Badly twisted plot – Newspaper Kommersant No. 242 (7443) of 12/28/2022

The Franco-Swiss-Belgian film by Antoine Barrault “The Double Deception of Madeleine Collins” (Madeleine Collins) is released. Mikhail Trofimenkov vainly tried to understand the vicissitudes not so much of the double life of the heroine as of the director’s logic.

“Double Deception” critics have repeatedly compared – on the sole basis that its heroine (Virginie Efira) a blonde, living a double life – with the great “Vertigo” (1958) by Alfred Hitchcock. Even worse: they called it a very vital and believable opus. Meanwhile, there is no Hitchcockian suspense or elementary logic in the film. Its meaning – or nonsense – fits perfectly into the mean lines of an advertising abstract.

So, lives and lives a blonde named – depending on the circumstances – either Judith, or Margot, or maybe Madeleine in general. She has two either husbands or lover – the Spaniard-conductor Melville (Bruno Salomon) and the Swiss Abdel (Kim Gutierrez), who either know or have no idea about the existence of each other. And three more children: two sons from Melville and a daughter from Abdel. At some point, something goes wrong in her life: it would be strange if such a bizarre existence lasted for years without a hitch.

At first, the film evokes vague associations with The Rival (2002) by Nicole Garcia. That film—based on a novel by Emmanuel Carrère—told the true story of the madman Jean-Claude Roman. Roman assured the family for years that he worked for the World Health Organization (Madeleine pretends to be a translator for international organizations). Meanwhile, Roman did not work anywhere, he cheated with money that friends and relatives imprudently entrusted to him, allegedly in investment funds. And when the revelation rolled up, he killed his wife, two children, parents and a dog.

From Madeleine, too, expect a similar excess. Don’t wait! And here, in turn, two fatal questions arise: why and how?

Why? Where the hell did it all start? What is the intrigue, what is the mystery, not to mention the solution? What drove this woman into such a schizophrenic situation? Mental illness in the literal sense of the word? Well, she is nervous, yes, but how not to be nervous if you have to rush between Geneva, Paris and Madrid, each time pretending to be someone else? Or maybe love? Does she love both Abdel and Melville? Their nervous relationship does not hint at any inescapable and mutual tenderness. Abdel just brings a third-party girl into the house, sending Madeleine to sleep on the couch. Melville seems to be going to marry a singer, whose career a prestigious marriage seems to be helping.

How? How did Madeleine, having given birth to three children, managed to hide her pregnancy from Melville? Yes, she pretends to be a synchronized swimmer who needs to spend two, three or four days a week, either in Poland, or in Germany, or in Lithuania. But we are talking about days, not months of pregnancy.

The further into the forest where Abdel’s house stands, the more questions. Madeleine was unsettled by a meeting with old friends. But what, in all the years of pretending, she never once encountered people from her former – which, again, it is not clear – life? Pretending to be a translator? Okay, but this kind of work pays so well that Abdel could at least once wonder why his wife’s salary does not go into the common pot. (Let me remind you, Jean-Claude Roman provided his legend with stolen money.) Finally, why does Madeleine need fake documents, the extraction of which is associated with a significant part of the film? And why the devil does the policeman, having detained her with obviously false rights, release the criminal to freedom?

In general, of course, “Double Deception” in its mystery is worthy of comparison with “Vertigo”, but there are nuances. Hitchcock made a mystery film, and Barro’s mystery is why, what, and why he made it at all.