THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE
[LA DOUBLE VIE DE VERONIQUE]
A film review by Stig Oppedal
Copyright 1997 Stig Oppedal
[These are some thoughts I wrote down a year ago after watching La double vie de Veronique for the fourth time. I thought watching it on TV would be a huge anti-climax, but it proved to be anything but!
SPOILERS: If you haven't seen the movie (and preferably at least twice) then don't read this!]
La double vie de Veronique is Krysztof Kieslowski's beautiful and mystical film about two virtual twins, and the effect they unknowingly have on each others lives. Weronika is a vibrant, yet melancholic Polish girl, blessed with an extraordinary voice, who ultimately dies of heart failure during a performance of Van den Budenmayer's Concerto in e minor. Veronique is a French music teacher, who, stricken by sudden loneliness, becomes intrigued by and pursues the enigmatic puppeteer Alexandre Fabrri.
Central to the theme of the movie are the repeated similarities in character and circumstance, which also serve to draw the viewers into the movie and keep them alert:
1. Both have strong father-daughter relations as a result of their mothers dying young. The movie implies that the mothers had a hereditary heart condition that the two Veronikas also suffer from. The movie opens with Weronika's mother telling her about stars and Veronique's mother telling her about leaves. To me, this also signifies a difference between the two: Weronika seems more "otherworldly", while Veronique is more pragmatic (or "down to earth", so to speak), which is reflected in their choice of singing and teaching, respectively.
2. Both have beautiful voices - Weronika dies singing, while Veronique quits her singing lessons for reasons she doesn't know until the last scene of the movie.
3. A transparent, yellow rubber ball with stars inside - Weronika gleefully bounces it and uses it as a lens to view the world, while Veronique keeps it in her crammed purse. Yet again, I feel this also underlines their difference in character - the former is more effervescent, playful, and childlike, while the latter is more grown-up and "sophisticated" (as seen by her willingness to perjure to help her friend).
4. Distorted image of a red brick church - Weronika sees it on a train ride through her rubber ball, Veronique alludes to seeing it in a dream (we see this dream after she goes to sleep in the hotel room). This is the most direct link between the two.
5. Weronika habitually plays with a shoelace, and Veronique receives one in the mail from Alexandre (who serves as the link between the two Veronikas). As an aside note, mythologies have often portrayed destiny as the Fates weaving or knitting, and in that respect a short string such as a shoelace is a symbol of an early death.
6. Both have a habit of rubbing their eyes with a gold ring.
7. Both see an old woman on the street through a second-story window - though it is an open question whether it is the same old woman (forming a sort of double Maiden-Mother-Crone trinity with the scowling woman mentioned below), or whether the apparent similarity is merely the result of Kieslowski's direction. In any case, both Veronikas show a marked, though fleeting, interest - indeed, since the old woman in Krakow is carrying heavy bags, Weronika offers to help (similar to Valentine in "Trois Couleurs: Rouge").
8. Van den Budenmayer's Concerto in e minor - Weronika sings it, Veronique teaches it to her pupils, and Alexandre uses it in his puppet show and to entice Veronique.
9. Weronika sees a scowling, middle-aged woman after being accepted as the concerto soloist. An identical person - the same woman? - seems startled when she sees Veronique at the metro station and then again at the train station, as Veronique searches for Alexandre (who is the link once again).
10. Weronika's boyfriend, Antek, tells her that he's in room # 287 at the Holiday Inn. After their initial, and failed, meeting at the train station, Veronique and Alexandre stay in room # 287 at a Paris hotel.
What I feel is the key to the film, however, is the fundamental difference between the two Veronikas, brought about by their psychic link itself. Weronika tells her father that she doesn't feel alone in the world. When he replies, puzzled, "But you're not", her response suggests she means it in a more profound sense. Later, when she's on a bus after coming back from Krakow, Antek follows her on his moped. He reveals that he had been following her for some time, and Weronika then realizes it is not because of Antek she doesn't feel alone - otherwise, she would have felt his presence. Because of this disappointment, Weronika does not visit Antek's hotel room, and she is unable to say "I love you" to him.
In contrast, Veronique tells her father she feels utterly alone - this is of course due to her twin's death, though she does not know this. She becomes allured by Alexandre, however, and feels a need for him, because he provides the link to Weronika. This leads to Veronique letting Alexandre into her hotel room and giving a quick response when he says, "I love you". It is in this room, and because of these events, that Veronique becomes aware of Weronika's existence (see below), thus fulfilling the circle.
As mentioned above, the puppeteer Alexandre is throughout the movie the link between the two Veronikas. We first see him at Veronique's school, enacting a drama about the death and then rebirth of a dancer. It is clear what this represents, and it is emphasized when Alexandre employs the Van den Budenmayer concerto at the end of the performance (after The Puppets). This link is highlighted by the repeated use of the Van den Budenmayer theme (Contemporary Instrumentation Nr. 2) when Veronique is gradually seduced by Alexandre's enigmatic devices:
1. A mysterious phone call, which ends with the Van den Budenmayer concerto. 2. An envelope containing a shoelace - which is a literary device featured in his book. 3. Light reflected into her apartment. 4. An empty box of Virginia cigars - as she guesses beforehand, after reading his book. 5. A cassette of noises, along with a segment of the Van den Budenmayer concerto, that serve as directions to his whereabouts. He sends it to her father's country residence, and the letter's postage is two identical stamps featuring a woman.
