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For the love of life
Turn the idea of reincarnation on its head. Take a swashbuckling, action heroine. Add an alchemist, an Olympic athlete and a centuries old vendetta and you have Dual Lives – the most exciting, romantic and inspiring movie you’ll see in this world. Or the last.
New York, present day: French extreme sports star Yvette de la Croix falls in love with the wealthy but disgraced Olympic fencing champion Serge Breton. Serge has accidentally killed a man and has sworn never to fence again. But Yvette persuades him to teach her and she soon becomes an expert swordswoman. Their romance reaches new heights when she scales the Statue of Liberty to accept Serge’s proposal of marriage. Serge buys a mysterious chateau in the South of France.
In Marseilles, a member of Corsica’s infamous Romalino clan steals the sword of the La Belle Louise, a legendary heroine of the French Revolution. With it, he plans to kill Yvette, the last of the family the Romalinos swore to hunt down 200 years before. They cross swords at an exhibition match. He strikes with the poisoned sword and Yvette falls into a coma. She clings to life through some curious inner strength.
As he rushes to Yvette’s side, Serge’s car plunges over the cliffs and into the sea. His body washes up in the caverns beneath the chateau.
France, 1788: The Viscomt de Saint Everin, imprisoned in the dungeons of his own chateau, continues his experiments as one of the last alchemists. His only solace is that his daughter is safely hidden from his captor, the treacherous and tyrannical Romalino.
When Gerard, the alchemist’s assistant, nearly drowns trying to escape through an old flooded passage, the young man appears to go mad. Odd, distorted visions and sounds fill his mind. The old man puts him in a trance, which reveals that Gerard has become host to the mind of Serge. Gradually, the old man coaxes Serge into the forefront of Gerard’s consciousness. As Serge grapples for sanity, the alchemist explains:
‘My studies have freed me to see what others cannot. Whatever may happen eventually, be it heaven or hell, our lives do not end in the present. Instead, our essence travels into the past for a time. Some souls simply fade away but others, by some power, the will to live or the strength of love, move on to a new life.’
Enter La Belle Louise. The alchemist’s beautiful daughter is drawn out of hiding by an inexplicable force. She gathers the relatives of the other prisoners held hostage in the chateau and mounts an attack. Gerard escapes but Romalino spirits the alchemist away to the Bastille in Paris. As Louise and Gerard head north, a rag tag army surrounds Louise. Like a second Joan of Arc, Louise is guided by visions and voices. They emanate from the future in which Yvette hovers between life and death.
Paris is on the brink of revolution. With Yvette’s help, Louise scales the walls of the fortress prison as it is stormed by the angry crowd below. Louise and Gerard fight their way to the old man’s cell. But it’s too late. Romalino and his men surround them. The old man is fatally wounded. His last words reveal to Louise the secret of the voices. As the prison burns, Louise fights off Romalino’s men. Gerard is wounded. Louise and Romalino duel. She wins but more of Romalino’s clan appear. Gerard and Louise kiss. Together, they dive from the Bastille’s walls.
Serge is catapulted back into life in the present. It is just minutes before Yvette’s duel. There’s no time to lose if he is to save Yvette. Will he make it?
written by Tony O'Leary