One of the most intriguing ideas of Western Literature is that of the doppelganger: the double, the evil twin, the mischievous imposter who steals away our identity or corrupts our reputation, whether in broad daylight or under cover of night.<\/p>\n
Though the word is German, the doppelganger also held particular interest for Russian literary master Fyodor Dostoyevsky. His novel The Double<\/em> has inspired many a film and novel ever since \u2013 and the theme of doppelganger has even held sway over the current Vitaly Sumin<\/a> behind-the-scenes production<\/a> about the making of Notes from the New World<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, an adaptation of the Russian author\u2019s Notes from the Underground<\/em>.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Two recently produced film versions of The Double<\/em> tell Dostoevsky\u2019s doppelganger story in effective ways. Enemy<\/em><\/strong>, director Denis Villeneuve<\/a>\u2019s 2013 independent film thriller about a professor\u2019s discovery of his own doppelganger (both professor and double played by Jake Gyllenhaal), has a surprise ending for the ages. It\u2019s an existential foray into humanity, into the male-female relationship, as well as \u2013 of all things \u2013 a treatise on dictatorship.<\/p>\n Based on a novel of the same name by the magical realist Portuguese author Jose Saramago<\/a>, the film Enemy<\/em><\/strong> is itself a sort of doppelganger in that it adapted a straightforward story from a novel onto the big screen, and then mischievously added its own ending, its own themes, and its own terrifying imagery of gigantic spiders into the mix. This double of the novel Enemy<\/em><\/strong> takes on evil-twin characteristics by changing the original themes into something otherworldly\u2014a doppelganger in the truest sense.<\/p>\n