the double life of veronique
double life of veronique, the (la double vie de veronique). dir. krzysztof kieslowski. perf .
the double life of veronique cocoons you within its beauty and refuses to let go .
la double vie de veronique (the double life of veronique). i love this movie so hard. | film | pinterest | movie, films and cinema
with the headline: review / film; metaphysical equation in' the double life of veronique' .
the filming locations used for the double life of veronique are on my site, kieslowski’s world, in the films section .
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refracted reflections take center stage in krzysztof kieślowski’s the double life of veronique, a poetic overture on the power of senses and sensibilities .
this piece was originally published in the criterion collection’s 2006 edition of the double life of véronique .
don' t even attempt to resolve that paradox, and the double life of veronique will work on its own poetic terms .
this essay was originally published in the booklet accompanying the 2006 dvd release of the double life of véronique .
krzysztof kieślowski’s 1991 masterpiece the double life of véronique (la double vie de véronique) is quite simply one of the most beautiful films ever made .
kieslowski has directed several excellent films before this one, but the double life of veronique is a work of genius. it is tight, spare and visually brilliant .
i don’t remember the first time i saw the double life of veronique. it was probably the revue cinema in peterborough… my habitual seat, near the front, left of center. whatever…
this essay was originally published in the booklet accompanying the 2006 dvd release of the double life of véronique. a new life experience is in the air today, a perception that explodes the form of the linear narrative and renders life as a multi…
it is important to resist the temptation to figure out every last detail of “the double life of veronique, ” the mysterious and poetic new film by krzysztof kieslowski. that way lies frustration .
subtlety certainly haunts krysztof kieslowski’s movies. to a large degree the double life of veronique (1991) is stripped from unnecessary dialogue and events – which makes veronique’s life all the more dreamlike. this notion is empowered by the soft – green – yellowish cinematography as well as the repetitive images of the old lady and other delicate details .
all my life i' ve felt like i was here and somewhere else at the same time ,
says weronika in kryzysztof kieslowski' s film, the double life of veronique. 10 years ago when i first watched this film, i didn' t have enough life experience to truly understand the depth of her statement .
it' s at this moment that
the double life of veronique
begins to become both too literal and too fanciful, and sometimes inadvertently funny. veronika is far more engaging than veronique, who seems less a genuine character than a figure invented to finish off a theory .
if kieslowski' s overarching metaphors about weronika / veronique seem strained, jacob' s sensuous and delicately nuanced performance will double your pleasure .
the double life of veronique
is mr. kieslowski' s most beautiful film to date but also, in its way, his most opportunistic. it has the shape of something manufactured to fit a co - production contract .
things i love in movies (or just in general): puzzles, melancholia, beautiful women. those are the building blocks of double life .
the double life of veronique
doesn' t end. about three - quarters of the way through, it starts to dissolve, like mist, so that by the time it is actually over the screen seems to have been blank for some time .
it was later that i saw irene jacob in the double life of veronique, a film marking kieslowski’s international debut and preceding his colors trilogy. jacob is mesmerizing in veronique. add the haunting musical theme that permeates the film and ties together the lives of these two identical veroniques, and you have a film well deserving of its criterion collection status .
the double life of veronique might not quite make my desert island list alongside three colours blue and three colours red, but it' s still interesting and beautiful for fans of kiewslowski, and looking at the beautiful irene jacob is no hardship either .
the double life of veronique
was part of the recent new york film festival. following are excerpts from vincent canby' s review, which appeared in the new york times on sept. 20, 1991. the film opens today at lincoln plaza cinemas .
the double life of veronique is a film alive with symbols that needs a level of understanding life in untaught experiences to decipher. living life was what changed this film for me and turned indifference into understanding. in 10 years, i wonder what a repeat viewing might change for me yet again. perhaps next time, having better grown into my skin, i' ll see the film as a metaphor for the self - as veronique and weronika representing a cohesion of the full self instead of representing two separate individuals .
this essay was originally published in the booklet accompanying the 2006 dvd release of the double life of véronique. at the opening ceremony of the 1996 cannes film festival, actress irène jacob was asked to pay tribute to krzysztof kieślowski, w…
i read your recent review of the double life of veronique on slant. a couple of small points – it’s slawomir idziak not slawomir idriak and veronique taught her music students at the lycée amédée gasquet, clermont - ferrand in the south of france not paris which is 265 miles further north. apart from those very minor details, a good review of criterion’s bd region - 1 version which was released 31 january 2011 .
* * for instance, sight & sound’s greatest films of all time (2012) poll—carried out every ten years—places blue over 100 places higher than either red or the double life of véronique .
