El mito del doble en la representación cinematográfica.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to inquire the loss of the self and the inconsistency which is appearing in the cultural life of the second half of the twentieth century, with the intention of proving that what we are or who we are is not the result of our inner self or «essence», but the result of how we have been constructed and represented within the social group we belong to. Henceforth two particular films have been analysed: Persona by Ingmar Bergman, and Multiplicity by Harold Ramis, the first premiered in 1966, the latter thirty years later, in 1996. These films provide examples of how contemporary fiction transmits archaic myths though masked, rewritten and adapted to the new problems of human beings and their socio-historical conditions. In both films, the mythical narrative of the double pattern gives us the keys to understanding the always complex and problematic human identity. Moreover, not only do both directors share a similar approach, but they also evoke contemporary concerns with a timeless form. The problem of identity is thus eternal in time as well as in space.