Abstract: In collaboration with his son Lamberto, Mario Bava directed his Vénus d’Ille in 1978. This article proposes a study of the different ways in which the multiple variations of duality present in Mérimée’s text fit into the economy of television film. Through his mise-en-scène and the troubled interplay between the character Mathieu, Mademoiselle de Puygarrig, and the statue, Bava sketches a poetic double of adaptation and cinematic fantasy.