, making' personal' films that focused on the place of luck and fate in life .
the double life of veronique (1991) is one of kieslowski' s best films, and is probably his most artistic, as conductors, puppeteers, artists, and european culture permeate this masterpiece of a film. this film wouldn' t be complete without the exquisite music found on this cd. beautiful vocals, acoustic numbers, and piano generate an eclectic sound that brings out the arts and culture of eastern europe. i particularly like tracks 4 fand 8. this soundtrack is essential to the overall experience of enjoying a kieslowski film. do yourself a favor by owning the soundtracks of the kieslowski masterpieces (three colors trilogy, the double life of veronique, and dekalog) .
tomorrow, our discussion of the double life of veronique continues with a staff forum on the film’s divides between emotion and logic, reality and fantasy, mystery and specificity, and more. and on thursday, noel murray dives into kieslowski’s early career as a documentarian, and explores his shift to feature filmmaking .
liberty, equality and fraternity are the themes of krzysztof kieslowski' s trilogy, three colours. the first, blue, lives up to his reputation for gravitas. yet for the director of the decalogue and the double life of veronique his job is' a game' jonathan romney' s interview with krzysztof kieslowski was originally published on 15 oct 1993
what kieslowski does for cinema is what steinbeck did for writing: create beautiful images juxtaposed against the fragility of life. the ethereal irene jacob is wonderful as the heroine doppelgangers weronika / veronique. she brings life to kieslowski' s characters as well as meaning. the cinematography is beyond that of current american films .
let’s move into the shadow of the cloth hall standing in the centre of the square. this is where the key moments of krzysztof kieślowski’s the double life of veronique take place, when the two twin heroines see each other from a distance during a student demonstration in the late 1980s. very close to here, andrzej wajda shot a scene for his katyń in which citizens learn from the loudhailers deployed in the square of the discovery of the mass graves of polish soldiers in the katyń forest .
a beautifully made yet abstruse film, the double life of veronique is the story of two young women who are in some mysterious and irresolvable way the same woman leading two different yet interconnected lives. directed by the great krzysztof kieslowski, known for his blue, white & red films. the score by zbigniew preisner compliments the oblique images. 1991 .
when alexandre and veronique finally come together after several complications – he discovers a photograph of weronika that veronique captured by chance on her trip to krakow. she bursts into tears and he makes love to her .
the problem with these games is that they are locked in time. i can always repeat my action next year, but never last year. i cannot make an appointment in the past. something like that game is what “the double life of veronique” is about, with the addition that only the filmmaker, only kieslowski, knows both of the women .
each of us is matched somewhere in the world, by our exact double - someone who shares our thoughts and dreams .
a great film from one of my favorite directors gets a stellar blu - ray release from criterion. i hadn’t seen the double life of veronique in nearly a decade. but it’s whimsical mystery and sensuality holds more weight as ever. irene jacob’s dual performance hints at the way a surrealist world overlaps with the mysteries of real life, and the result is a beautiful, incomplete poem. you can find my review for the disc at slant .
while the audience is aware of the connections between veronique and veronika, veronique is not. she unknowingly grieves for veronika’s death, but doesn’t know what this grief means. the film therefore introduces a character to make veronique more aware of her surroundings: through the puppeteer, alexandre. veronique becomes aware of him at one of his performances, becoming entranced by the performance and by him. the texture of his face in a mirror, and the music surrounding the performance enthrall her. the scene offers little explanation of why there is romantic interest, but veronique’s intense focus on him and his performance links her character very emotionally to him in a way that the audience is made to understand .
a woman struggles to find a way to live her life after the death of her husband and child .
where the tumultuous history of a world war meets everyday life, and private lives – a ...
krzysztof kieslowski' s
double life of veronique
exemplifies a very distinctive kind of contemporary european film. intellectually well bred, it bewitches the eye. it introduces a lovely new actress named irene jacob and, in a series of alternately haunting and opaque sequences, examines a metaphysical equation whose symbolism and practical application would seem to be of no urgency whatsoever .
krzysztof kieslowski' s
the double life of veronique
is a sensitive and awe inspiring experience. kieslowski is exploring the basic idea of the counterpart theory in metaphysics. if you can grasp that theory and understand the long standing' double' troupes (they range from dostoyevsky' s famous story' the double' to as recently as
another earth
) you will begin to unlock the film. on the surface irene jacob is terrific and the cinematography is incredible (all those colors !) .
the double life of veronique
is a wonderful and complex experience that is immensely rewarding to committed viewers but beware that the film will be extremely confounding if merely' watched.' also, many people think the film is not' meant to be figured out.' i wholeheartedly disagree. i think the film fits it' s pieces together quite well - but again, it goes back to counterpart theory. urltoken
veronique is equally entrhalled by alexandre fabbri’s puppet show and falls in love with him. everything about him reminds her of her dead sister weronika – who’s presence in her life she can only sense vaguely .
