THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE
A film review by Gareth Rees
Copyright 1994 Gareth Rees
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski Starring: Irene Jacob, Philippe Volter, Jerzy Gudejka, Aleksander Bardini Producer: Leonardo de la Fuente Camera: Slawomir Idziak Editor: Jacques Wita Music: Zbigniew Preisner Duration: 110 minutes France/Poland 1991
THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE is a strange film. The structure is typically Kieslowskian--Veronika lives in Krakow and Veronique in Paris, each feeling that she is not alone--and it seems that the stage is set for a philosophical contribution to the nature/nurture debate, as in his earlier BLIND CHANCE, but instead, the film drifts off into whimsy. Veronika's singing kills her, and Veronique, feeling the death of her twin, gives up music and wanders moodily round her flat and her father's house at night. Bored with her boyfriend, she seems to find fulfillment with a man who makes puppets and writes fantasies for children. There is a hint that THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE is a fairy story or just-so fable about how we came to be ourselves rather than someone else--because we didn't catch our finger in a car door or because we gave up singing. But it's only a hint; there's never really any point where we grasp what the film is about--expecting pointful contrasts between the two lives of this woman, instead we're left adrift. The film goes its idiosyncratic and fleeting way in a rich mixture of beautiful images--especially the dreamlike slow-motion quality to the anti-communist demonstrators fleeing from police in Krakow--and sublime music courtesy of van den Budenmayer, that composer who should have been but alas never was.
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