering up a steamy but knowing take on the sex thriller. (Curzon Artificial Eye)