when krzysztof kieślowski’s the double life of véronique was first screened at cannes, in 1991, the critical reception was rapturous. georgia brown declared in the village voice, “anything i say about [ the film ] is merely a labored minuet dance…
history may have sidelined the double life of véronique, but that is not to say the film has not lasted. in its teasing, fragmentary nature, it may well outlast the three colors trilogy, with its somber attempt at a definitive encapsulation of the human predicament at the end of the european twentieth century. the double life of véronique retains the kind of mystery that subsists when the search for meaning and shape is undertaken with the seriousness and pleasure of game playing. it is the sense of pervasive trompe l’oeil, of the conjurer’s—rather than the puppeteer’s—art, that makes the film endure as a spellbinding experience, as well as a perplexing one .
don' t think i could sit through la double vie these days without the accompanying sultry tones of annete insdorf' s commentary .
as the double life of veronique turns more incandescent and disjointed, it becomes clear kieślowski isn’t interesting in the specific machinations of narrative or the idea of forward momentum, but of hypnotic stasis in a glowing temporal space. while alive, weronicka slowly becomes aware of her potential through the same type of shared resonance veronique feels so strongly later in the film. yet this feeling doesn’t come to fruition until there’s a form of metaphysical closure, either through death or discovery. late in the film, when veronique realizes she captured her double in a photograph while visiting poland, her eyes well up as if she’s seen a long lost friend for the first time. even when this realization comes, kieślowski plays down the dramatic or even romantic expectations, instead dwelling in the haunting knowledge that maybe, someone else occupies the same mental space you do .
features weronika / veronique and the events take place from the main character’s point of view. this technique has been used in other great movies such as
the double life of veronique is a slight, lyrical fable that benefits enormously from the charm of its star, cannes award - winner irene jacob. the film introduces us to two women, both played by jacob. polish veronika leaves her provincial home town and family for the city of krakow, where she is offered a place to study singing at a prestigious music school; ... read more
second off is the father’s expression. something is wrong – terribly wrong. if veronique had an identical twin in poland – then who is veronique’s father? one must take into account that the film includes a scene where weronika’s aunt hints at a medical condition that runs in the family – which could explain that veronique has been adopted. but who is the biological mother? one could go on forever and perhaps the whole idea about a family relation is wrong and that the ending scene of the double life of veronique is simply very “deep. ” but then again – kieslowski denied that there were any metaphors in his movies and he has been quoted saying: “for me a bottle of milk is simply a bottle of milk; when it spills, it means milk’s been spilled. ”
each of us is matched somewhere in the world, by our exact double - someone who shares our thoughts and dreams. see more »
in the double life of véronique, the camera has the same probing, investigative insistence as in kieslowski’s documentaries detailing a day in a polish hospital, or the experiences of workers and management at a factory, but now set free from the constraints the director placed upon himself in his documentary work .
first - person essays, features, interviews and q & as; about life today .
it could easily be claimed that the finest kieslowski’s accomplishment is “three colors: blue”, which is breathtaking and won him the best film award at venice film festival, or “three colors: red”, which received oscar nominations in three categories, but here, the reasons will be presented why “the double life of veronique” is not only his best film, but a perfect film .
so far removed from political realities is double life that the only hint of the social chaos raging in poland serves as the backdrop for a chance meeting between weronika and véronique (both played by irène jacob) in the streets of warsaw. véronique, happily taking pictures of a political demonstration from inside a tour bus, doesn’t even notice weronika standing mystified at the sight of her spiritual double, and the tightness of the framing and dramatic cutting between the two women as the bus drives away reduces the surrounding tumult to atmosphere .
isn’t that it just relates back to its own superficiality, but that it makes its self - reference deep within the story. at the end, when alexandre tells veronique he has written a book seemingly about her life called ,
veronika lives in poland. veronique lives in paris. they don' t know each other. veronika gets a place in a music school, works hard, but collapses and dies on her first performance. at this point, veronique' s life seems to take a turn and she decides not to be a singer .
two women... complete strangers, but strangely linked to each other... renowned director krzysztof kieslowski (three colors: red, white and blue) confirmed his reputation as one of cinema' s visionary filmmakers with this beautifully poetic, elegantly mysterious film that ponders the nature of intuition and the metaphysical connections between people. irene jacob lights up the screen as both weronika, a deeply spiritual polish soprano, and her double, veronique, a more earthy french music teacher. each senses the other and is affected by each other' s experiences, though they have no idea of the other' s existence. aided by a haunting operatic score, the double life of veronique is a mesmerizing masterpiece of filmmaking .
