By Jason Apuzzo. A picture is worth a thousand words, you know? Some great new images are becoming available of of Dominic Cooper as Uday Hussein in the new film The Devil’s Double. I’ll be posting them here periodically in the run-up to the film’s release on July 29th.
For our new readers, The Devil’s Double is a new film about the mobster-like lifestyle of Saddam Hussein’s son Uday – and the moral crisis faced by his body double Latif Yahia. Both characters are played by Dominic Cooper, and the film otherwise stars French actress Ludivine Sangier as Uday’s mistress, Sarrab. The film is based on the real-life memoirs of Latif Yahia, and is directed by veteran director Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day, The Sopranos, Next).
The film is incredibly un-p.c. in its depiction of the notorious “Black Prince” Uday, who is portrayed in the film as a carefree, sadistic monster with a keen taste for violence and sex. As regular readers will recall, Libertas’ Joe Bendel reviewed The Devil’s Double at Sundance in January and absolutely loved it. Lionsgate will be releasing the film here in the States on July 29th.
Also: Dominic Cooper spoke recently to MTV about the film. Here’s an excerpt from his interview:
MTV: “Devil’s Double” hits theaters in July, right in the midst of a very crowded summer-movie season filled with superheroes, robots and what have you. For you, what makes “Devil’s Double” stand out in a sea of blockbusters?
Cooper: Well, I think it’s the fact that this is not a blockbuster, in a way. [Laughs.] They’re visually stunning, those films, but ultimately it depends on whether you want complete escapism — to believe that there are green monsters coming down from Mars and superheroes are flying around the sky, which is wonderful and exciting — or whether you want some sort of reality-based reference to a man who actually existed.
I think Latif’s [Uday’s body-double] story is exhilarating. How could anyone have ever lived through that? It’s so far from where we are, seeing how Baghdad functioned, this lavish and overwhelming lifestyle that these people led. There’s a true horror of what went on within it. But at the same time, Lee’s made it action-packed and fast moving and sexy in a way. It has all of those elements. It’s a gangster film rather than a historical documentation. You’re just amazed that anybody ever went through this.
I can’t help but agree with Cooper, here. Regular Libertas readers know how much I love the new wave of alien invasion films … but these films, I’m noticing, are conspicuously lacking in good villains – and isn’t it nice every once in a while to enjoy characters drawn from the real world?
Catch The Devil’s Double‘s hugely entertaining trailer here and gloriously vulgar poster here. The chaos begins July 29th.
Posted on May 12th, 2011 at 11:31am.
Wow … those shots ooze atmosphere. There’s a nice color palate that’s not too intrusive, but still offers up a healthy sense of style.
You truly get a sense of the underworld here, which I hope is accompanied by some nice contrast in the film. I’ll have to watch the trailer again.
They’ve really made the effort here to make his world look seedy and colorful – Miami Vice in Bagdad, as it were …
It’s interesting to hear that viewpoint from Dominic Cooper. It’s interesting that they’re marketing this as a gangster film, and not as a political film. The political point is pretty obvious to me and one I welcome, but it’s interesting that they went this other way to get it through the Hollywood system.
‘Political’ cinema is practically dead right now, believe me. I’ve never seen audiences more bored with films tagged as ‘political,’ whether they’re coming from the left or right. Look at Atlas Shrugged, for example. That movie got endlessly hyped in the right-wing media, with oceans of free publicity for an indie film … and audiences never showed. There are many other examples I could name, but you get the point.
After Fahrenheit 9/11, many people on both the left and right thought Michael Moore was ushering in a new era of lucrative political filmmaking, bringing back the semi-heady days of the 1970s. In fact, Fahrenheit basically killed political cinema off – to the extent it was truly alive to begin with. Fahrenheit was a freak show that couldn’t really be matched – not even by Moore – in terms of raising the ante, and turning mainstream cinema into something utterly propagandistic. Like any train wreck, it was an interesting spectacle to watch – once – but not as a regular diet.
I still know people in the right-wing world, endlessly tilling these fields, expecting their big day to come when audiences show up en masse to watch their right-wing documentary or (in the rare case) narrative. It’s just not happening. The best thing one can do is what these guys making The Devil’s Double are doing, which is to simply tell a colorful story, avoid political hectoring, and let the film find its natural audience. Also: they didn’t make this film through the Hollywood system, but as an indie feature with Belgian financing. There’s no way it would’ve otherwise come together within the system.
Ugh. Just looks like torture porn masquerading as political commentary to me. You guys enjoy it. I’ll be in Cars 2.
‘Torture porn’? That’s a little harsh, isn’t it?
“…portrayed in the film as a carefree, sadistic monster with a keen taste for violence and sex.” Nope.
OK, so let me ask you this question: would you consider The Godfather ‘torture porn’? or Scarface? In other words, does the inclusion of a sadistic character of this sort in a film automatically turn something into ‘torture porn’?
Excellent point. As for Scarface, yes, I probably would, for that scene in the shower with the chain saw alone. The violence in the Godfather is jarring, but unlike Scarface it seems ‘real’ as opposed to the way De Palma fetishizes guns and their consequences, if that makes sense. But while Scarface/Michael Corleone may kill people, they aren’t torturers or sadists–we would have no sympathy for them in those movies if they were. I assume we’re not meant to come away with sympathy for Uday–so why waste a film on him? I suppose you could toss Richard III back at me, but that had a hell of a write. 😉 Unless Dominic Cooper has the charisma of Al Pacino, I’ll be giving “Devil’s Double” a big ol’ pass. (for the record, I love the Godfather, don’t care much for Scarface which to me is pure camp)
“hell of a write” should be “hell of a writer,” but it’s late and your site has no edit function. ;-D
Well, I guess you could say it had a “hell of a write” and a “hell of a writer.” 🙂 In any case, I was only trying to make the point that ‘torture porn’ to me would be something more along the lines of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or some such. These other films we’re talking about are basically morality tales, dwelling on the consequences of excess.