A review by Jeffrey Overstreet
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Director – Krzysztof Kieslowski
Editor – Jacques Witta
Composer (Music Score) – Zbigniew Preisner
Cinematographer – Slawomir Idziak
Screenwriter – Krzysztof Kieslowski
Screenwriter – Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Producer – Bernard P. Guiremand
Production Designer – Patrice Mercier
Producer – Leonardo de la Fuente
Unrated. Caution: Nudity and sexual references.
STARRING: Irène Jacob (Veronika), Wladyslaw Kowalski (Veronika’s Father), Sandrine Dumas (Catherine), Guillaume de Tonquedec (Serge)
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What would you do if you found out you had a twin, a kindred spirit, someone who looked just like you and shared your feelings?
What would you do if you found out that person was born in a different country, and is living their life unaware of your existence?
That’s the puzzle facing Véronique in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s masterpiece The Double Life of Véronique, just released in a masterful DVD edition from The Criterion Collection.
The Double Life of Veronique is the story of two strangers with the same face and the same name. They have never met. They walk very different roads. But they have a strange, inner sense that they share a bond with someone, somewhere.
Drop-dead gorgeous and exquisitely talented, Irene Jacob plays both of the central characters – Weronika, a sensual soprano living in Poland, and Véronique, a melancholy music teacher living in Franche. Her performance won her the Best Actress award at Cannes in 1991.
One Veronique follows her affinity for singing until someone recognizes her gift and gives her an extraordinary opportunity. The other Veronique is seeking a connection with a kindred spirit, and just might find it with a mysterious puppeteer who issues a most unusual invitation.
Kieslowski’s most mysterious film is a strange spiritual journey through the enigmas that distinguish one life from another. While the characters face different challenges and fall for different lovers, they are compelled by very similar longings for connection, expression, joy, and love.
After about a dozen viewings, I’m coming to understand more and more the connections between the two Veroniques, the similar longings, the independence, the willingness to risk. And I’m increasingly intrigued by the figure of the puppeteer. Is he cruel and controlling? Or he is loving, laying down clues for Veronique to get to know him, showing her just how intimately he knows her, how closely he observes and enjoys her?
To say much more than that about the film would be to risk spoiling some of its myriad surprises. While this is the project that set the stage aesthetically for Kieslowski’s masterful Three Colors trilogy – Blue, White, and Red – it is more mysterious than any of those films.
And it should be celebrated as a masterpiece of collaboration. Jacob gives a performance of complexity and grace. Slawomir Idziak’s masterful cinematography transforms the light itself into an active and engaging character. Zbigniew Preisner’s music is what it always is in Kieslowski’s work – an essential piece of the puzzle, crucial to interpretation of the whole film.
Double Life is a spiritual mystery for the viewer to explore, raising two questions for every one that it answers. You might even be frustrated by its elusiveness. But two things are almost certain…you’ll puzzle over it for a good while, and you won’t forget it.