It is also Alexandre who, in the final sequence at the hotel, looks at Veronique's snapshots from Warsaw and points out the particular frame that shows Weronika. Veronique breaks down in tears when she sees it, and he comforts and then gradually arouses her. At the climax we see a close-up of the contents of her purse: the photos, the transparent rubber ball, the Van den Budenmayer score (presumably) - all linking the two Veronikas. This is followed by the Van den Budenmayer concerto as we cut to an active camera following Veronique down a green corridor to Alexandre's puppet room (i.e. time has elapsed and their relationship is more permanent). There he has made two puppets - he needs one as a replacement, because "in this particular play the puppet is used a lot and is easily worn down". There is a close-up of Veronique and Alexandre manipulating one of the puppets, before the camera focuses on the other lying prostrate on the table - they obviously symbolize the two Veronikas.
Alexandre recounts the idea behind his next book: two identical girls grow up, unaware of each others existence, yet intertwined - when one two-year old is burned by an oven, the lesson is learned by the other. Veronique finally realizes why she quit singing and why she feels so alone - she has learned her twin's fatal lesson. Alexandre then says, "I'm going to call it 'La double vie de --', but I'm not sure what I should call them". The implicit answer is given when Veronique leaves the room in silence and passes a mirror. The movie ends enigmatically, with Veronique at the country residence, touching an old tree (a reference to the opening sequence) while the Solitude theme is played.
*
Kieslowski's direction and camerawork is typically elaborate. La double vie de Veronique is visually stunning and, not least, very yellow - almost every scene is resplendent in a lush, yellow glow. There are unusual close-ups of objects: a tea-bag, as it colors reddish-brown the water in a transparent cup; Weronika/Veronique's eye, as they play with the gold ring; an uncovered light bulb, which Veronique switches on when she climaxes (similar to the white screen effect in "Trois Couleurs: Blanc"); Weronika's face, as she sings "You will come" and the rain starts to pour down. Objects are also used as lens filters: the rubber ball; the reflection of the cafeteria door; a semi-opaque, semi-transparent door, when Veronique hides from Alexandre.
The camera is often active, as the moving shot when Weronika runs with joy after the concerto rehearsal. The camera then spins when she clutches at her heart, and, when she's catching her breath on the bench, it tilts when the flasher approaches. Scenes are often joined by quick cuts - Weronika calls a friend in Krakow (whistling "The Internationale") and is told of the choir rehearsal, and then there is an abrupt cut to the male choir rehearsing the Van den Budenmayer concerto.
Unusual camera angles and gradual transitions are also used, as during the concert. The camera alternates between Weronika's view towards the conductor and the conductor's view towards her, before spinning wildly around (as does the music) when she falls to the floor and dies. The camera then floats over audience, as if her spirit is departing, then goes back to people rushing towards her body. The camera cuts to the view from Weronika's coffin as her loved ones throw soil into her grave, before the light is completely shut out. Finally, there is a transition from death to life as the camera cuts to Veronique making love.
To stress the theme of the movie, there are repeated examples of double images - Weronika smiling as she looks at an enlarged picture of herself in her room, and Veronique looking at the photo frame. Veronique's reflection in shop window when she sees Alexandre's book, her reflection in the background mirror when she is awakened by the reflected light, and her mirror reflection in the final scene underline Alexandre's role as the link.
La double vie de Veronique is also an audio experience, not least because of Zbigniew Preisner's haunting, evocative soundtrack, largely based on "Van den Budenmayer's" (i.e. Preisner's) beautiful Concerto in e minor. The film is also enhanced by interesting sound effects, for example when Veronique repeatedly rewinds and listens to Alexandre's cassette, and during her subsequent search for him.
The dialogue is minimalist, yet reveals much. For example, at the train station cafeteria:
Alexandre: Waitress? Waitress.: Tea with lemon? Alexandre: Yes, and a coffee.
This short exchange shows that he has waited a long time for Veronique to show up (two days, in fact, as he tells her). The dialogue, never expository, also rings true, with non-answers and interludes of silence that are more interesting than heavy-handed clarifications:
Alexandre: I'm sorry. Veronique: Why? Alexandre: [baffled silence].
The same minimalism and lack of clean-cut explanations is applied to the movie as a whole, for example in the quick cut in the final scene from the hotel room to the corridor in Alexandre's house - it is up to the viewer to fill in the gap. Another example is the Communist statue being driven away at the beginning of the movie - it shows that the movie takes place in the post- Communist era, something that is never explicitly mentioned.
Irene Jacob is outstanding, bringing life to two similar yet distinct characters and conveying a wide range of emotions. When Weronika sings in the rain, she vividly conveys the joy of living central to the character, especially with the final flourish of the head and radiant smile. She also shows her wistful melancholia, as when she asks her father, "What shall I do with my life?". Weronika's disappointment at not seeing Antek on the bus, a pivotal scene in the movie, is portrayed in a subtle way, with a fleeting facial expression, a change in body language, and a short silence. In the cafeteria, when Alexandre explains the reason for his strange behavior - namely, psychological research for his next book, and not love - Irene Jacob is masterful in showing Veronique's gradual realization and abrupt, emotional outburst. The rest of the cast follow up with superb acting, with Philippe Volter suitably enigmatic, and the two fathers who love their daughters but are unable to fully understand them.
*
All in all, La double vie de Veronique is a masterpiece in every respect - direction, camerawork, acting, music, plot, characters, and dialogue - and is together with Lawrence Of Arabia my all-time favorite movie.
Stig Oppedal
Oslo, April 16, 1996
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