particles of light and flickers of shadow dance across the frame in krzysztof kieślowski’s luminary art film the double life of veronique, constructing a fluttering opera of duality and déjà vu seemingly suspended in motion. through the parallel characters of polish singer weronika and french music teacher veronique (both played by irene jacob), women who live in separate cities but somehow feel each other’s presence, kieślowski envisions a modern world where the combination of touch and fate can reconcile life’s incomprehensible mysteries. not surprisingly, artistic mediums such as puppetry, song, and music formulate the shifting boundaries of this world, heightening the smallest moments through this feeling of unseen overlap. when their paths occasionally do cross in dizzying fits of circumstance, the women inherently gain access to a special form of self - evaluation that grows more ambiguous and personal as the film progresses .
the only time they are physically near is when veronique takes a picture of weronika while she is riding on a bus. this scene shows the imaginary character of their relationship, which is transformed into art. weronika dies, but veronique feels love toward her. the connection is broken, but it lives on .
first off – the palm on the tree is a mirror of the opening image of weronika and veronique as children. weronika’s mother shows her daughter the starry sky above them and veronique’s mother shows her daughter the veins on a leaf. interestingly – weronika later on looks through a transparent ball and sees the world from the same perspective. on the whole the two girls represent the heavenly and the earthly .
new life experience is in the air today, a perception that explodes the form of the linear narrative and renders life as a multiform flow. up to the domain of the “hard” sciences (quantum physics and its multiple - reality interpretation; neo - darwinism), we seem to be haunted by the chanciness of life and the alternate versions of reality. to quote stephen jay gould’s blunt formulation, which uses precisely the cinema metaphor: “wind back the film of life and play it again. the history of evolution will be totally different. ” either life is experienced as a series of multiple parallel destinies that interact and are crucially affected by meaningless contingent encounters, the points at which one series intersects with and intervenes in another (see robert altman’s
eventually the government loosened its grip, and kieslowski' s last four films were french co - productions. but his impulse to dodge the censors stuck around, as did his knack for subversion. after all, the decalogue is based on one of history' s most famous sets of laws; the three colors films each explore one of the founding virtues of the french republic (liberty, equality, and fraternity); and the double life of veronique seems to be at least partly about the struggles between eastern and western europe after the fall of the iron curtain .
veronique is a beautiful young french woman who aspires to be a renowned singer; weronika lives in poland, has a similar career goal and looks identical to veronique, though the two are not related. the film follows both women as they contend with the ups and downs of their individual lives, with veronique embarking on an unusual romance with alexandre fabbri, a puppeteer who may be able to help her with her existential issues .
veronique is a beautiful young french woman who aspires to be a renowned singer; weronika lives in poland, has a similar career goal and looks identical to veronique, though the two are not related. the film follows both women as they content with the ups and downs of their individual lives, with veronique embarking on an unusual romance with alexandre fabbri, a puppeteer who may be able to help her with her existential issues .
urltoken the double life of veronique: irène jacob, wladyslaw kowalski, halina gryglaszewska, kalina jedrusik, aleksander bardini, jerzy gudejko, janusz sterninski, philippe volter, sandrine dumas, louis ducreux, claude duneton, lorraine evanoff, slawomir idziak, krzysztof kieslowski, jacques witta, bernard - p. guiremand, leonardo de la fuente, ryszard chutkowski, krzysztof piesiewicz: movies & tv
first love (1974) depicted seven months in the life of a married couple, from four months into the wife’s pregnancy to two months after the child’s birth. kieslowski orchestrated some of the situations—all of them intended as events which would otherwise naturally occur in daily life—in order to capture the participant’s unscripted responses. originally envisioned as a documentary that would follow the newborn throughout her life until she also gave birth, kieslowski actually negotiated with polish television and managed to convince the authorities to secure the couple a new four - room apartment in order to portray an “optimistic” view of family life .
“ [ the pittsburgh region ] can double for anything in the world, as long as you don’t need a beach or the desert, ” keezer says .
his seriousness has an allure that can keep an audience in awestruck thrall - which is not always the best critical response a film - maker could wish for. his films are sparing with their humour and their moral gravity is of the sort that brooks no argument. kieslowski favours the large themes. his acclaimed series of television films, the decalogue (1988), illustrated the ten commandments his last feature, the double life of veronique, addressed life, death and the elusive nature of identity. his new trilogy, three colours (blue is released today with white and red to follow), takes on the values of liberty, equality and fraternity .
with the double life of véronique, kieslowski seems to have found the ideal hybrid cinematic form. freed from the limitations of documentary and the preoccupations of communist poland, he made a film that not only witnesses “people’s innermost thoughts and emotions” without flinching, but also represents that drive to connect as fundamentally human, yet achingly difficult to achieve .
