Alter Ego: a twisting comedy with Laurent Lafitte in duplicate

An average, balding guy discovers that his new neighbor is his double, but with hair: Laurent Lafitte doubles up in this bizarre and twisting comedy from Nicolas and Bruno.

If we put aside the hairy erotic comedy In search of Ultra-sex (made from sequences of X-rated films from the 70’s), Nicolas Charlet and Bruno Lavaine had inexplicably not made a film since 2013. The duo behind The informative message And The Person of Two Persons finally returns with a story on the borders of reality: Alex (Laurent Lafitte) discovers that his new neighbor, Axel, is his perfect double… with hair. Except he’s the only one who notices the resemblance. This more handsome, sportier and more cultured double, who also shares his office, will generate in Alex a jealousy bordering on furious madness.

Very inventive within the framework of a tiny set-up – everything, or almost everything, takes place around terraced houses -, Nicolas and Bruno manage to set up a disturbing strangeness with three pieces of string (a zoom too strong, a lopsided angle, a stolen glance at the window…). The duo reconnects with the absurd humor that made their success, continuing to examine the trajectories of individuals crushed by competitiveness and the world of work. The criticism of virilism and winning, underlying all their work, finds here a disturbing echo with current events.

But Alter Egoit’s also a lot of twisting visual gags as brilliantly simple as Zabou Breitman with a mustache (!) or a complicated camping tent set-up, the involvement of the casting – Laurent Laffite in the lead, exceptional in this incarnation of duality – allowing us to push the cursors into the red. And the best part is that the film manages to land on its feet despite its crazy scenario that Quentin Dupieux will inevitably be a little jealous of.

Alter Ego, by Nicolas Charlet and Bruno Lavaine, with Laurent Lafitte, Blanche Gardin, Olga Kurylenko… Duration 1 h 43

Review initially published during the presentation of the film at the Alpe d’Huez Comedy Festival.