The Double Life of Véronique

The above statement works not only as an honest description of the film, but also of the character (or characters) portrayed by Irène Jacob. The Double life of Véronique is not a film that allows easy description, it doesn't seem to fit in to any genre or category, it is a film that must be experienced under it's own terms, as a serious, hypnotic work of art. Director Kieslowski sets up the odd dreamlike atmosphere right from the start, using mirror reflections and odd camera distortions to show us the bizarre way that Veronique/Veronika sees the world around her. The use of sepia printing also gives the film an odd distilled look, taking us right out of any "real" reality, giving each of the frames something special. The problem this creates is that it takes away any real connection we have with the characters, we never really feel anything for them or are even that concerned for their outcomes, Kieslowski moves his actors around his "stage" in the same way the marionettes are manipulated in the film, but the film works on such a subtly hypnotic level I don't think that Kieslowski ever wanted us to feel part of this world. Kieslowski follows Veronique/Veronika through Paris and Poland, intimately probing her with close, hand-held camera, the cinema-verite effect of this making the viewer feel almost like a voyeur, following the women's every movements and encounters. The Double Life of Veronique is a film that definitely deserves to be seen and requires multiple viewings if we are to get everything out of it's complex, pre-destined narrative. A film full of beautiful images and haunting moods that you'll remember long after, if only there had been a little more focus on the characters I would certainly give it a 10. Maybe my next viewing will lift its marks. 8/10

Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Double Life of Véronique (originally titled La Double Vie de Véronique) might be the best film in the late director's accomplished oeuvre. Perhaps most lauded for his monumental Three Colors trilogy, Kieslowski first explored themes of duality, synchronicity, and fate in this cinematic reverie. Irène Jacob, also the star of Red, handles a double role as two women cut from the same metaphysical cloth -- the Polish Veronika and the French Véronique. Her presence as both women is at once whimsically childlike and sensually melancholic; relentlessly alluring, it is easy to see why she became Kieslowski's muse. Jacob is perfectly fluid in the shift between characters, an embodiment of ideal femininity, as dreamlike as the tone of the entire film.

Actor and director are symbiotic, relying on hazy, autumnal ambiance and mood for narrative, utilizing a subtle minimalist approach to dialogue. This is fine art, unlike heavy-handed Hollywood productions. The tone is consistently ambiguous -- emotionally resonant, to be sure, but beyond a vaguely somber, wistful undercurrent, the movie allows the viewer to fill the "empty space" with his or her own thoughts and feelings. It's a true testament to Kieslowski's mastery, and few films are ever so transcendentally sublime.

The lack of this masterpiece's availability on DVD is a sad affair. There are rumors of a release in 2005, but for fans of movies like Amélie hungry for something with a little more depth, The Double Life of Véronique comes most highly recommended -- even if you have to search high and low for a copy on VHS.

"The Double Life of Veronique" is also focusing on the connection made between two people like Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy or his heaven,hell and Purgatory.But it is not about two people with a strong bond or two twins.The two girls are not merely soul mates,they're two versions of the same person.Like an old belief that after we die, our body will appear in different circumstances and live a new life.(in here they live two different life simultaneously).

The power of music in Kieslowski's film is inevitable.The scenes are not significant by themselves,the impact of the ideas and images with the powerful music make the film special.Kieslowski well used colors and camera filters to create an ethereal atmosphere which was very helpful in creating the films sense .I think the music and Irène Jacob performance were the most outstanding pieces of the film.

The central question of the film is "Is it just a matter of chance that one thinks and acts as one does?..Is there something as free will?"...It is a question of our lives too.

I still listen to the haunting music that weaves it's way through this film and it never fails to move me. The whole film is almost like a modern day ghost story, following its own logic through the simplest but most effective storytelling techniques, beautifully crafted by a master director. Irene Jacob has never been better than here, and I would recommend it highly.

I save films. By that I mean that some films I expect to be so precious that I want to save them for some future drought, or blue period where I need spiritual insulin. Or it may be that a valued filmmaker has died and I know there is only so much to see new and I want to pace it through my life.

Kieslowski is something of a demigod in my film world. It isn't that he has mattered so much in the sense of affecting me. Its because he can push geography with the slightest touch, infer emotional richness with the most subtle of motions, show us beauty headon — headon without artifice. His the most delicate power I know in cinema. His "Decalogue" is complex, open, engineered to be contradictory in ways that seem natural. But they are not where the real juice is. Its merely where he worked out the way to weave vision and narrative conflict with his companion and creative partner.

It's "Three Colors" where it pays off. These are miraculous and I wish them on any open soul. They will tear you gently in ways you will not notice for years, and then know all of a sudden when you meet someone.

In between "Decalogue and "Colors," we have this, essentially an adventure in moving from Polish to French vocabulary, both emotional and chromatic. Here we see some of the strokes we will encounter later, in one colored film even with the remarkable Irene. But he seems unsure here. Things aren't integrated between cinema and narrative as they were before and would be afterward. The eye doesn't inform with curious discovery, instead seems to glance around and hover.

I suppose it is because the story isn't well developed in the way that others are. The deal with Kieslowski I think (beyond the beauty) is that he is able to infer future urges that probably will loop back into places and persons we see. (He closes a very few of these ordinary loops in the third colors film). But he never closes them, not the ones that matter. So we are left with our own emotions going ahead and anticipating results that matter to us, things started and not finished, breath sent out for us to catch and breath.

This film is based on Alice in through the Lookingglass, with a number of less-than-deft fixtures to the source. He tries to build grand arcs of anticipated futures around this symmetry but they aren't fragile and supported by our wishes as we have elsewhere. I think it was simply a time of adjustment for him, and I cannot recommend this, even though I saved it for decades.

I will suggest that if you do watch it, see the same story, the same emotional effects, the same tantalizing near-closure in "Sex and Lucia" by someone less gifted with the eye, but more gifted with the mysteries of women. Watch out for the delicate tearing.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.