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The legend of Hippolytus tells of the tortured love a mother, Phaedra, feels for her son. Hippolytus, in remorse, is borne into the sea by horses, where he is drowned. Subsequently, he is reborn in the heavens when Aesculapius, the physician, endows him with immortality.
In Twice a Man, Paul, a modern Hippolytus, vists his mother's house in Stater Island. As he wanders, through the house, he recalls recent events responsible far his mother's growing tension over Paul's affection for his mentor.
The formal construction of the film interweaves thoughts and memories of Paul, his mother, and his mentor, so that no clear differentiation is made between memory and reality.
Paul exists both before and after his death; for example, as he enters the house, he encounters mourners weeping for him. His mother is seen both as a lover, and as an elderly woman remembering the past. Events recalled are punctuated by thought and images representing the emotional experiences of the person thinking them, and do not maintain any chronological consistency. In this way, Twice a Man recreates the subjective reality of three minds in dramatic tension.
Baron Lambert Prize, Brussels Experimental Film Festival.