Double Lover (2017)

Men will literally conspire with an evil twin rather than go to therapy

It’s easy to miss out on a François Ozon film. Since his first international hit, the effortlessly charming 8 Women, he’s worked at a pace only European arts funding can support. Now on his 23rd feature he’s also a genre jumper, from icy Patricia Highsmith tributes like Swimming Pool to queer remix films like last year’s Peter von Kant. I had never heard of 2017’s L’Amant double until well into the pandemic, when a streamer’s algorithm suggested we were really into unhinged European erotic thrillers.

Guilty. As. Charged.

Chloe is a docent in Paris with phantom stomach pains no one can diagnose. As a last-ditch effort to understand the cause she’s sent to Paul, a psychiatrist played by Jérémie Renier. His brand of therapy is saying very little and being very handsome. The two fall in love, the pain goes away, and she moves into his apartment, which has all the amenities of surreal European thriller apartments: a batty neighbor, ennui, hot sex.

And, of course, secrets.

Paul’s secret is his…