罗班松·斯泰弗

　　在1890年之前，作家契科夫（尼古拉斯·吉劳德 Nicolas Giraud 饰）创作的多为富有喜剧和讽刺色彩的轻松作品，他的作品因为诙谐幽默又浅显易懂，深受民众的喜爱，俄国科学院为了表彰他给世界带来的精神财富，将“普希金奖”颁发给了契科夫。　　1890年，契科夫孤身一人跨越了千山万水，来到了库页岛，这里曾经是政治犯的流放地。库页岛上宛如人间地狱一般的景象深深的撼动了契科夫的内心，他开始意识到，在自己熟悉的世界之外，还有这么多人生活在苦难和贫穷之中。从此，契科夫一改文风，以库页岛之行作为素材，开始撰写揭露沙俄专制制度的作品。

　　为陪伴在家人的身边，丹尼尔出狱后，回到了家乡马赛。他的女儿玛蒂达，是一位刚成为母亲的实习销售助理，而他的伴侣尼古拉斯，则是每天疲于奔命的自由职业司机。某天夜里，一位因生意损失而心生怨恨的出租车司机袭击了尼古拉斯，他们平静的生活就此改变…

　　Magdalena and Maria are two twin sisters who were separated at birth and know nothing of the other’s existence.  Maria runs away from the boarding school in which she was brought up and finds work as a cabaret performer in the cafés of Marseilles.  Magdalena lives with her adopted parents and works in an art gallery.  The two sisters are joined by an invisible bond which draws them towards the same tragic conclusion.　　Director Werner Schroeter has acquired a reputation as an experimentalist filmmaker, hailed by some as an underrated genius, reviled by others for being a peddler of self-indulgent kitsch.  Deux is arguably Schroeter’s most ambitious, unsettling and repulsive work to date.  The director certainly wastes no time in alienating his audience; from the first ten minutes of the film it is clear this is not going to be an easy ride.  The narrative cuts haphazardly between seemingly unconnected events, alternating between realism and stylised fantasy dream sequences, periodically shocking the spectator with graphic images of lesbian sex and a woman being slowly disembowelled.  Having several actors playing multiple parts only adds to the sense of artifice and utter confusion, which is a pity as there is manifestly a lot of great acting talent on show – not least of which is Isabelle Huppert.  The film’s sheer relentless grotesqueness and self-indulgence is so extreme, so unbridled, so stomach-churningly provocative, that it is hard to take any of it seriously.