Top SFX shots No.30: Dead Ringers

Actors playing dual roles is an old story in Hollywood, though the cheap double-exposures have given place to sophisticated motion-control work. What has yet to be done effectively is shooting a scene with a 'doubling' actor hand-held - or shooting a scene outdoors (the light is likely to have changed by the time the actor is in his or her 'other' make-up; the exterior shots of 'young' and 'old' Thomas F. Wilson in Back To The Future Part II show the difference in lighting conditions between the 'split' takes). In Dead Ringers David Cronenberg is standing on the achievements of many before him, and pre-empts Robert Zemeckis' exceptional actor-doubling in the Back To The Future sequels, which used the 'Vistaglide' roving motion-control camera designed by ILM. Most of Zemeckis' motion-control repeat passes occurred from a locked-off base (with the camera swivelling on several axes but not itself moving), but Cronenberg dares to move his camera fluidly around the sets. The fact that the technical aspects of production must have been so daunting can only add to Jeremy Irons' achievement in creating two distinct personalities for the disturbed gynaecologist twins without going all 'evil Kirk'.

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