Periphery Doubling through Collective Dismemberment

Here doubling is not a creation of an evil twin or doppelganger but a diffusion of extremity. Tati’s character was a very intense caricature of an old way of Parisian life completely lost in modernity. Hulot was too symbolic to be simply thematically killed. However, to gradually diffuse and dissolve the character would release Tati from his own creation peacefully.
This doubling suggests that Hulot is part of a greater collective movement where the old man’s way of being is not isolated to one individual. Despite the cultural connotations of evil associated with doppelganger, Playtime offers a duplicity that results in good instead misfortune.
This friendliness could be the result of Hulot’s character being thematically multiplied instead of replication by verbatim. All the different Hulots were unique but similar; it was as if they belonged to a brown overcoat club instead of a legion of clumsy clones.

On the other hand in The Truman Show doubling is expressed quite literally through the existence of the identical twins. The pair is comical because of their goofy synchronization and unity. However, this coordination hints at the rigourous organization of Seaside; everything is purposefully done. No normal pair of twins would be that meticulously groomed to appear flawlessly identical everyday. The façade is too constructed, too forced, too gimmicky to be natural. They are caricatures. The two men seem to be constructs of the environment they inhabit and have no substance in them – which is true since they never do anything more than daily engage Truman for small talk.

In contrast to the Hulots, the twins embody the sinister side of Seaside; it is a prison of spectacle but a prison of an unnatural precision and rigor. Truman is trapped in Seaside with these puppets always trying to distract and keep him from doing anything progressive with his life.