this film presents a tour - de - force performance form irene jacob in the lead double role of weronika / veronique. i' m a huge fan of kieslowski but i struggled with this one - it' s difficult to get your head around it. nevertheless it presents interesting things to reflect on .
in a career with no shortage of grand cinematic works — the “three colors” trilogy, “ the double life of veronique ” — there are few who would argue that krzysztof kieslowski ‘s “ the decalogue ” isn’t his crowning achievement. and while it is currently available in a decent dvd box set from facets, a release from the criterion collection has [ … ] the post revisit a masterpiece with the international trailer for krzysztof kieslowski ’s newly restored ‘ the decalogue ’ appeared first on the playlist .
on paper, the story of the double life of veronique is fairly simple. in poland, a young woman named weronika (irène jacob) lives with a great passion for life: she embraces her lover antek (jerzy gudejko) with the same ardency she brings to the experience of being caught in a rainstorm, or experiencing a shower of dust motes falling from a decrepit ceiling. she also embraces her music fervently, dropping antek cold and moving to krakow when she gets an opportunity to perform. but her heart is weak, and the intensity of her singing strains it. even so, she continues to perform—and dies of a heart attack in the middle of a performance .
oddly enough for a film renowned for its otherworldly beauty, the double life of véronique derives much of its vitality from skills kieslowski honed making documentaries, his chief occupation for the first decade and a half of his career. the criterion collection edition includes three of kieslowski’s short documentaries, and a 2005 featurette by luc lagier on the director’s work from 1966 to 1988 explicates his documentary style, including his penchant for looking “behind the gloss of communist propaganda”. that will to unveil secrets informs kieslowski’s fictional films as well. in one of a series of interviews made during the filming of the double life of véronique, he explains that he turned away from documentary film when he realized that pushing the format to record “people’s innermost thoughts and emotions” was too invasive .
in addition to the features mentioned above, disc extras include interviews with jacob, cinematographer slawomir idziak, and composer zbigniew preisner. the companion booklet contains production facts, an essay by jonathan romney placing the double life of véronique in the context of kieslowski’s work and' 90s film, and excerpts from the 1993 book kieslowski on kieslowski .
although no end and various decalogues involved female protagonists, double life also showcases kieslowski’s late emphasis on actresses in more progressive feminist terms. at least one commentator, alicja helman, groups the female protagonists of kieslowski’s late films (sans white) in a positive light :
witek runs after a train. three variations follow on how such a seemingly banal incident could influence the rest of witek' s life .
( 1981), three possible outcomes of a banal incident lead a man’s life in three entirely separate directions. in the otherwise seemingly naturalistic
shohei imamura’s uncompromising vision of this mortal coil, in which the hero’s ageing mother uses her last year to improve life in their village .
the double life of véronique is a question of identity, of how much our
i
belongs to other people. of how much of
them
resides in us. are we puppets of a loving caretaker, playing our parts for his celestial audience? or are we the music - makers, who guide his hands to protect us from harm, who demand from him a safety net of human consciousness…
the double life of veronika is the soundtrack to the acclaimedfrench film, la double vie de veronique, which won an award in thecannes film festival in 1991. the original motion picture sound track is composed by zbigniew preisner. the music depicts the pain of two souls in search of eachother. elzbieta towarnicka' s voice is so powerful that it moves you spiritually. the intensity and depth of the music is over - powering and yet it is quite soothing to one' s inner soul. one can' t help but feel overwhelmed by the conflicting emotions. there is a sense of sadness and that sadness is beautiful. this music is phenomenal and i have not come accross anything quite like it. end
krzysztof kieslowki, one of the most visionary european directors, passed away 20 years ago, and seattle polish film festival is commemorating this anniversary with a series of his films, including the double life of veronique, a short film about killing, and the entire remastered decalogue series. kieslowski' s cinematographer and long - time collaborator slawomir idziak is our honored guest and will be present for this screening and a panel discussion titled
idziak on kieslowski
immediately following the film .
almost all movies confine any abstract visuals to behind the opening credits. in double life, the screen dissolves into a several abstract shots and short passages. intense eroticism is amplified by a close camera and the blurred results of a n ext remely short focal length… like eyes struggling to focus .
thesis (6: 30) – weronika says “i don’t think i am alone in this world” – she is actually questioning it. catalyst (13: 00) – weronika sees her double – veronique – on a street in krakow. antithesis (26: 00) – weronika suffers her second heart attack during the performance of a piece by the mysterious van den budenmayer – and dies. the audience is then introduced to veronique who lives in a different country and who decides to give up her singing career. the world is placed on its head. b story (33: 00) – veronique is introduced to alexandre fabbri during his marionette performace on her school. just as the b - character should do – he guides the main character forward to the resolution of the film: synthesis (120: 00) – veronique discovers the photograph of weronika that she captured by chance on a bus in krakow. the question posed in the opening minutes of the movie has been answered and veronique bursts into purifying tears .
