1:00:01
You see, to me at any rate,
the psychological and
philosophical elements...
1:00:05
are of extreme importance.
1:00:08
Yes. Fine.
1:00:11
Well, there.
About to begin.
1:00:20
Conjoined twins,
called Siamese,
1:00:24
challenge life
at their first breath.
1:00:28
History had them
as the stuff of myth and symbol.
1:00:31
Some tried to achieve
such normality as they could.
1:00:35
The famous Chang and Eng,
the twins of Siamese birth...
1:00:39
who gave this congenital
abnormality its popular name,
1:00:42
married and fathered families.
1:00:46
Other twins lived by hiring
themselves out to sideshows...
1:00:50
or running
small town souvenir shops.
1:00:54
With the sophisticated surgical
techniques developed in this century,
1:00:58
some twins have been separated
and lead normal lives.
1:01:02
Others never can.
1:01:06
Born on March 27, 1948,
in Quebec, the Blanchions...
1:01:11
were Canada's
first Siamese twins.
1:01:13
Their parents died in an
automobile accident only days
before their first birthday.
1:01:19
Dominique and Danielle
were to grow up...
1:01:23
from then on within the pale walls
of the Loisel Institute,
1:01:27
where surgeons, reluctant
to risk an operation on their
delicate spinal conjoinment,
1:01:31
decided to let
them live as one.
1:01:34
- But whether as twins through life...
- That's Danielle's husband.
1:01:38
- Who told you that?
- I want to hear this.
1:01:41
There is always
a price to pay.
1:01:43
It seems the older
they become,
1:01:47
the more precarious
is their psychological balance,
1:01:51
both within themselves
and between one another.
1:01:56
In this, I am in agreement
with my colleagues.
1:01:59
Although, they tend
to think that Dominique...