Body Double (X)

The French artist Brice Dellsperger’s Body Double (X) (2000) is a brilliant 21st century reconstruction of the torrid 1974 film L' Important c'est d'aimer by Andrzej Zulawski . Mouthing the 1974 soundtrack and appearing in various costumes, drag artist Jean-Luc Verna acts out all of the roles within a cut up and fragmenting, digitalized visual narrative. Clothes anchor Verna’s grasp of the characters and they are the only solid structure under his and Dellsperger’s fluid exposure of miscommunication as a crime. But our initial reading of the story in itself may be another kind of crime which Dellsperger also explores through clothes by subverting their social connotations.