two young women, both called veronica, seem to share a single existence, albeit in different countries. polish singer weronika sees her french double, veronique, taking her picture at a political rally but dies the next day. in france, veronique feels a strange sense of loss but it takes many twists of fate to help her discover why - and even then the outcome is unclear. one of the late krzysztof kieslowski' s more oblique films, featuring an award winning performance by irene jacob .
before miramax distributed the double life of véronique in the us, harvey weinstein insisted kieslowski add several shots to the film’s ending to provide more clarity, though the augmented conclusion does little to resolve the film’s central mystery. (the criterion collection blu - ray, with features and extras identical to the 2006 criterion dvd release, includes the alternate american ending. )
even before its 1991 release, krzysztof kieslowski’s enigmatic the double life of véronique had taken on many more guises than the dual existence of the title. as he grappled with how suggestive or explicit to make the film, kieslowski produced 21 different cuts, all based on an uncanny, and deceptively simple, premise—two young women, one living in poland (veronika) and one in france (véronique), share a striking resemblance, and though they never meet, each feels the other’s influence. until producers balked at the prohibitive cost, kieslowski even considered scuttling the effort to settle on a single, definitive cut, in favor of releasing multiple versions of the double life of véronique, one for each of the 17 theaters of its initial paris run .
krzysztof kieslowski' s
the double life of veronique
has a fragile, opiated atmosphere that hovers somewhere between eroticism and melancholy. it' s a hushed, moody puzzle of a film with the haunted, unresolved air of a ghost story by henry james, or one of borges' poetic labyrinths. you feel as if you' re only half - seeing it, as you might see the image of solar eclipse in smoked glass, or as if your sense of time had been disrupted and the whole thing had flashed before your eyes in the instant between heartbeats .
fans of the decalogue tend to be so reverent that it is hard not to wonder whether there isn' t less to these dramas than meets the eye. visually prosaic, the series had enough elusive symbolism and gravitas of pacing to make it more resonant than its anecdotal nature seemed to allow for. the double life of veronique, on the other hand, was extremely stylised, slawomir idziak' s baroque photography bringing an eerie depth to an already elliptical story (idziak achieves similar wonders in blue) .
but the double life… stands on its own as a gorgeous piece of work, as something that is worth experiencing and fall in love with and hope it will slide into your dreams at night. the joy of life, or should i say joie de vivre, visible in the film, especially in the polish version of jacob’s character, is intoxicating without it ever becoming sentimental. perhaps because the film refuses to say anything out loud and mostly just whisper its ideas and narratives, it avoids the risk of sentimentality .
sometimes i play a game in my life, which consists of returning to an exact place and time and duplicating an exact action .
in the 2002 sight & sound poll to determine the greatest films of all time, dekalog and a short film about killing received votes from 4 critics and 3 directors, including ebert, new yorker critic david denby, and director mira nair. [ 16 ] additionally, in the sight & sound poll held the same year to determine the top 10 films of the previous 25 years, kieslowski was named # 2 on the list of top directors, with votes for his films being split between dekalog, three colors red / blue, and the double life of veronique. [ 17 ]
when i first began my exploration into foreign cinema in high school, i had known of the importance of this film and of the director on films i knew well, like amelie. curious to delve deeper into whimsical french cinema, i watched the double life of veronique expecting it to resonate with me and become one of my favorite films. unfortunately, i was bored throughout my viewing and couldn' t quite comprehend why it was so impactful when nothing seemed to happen. i found the pacing too slow, the narrative too convoluted to a point of disengagement, the characters too self - absorbed and unrelatable .
leading up to the emptiness of their magical connection isn’t the only reason kieslowski plays with refraction. the whole film reminds viewers throughout of the connection between weronika and veronique—and reminds them again once it’s severed. when the story focuses on weronika, living her life, she appears doubled in shot after shot, as she stands near mirrors, or reflective surfaces. very occasionally in double life, a character will actually look directly into a mirror and see themselves (as opposed to the multiple shots where they examine a mirror at an angle, and see someone else) but mostly, weronika is shadowed by reflections she doesn’t even notice :
i cannot for the life of me think of a way to talk about or summarise my thoughts on this film. so i won' t. just watch it .
