These conjured duplicates in Lynch's films at least since (and perhaps most memorably in) Lost Highway partake of very old traditions of character splitting, alter egos, and doppelgängers (a term made famous in the 19th century and still widely used). Stevenson's "Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) is a key work in this tradition. In cinema, the convention goes back to Melies, who doubled himself 9 times for "One-Man Band" (1900).
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