One of George Cukor's greatest films and one of the best films ever made about acting.
Anticipating films as diverse as ''Opening Night'' and ''Raging Bull'', Cukor's film deals with the loneliness at the heart of the performance arts, with insecurity and jealousy, as well as a cutting examination of our thin hold on reality. Like Cassavetes and Scorsese, the viewing experience of the film is very physical and tough on the audience.
Anthony John(Ronald Colman) is a respected and admired thespian on Broadway. He stars regularly alongside his ex-wife but still very much committed live-in girlfriend, Brita(Signe Hasso). Their relationship which endures both a marriage and a divorce is hampered by Tony John's extreme commitment to his acting, the ability with which he becomes his characters hampers his sense of reality and enters his private life. This comes to the front tragically when he undertakes the role of Othello with Brita as his Desdemona and performs the part for two years non-stop. Othello's rage and insecurity feeds on his own insecurity at his press-agent Bill(Edmond O'Brien), who has a thinly disguised attraction to Brita. His attempts to escape it involve an affair with a waitress(Shelley Winters) and a constant battle with his own mind to hold on to his sanity.
The baroque Pirandellian plot of this film is an ultimate test on the actors. Ronald Colman more than deserves one of the few just Oscar victories for his performance. It's a performance on a big scale and he more than commands the screen. A great example is the first performance as Othello. After an exceptional montage of theater rehearsals where we see Tony slowly creating his character we see the death of Desdemona scene on-stage and the acting is so natural that we actually see Othello and not Tony John act as Othello. Signe Hasso is very good as Brita showing an intelligence and sexuality to her part. Edmon O'Brien on the other hand is a real surprise. Aided by a great script, he reveals new details about a dramatically conventional character in each scene.
George Cukor made ''A Double Life'' independently through Garson Kanin's production company. Kanin who was Cukor's lifelong friend and frequent collaborator also wrote the script, which was undoubtedly influenced from his own experiences on Broadway. As a result it's much tougher and sober than other Cukor films made at studios, also showing a more direct take on sexuality. Cukor's direction of this film is totally against the grain of people who see him as a theatrically oriented film-maker. The visual style shows a rich use of black-and-white and chiaroscuro reflected through window-blinds that is associated with Film Noir(to which it qualifies as a decidedly outré example). But the classic Cukor mise-en-scene, the movement in-and-out of frame, the blocking and cutting immediately shows his personal stamp on every frame of the film.
This is one of his richest and most personal films although atypical as per his image. Cukor is often associated with a lightness that's totally absent here, with sophisticated humour and wit. Yet ''A Double Life'' picks up from ''Gaslight'' which also dealt with insanity by adduced-illusions and paves the way for ''A Star is Born''. The press scenes here are a dry run for the latter film. It's also one of the many films Cukor made on actors, dealing with acting including ''Born Yesterday'', ''The Actress'', ''Sylvia Scarlett'', ''My Fair Lady'' and many others. A work of art from a true master.
Anticipating films as diverse as ''Opening Night'' and ''Raging Bull'', Cukor's film deals with the loneliness at the heart of the performance arts, with insecurity and jealousy, as well as a cutting examination of our thin hold on reality. Like Cassavetes and Scorsese, the viewing experience of the film is very physical and tough on the audience.
Anthony John(Ronald Colman) is a respected and admired thespian on Broadway. He stars regularly alongside his ex-wife but still very much committed live-in girlfriend, Brita(Signe Hasso). Their relationship which endures both a marriage and a divorce is hampered by Tony John's extreme commitment to his acting, the ability with which he becomes his characters hampers his sense of reality and enters his private life. This comes to the front tragically when he undertakes the role of Othello with Brita as his Desdemona and performs the part for two years non-stop. Othello's rage and insecurity feeds on his own insecurity at his press-agent Bill(Edmond O'Brien), who has a thinly disguised attraction to Brita. His attempts to escape it involve an affair with a waitress(Shelley Winters) and a constant battle with his own mind to hold on to his sanity.
The baroque Pirandellian plot of this film is an ultimate test on the actors. Ronald Colman more than deserves one of the few just Oscar victories for his performance. It's a performance on a big scale and he more than commands the screen. A great example is the first performance as Othello. After an exceptional montage of theater rehearsals where we see Tony slowly creating his character we see the death of Desdemona scene on-stage and the acting is so natural that we actually see Othello and not Tony John act as Othello. Signe Hasso is very good as Brita showing an intelligence and sexuality to her part. Edmon O'Brien on the other hand is a real surprise. Aided by a great script, he reveals new details about a dramatically conventional character in each scene.
George Cukor made ''A Double Life'' independently through Garson Kanin's production company. Kanin who was Cukor's lifelong friend and frequent collaborator also wrote the script, which was undoubtedly influenced from his own experiences on Broadway. As a result it's much tougher and sober than other Cukor films made at studios, also showing a more direct take on sexuality. Cukor's direction of this film is totally against the grain of people who see him as a theatrically oriented film-maker. The visual style shows a rich use of black-and-white and chiaroscuro reflected through window-blinds that is associated with Film Noir(to which it qualifies as a decidedly outré example). But the classic Cukor mise-en-scene, the movement in-and-out of frame, the blocking and cutting immediately shows his personal stamp on every frame of the film.
This is one of his richest and most personal films although atypical as per his image. Cukor is often associated with a lightness that's totally absent here, with sophisticated humour and wit. Yet ''A Double Life'' picks up from ''Gaslight'' which also dealt with insanity by adduced-illusions and paves the way for ''A Star is Born''. The press scenes here are a dry run for the latter film. It's also one of the many films Cukor made on actors, dealing with acting including ''Born Yesterday'', ''The Actress'', ''Sylvia Scarlett'', ''My Fair Lady'' and many others. A work of art from a true master.