the floodgates open to the world of the metaphysical when alexandre discovers a picture of veronika in veronique’s collection of photographs. first he assumes it is her, but veronique attests to the fact it isn’t - yet she can’t help but become overwhelmed by the possibilities of what this connection could mean. the purpose of alexandre finally becomes clear. as kieslowski explains, “alexandre’s made veronique aware that something else exists, that the other veronika did exist. he’s the one who noticed, and perhaps he understood what she couldn’t understand herself. ” the rest of the story shows how alexandre weaves veronique’s life into his art, but his initial purpose in the plot is that he is the one who begins to make her think with all her senses. his function is also made clear by the scene in which the two finally meet in a café, accomplished by him sending her a cassette of the surrounding noises of the area and hoping she is able to use the clues in the recording to track him down. it is a scene with little to do with narrative, but rather makes obvious what kind of levels the film is focusing on. in one way ,
we know life happens, so if something comes up, you can return or exchange your tickets up until the posted showtime .
the double life of veronique is a wildly original and great effort from director krzysztof kieslowski. the main idea to this film is that two women, one in france and one in poland, who don' t know each other are aware of one another' s existence and essential the same person. or something like that. this story' s main concept really isn' t too difficult, it' s just played out strange. it is fairly original and well done though .
kieslowski never really brings his story to any resolution, and that' s as it should be .
the double life of veronique
is a mesmerizing poetic work composed in an eerie minor key. its effect on the viewer is subtle but very real. the film takes us completely into its world, and in doing so, it leaves us with the impression that our own world, once we return to it, is far richer and portentous than we had imagined .
sometimes, these images are significant because they rhyme with later images: weronika twisting her fingers in the strings of a fringed blanket during sex mirrors the way she twines them through the lace of her music case when she sings, drawing a connective line that shows how powerfully her music affects her physically. when alexandre sends veronique that shoelace, she connects it with her own music - case lace, similar to weronika’s, without realizing why—and it’s one more suggestion that he knows something profound about the central mystery of her life. the major disappointment of the film, both for veronique and the audience, is that he doesn’t—his interest in her is mundane and selfish, and he doesn’t know any more about the mysteries of her life than she does .
that said; i do believe the cinematography of the double life… has been copied quite strongly, just not as extensively. the main example of ‘copying’ is probably amelie (2001), which uses not only the same color palette, but a similarly surrealistic way of framing (though it pushes the surrealism even further and more to the front) and even kind of look - alike main actress (and they’re both mostly french) with kind of similar personalities .
have i made
the double life of veronique
sound as if nothing much happens? the movie has a hypnotic effect. we are drawn into the character, not kept at arm' s length with a plot. both women are good and true and do nothing shameful. there is a shot of jacob, who pauses for a moment and lifts her head to the sun, and we know what she is experiencing: here i am, my life around me, my hopes high, my trust confident, standing stock still, the sun on my face, living in this moment. it is a holy moment .
besides storyline, the plot devotes its attention to themes of love, companionship and solitude. veronique quits singing (breaks with teacher). veronika goes to krakow to visit her aging aunt, leaving behind her lover. both veronique and veronika have tender, loving relations with their fathers and have lost their mothers. when we first meet veronique she is making love to a man who, minutes later, she does not allow to stay. the subplot involves a lie about intimacy. a character turns the pursuit of intimacy into a game. there are co - incidences between characters who never meet. a hotel room is oddly furnished with two single beds pushed together. the story has veronique, in several different senses, looking at herself. and finally: most central of all, there is the mystical link between (french) veronique and (polish) veronika .
this is more or less the introduction to the main body of the film, which is set in france and in which the french veronique appears tolearn instinctively from the mistakes (if that' s what they are) of her polish sister - in - spirit .
however familiar the music sounded i could not make sense of it. but then i noticed the name “van den budenmayer” and in a scene later on – veronique talked of a recently discovered dutch composer who lived two centuries ago .
but when she dies, and the action switches to veronique, the reflections stop for a while. veronique tells her lover that she feels alone in the world, and she doesn’t know why—she’s grieving for something, and doesn’t know who. she feels weronika’s absence, without ever having seen or known her, and the film communicates that absence by temporarily dropping the theme of doubles and reflections .
but by constantly pulling away from head - on views, from simple framing and straightforward visuals, he encourages the audience to examine every frame, and to study how he’s telling his story. so much of double life is in the juxtapositions: weronika shouting out of a window, offering help to a heavily laden old woman in the street, may not be significant, but the moment takes on weight when veronique sees a similar old woman, and has a moment of déjà vu. it’s hard to know how to interpret a shot of a woman glowering when weronika is awarded the prize at a competition—is she a second - place competitor? a stymied judge who disapproves of the decision? if weronika and veronique are god’s avatars on earth, bringing glorious music to the world, is the angry woman an antonio salieri - like figure representing the other side? or something else entirely? (on a commentary track on criterion’s double life release, film scholar and kieslowski - book author annette insdorf suggests she’s a “harbinger of the angel of death”—a rather dramatic interpretation, but one kieslowski does nothing to encourage or refute .) when she recurs in paris—initially seeming flabbergasted at seeing veronique, then lingering and glowering in a café to watch her—is the moment significant? viewers can decide for themselves, since kieslowski doesn’t say .
