Re: RARA-AVIS: Hit Men/Jill Hennessey

From: Rene Ribic ( rribic@optusnet.com.au)
Date: 02 May 2002


>
> Manuel wrote:
> >Graham Greene (chapter featuring Raven)
>
> what book is he from?
>
Isn't he the hero of THIS GUN FOR HIRE (I've forgotten the original title but subsequent editions, such as my Penguin ed.always use the title of the early film noir starring Alan Ladd)?

> and
>
> Rene wrote:
> Rene replied:
>
>
> >Not that I know who Jill [Hennessey] is but it seems a safe bet that
she's
> >more attractive than Jack Klugman.)
>
> funny you should ask, she's actually my doppelganger.
>
> OK not REALLY but for a long time we had the same haircut.
>
> though as it happens, Jill Hennessey does have an identical twin,
Jacqueline
> Hennessey, and the two of them PLAYED identical twins in the movie
"Dead
> Ringers," which was based on a thriller by Bari Wood and Jack Geasland
> called "Twins." Which *sounds* like it was probably somewhat noir
based on
> the description -
>
> going for the record of biggest stretch to keep a post on topic,
>
> carrie
>

If the DEAD RINGERS you're talking about is the movie by David Cronenberg (a great director of visceral horror flicks whom the critics loathed up until that very film, IIRC) then I consider it very noir
(but not as in film noir). IMO DEAD RINGERS is Cronenberg's masterpiece. Although it fits comfortably in Cronenberg's ouevre as another biological horror film there are absolutely no fantastic elements in it - the horror comes from psychological sources. Jeremy Irons (whom I'd never really rated before this) puts in a stunning performance as the seriously disturbed twins. He won an Oscar for the film about Klaus Bulow after DEAD RINGERS & in his acceptance speech he said he was grateful for it but that he & everybody else knew the real reason he won it was for his role in DEAD RINGERS. I think he was right. I understand the book on which the film was based was inspired by a real-life scenario involving a couple of whacked out twin surgeons. I guess it's more Gothic than noir but it's got to be a close relative. Does anyone know anything about the real case that inspired the book? If I'm talking about the same film/book though, I don't offhand recall female twins but I do have an appalling memory & it's been a while.

Rene

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