another thread: the film is full of artists and artisans. in addition to the singers, musicians, and the puppeteer, veronika’s father paints and véronique’s father works with wood. the double life of véronique foregrounds the ubiquity of interpretation, artistic or otherwise. instances of mediated reality fill the film: a cathedral seen through a train window is distorted by imperfections in the glass; a clear rubber ball that véronique holds up to the light inverts and gives a fish - eye perspective to scenes. the world may just be too volatile to experience first - hand, the fate of veronika seems to suggest. perhaps véronique will avoid a similar demise, because she witnessed her double after the fact, and via the mechanical reproduction of photography .
it' s almost believable. after all, the polish filmmaker' s most famous movies don' t have obviously political plots. the double life of veronique, the three colors trilogy (blue, white, and red), and the decalogue — a series of hour - long films that aired on polish tv in 1988, with each episode corresponding to one of the ten commandments — are more about the concerns of ordinary citizens, like sex, family, and money, than political intrigue. (a restored edition of the decalogue was released in theaters across the us this month, culminating in a five - disc criterion release on september 27. )
veronique believes, initially, that her new, increasingly powerful instincts are pointing her in the direction of romance with puppeteer alexandre, whom she meets when he performs at her school. certainly, such an arc is enforced when she keeps receiving mysterious packages – an old shoelace, and empty cigar box, and finally a tape filled with seemingly random sounds – which lead her to meet alexandre again. we must remember, however, that wonder is not a straight, sequential path with a set destination – “explanation runs toward the totality, but there absolutely ends” (hepburn 140). as such, the actual meeting with alexandre functions as a deflation, rather than an affirmation. alexandre sent the packages, manufacturing scenarios of wonder and mystery to play an experimental game with veronique, one he is using as research for a new story. this understandably upsets veronique, and while the two briefly reconcile and confess love to one another, veronique’s ecstasy collapses once again when alexandre creates a new marionette story about veronique and her double.
the double life of veronique ( french : la double vie de veronique , polish : podwójne życie weroniki ) is a 1991 french-polish-norwegian drama film directed by krzysztof kieślowski and starring irène jacob . written by kieślowski and krzysztof piesiewicz , the film explores the themes of identity , love , and human intuition through the characters of weronika , a polish choir soprano , and her double , véronique , a french music teacher . the two women do not know each other , and yet they share a mysterious and emotional bond that transcends language and geography . the double life of veronique is notable for sławomir idziak 's innovative cinematography and zbigniew preisner 's operatic score . the film was kieślowski 's first to be produced partly outside his native poland . it won the prize of the ecumenical jury and the fipresci prize at the 1991 cannes film festival for krzysztof kieslowski , and the best actress award for irène jacob . the double life of veronique was selected as the polish entry for the best foreign language film at the 64th academy awards , but was not accepted as a nominee . 
the double life of veronique (french: la double vie de veronique, polish: podwójne życie weroniki) is a 1991 french-polish-norwegian drama film directed by krzysztof kieślowski and starring irène jacob. written by kieślowski and krzysztof piesiewicz, the film explores the themes of identity, love, and human intuition through the characters of weronika, a polish choir soprano, and her double, véronique, a french music teacher. the two women do not know each other, and yet they share a mysterious and emotional bond that transcends language and geography. the double life of veronique is notable for sławomir idziak's innovative cinematography and zbigniew preisner's operatic score. the film was kieślowski's first to be produced partly outside his native poland. it won the prize of the ecumenical jury and the fipresci prize at the 1991 cannes film festival for krzysztof kieslowski, and the best actress award for irène jacob. the double life of veronique was selected as the polish entry for the best foreign language film at the 64th academy awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
the double life of veronique (french: la double vie de veronique, polish: podwójne życie weroniki) is a 1991 french-polish-norwegian drama film directed by krzysztof kieślowski and starring irène jacob. written by kieślowski and krzysztof piesiewicz, the film explores the themes of identity, love, and human intuition through the characters of weronika, a polish choir soprano, and her double, véronique, a french music teacher. the two women do not know each other, and yet they share a mysterious and emotional bond that transcends language and geography. the double life of veronique is notable for sławomir idziak's innovative cinematography and zbigniew preisner's operatic score. the film was kieślowski's first to be produced partly outside his native poland. it won the prize of the ecumenical jury and the fipresci prize at the 1991 cannes film festival for krzysztof kieslowski, and the best actress award for irène jacob. the double life of veronique was selected as the polish entry for the best foreign language film at the 64th academy awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.