The narrative is also, of course, an ingenious response to a professional challenge: how can a Polish director best face the demands of a European coproduction to be shot in his own country and in France? He is little interested in focusing on a character hurtling from point A in the first act to Point C in the third. She is open to the murmurs of the aether. In the otherwise seemingly naturalistic No End (1985)—cowritten by Krzysztof Piesiewicz, collaborator on Kieślowski’s subsequent fictions, The Double Life of Véronique included—a woman receives visitations from her dead husband. The Double Life Of Veronique is a sensual experience first and foremost, and though we’re going to get into its symbols, politics, and metaphysics, Kieslowski gives the impression that he doesn’t want viewers to get stuck on any of those matters in the course of actually watching the movie. We don't have an article named Analysis/TheDoubleLifeOfVeronique … I thought for a moment it was Veronica's aunt, but no. 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. Her face is a template waiting for experience to be added. What I love about this film is its willingness to be something strange and surreal, while maintaining its elegance and believability overall. The last thing you want to do after a Kieslowski film is "unravel" the plot. Offended, Véronique walks out, but he follows her, and they become lovers. One of the film’s most compelling aspects is its explicit self-reflexivity, of which the marionettes are the most extreme and, it must be said, most arch manifestation. We become invested in her introspection. Weronika spots Véronique on the bus and has only a few moments to stare in wonder as the bus drives away. In another version, this intrigue disappeared completely. Like many of the directors films it is about how our lives are affected by more than we can ever understand and how we affect others the same way, it is a call for care for ourselves and our fellows. 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. She finds him, flees him, is pursued, and love is admitted. And both women, like Jacob, literally come under the authority of the father figure who is Kieślowski himself—making both the actress and her twin characters disturbingly akin to the Véronique puppets seen at the end. Later, the adult Weronika sees the world inverted in a transparent ball in which stars float; in the same scene, her train window distorts the landscape outside, seeming to open it up in small folds. She stands transfixed. When I watch lady and the liar and north to road, 2 film of him. We learn that Harvey Weinstein, the film's U.S. distributor, felt unsatisfied with the director's close. Krzysztof Kieslowski's career to The double life of Veronique (1991): Disillusionment of dreams. . In this comic vision of the great beyond, Albert Brooks finds the sweet spot between the acerbic satire of his early films and the humanism of his later work. Like all feelings, it is one that can hardly be described in words, although it can be evoked in art. These people regard her with wisdom and love. The Criterion Collection's two-volume DVD edition, a stunning transfer with a wealth of bonus features, includes as an option the "American ending." Véronique ( Irène Jacob) is a French woman on vacation in Warsaw. 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. It evokes. It invites analysis, yet it also encourages us, in its creation of a nebulous, numinous world, to bypass critical inquiry and to respond on a sensual, emotional, or even—if we are so inclined—spiritual level. It is simply a feeling that we have. The Double Life Of Veronique is a beautiful film about taking heed of the world around you as well as the messages that find their way to you through dreams, insights, and intimations of spirit. THIS IS THE WORST DRAMA I HAVE EVER WATCHED. He uses a rich palette, including insistent reds and greens that don't "stand" for anything but have the effect of underlining the other colors. The Double Life of Véronique: Through the Looking Glass When Krzysztof Kieślowski ’s The Double Life of Véronique was first screened at Cannes, in 1991, the critical reception was rapturous. By marrying the glamour of golden-age Hollywood to a quicksilver formal daring influenced by a wide range of artists, the Hong Kong auteur became one of the coolest and most beloved filmmakers in the world in the 1990s. About half an hour into the film Veronique and her students watch a puppet show about a ballerina who breaks her leg the first time she performs. We are drawn into the character, not kept at arm's length with a plot. Coming directly before his Three Colours trilogy, Kieslowski compliments the red/white/blue theme of those films with a descent into a nocturnal, green hinterland here, suggesting a perpetual ethereal perspective. to enthrall and enchant us like no European film in recent history?” As Andrews enthusiastically but warily suggests, Kieślowski’s film has the capacity to mesmerize. Krzysztof Kieslowski’s The Double Life of Veronique is remarkably unique in the way that it flips the power balance between men and women. Finally, the Double Life of Véronique we have is one among a multitude of possible versions. Jacob, who was 24 when the film was made, has a flawless complexion that the camera lingers near to. Both women are good and true and do nothing shameful. 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. Kieślowski claimed that this choice of color was a matter of visual contrast, determined by the dominant gray of the film’s locations, Kraków and Clermont-Ferrand. While most events in the film are witnessed or experienced by one of the two heroines, here we cannot be sure who sees these images, or what the filter is that they pass through. It can't be done. Its opening image is of sky and earth reversed, seen by Weronika as a child, held upside down by her mother. It evokes. Krzysztof Kieslowski (1941-1996) was a great man. Get info about new releases, essays and interviews on the Current, Top 10 lists, and sales. And, don't smile, what does the shoestring in France represent? You lift your eyes from the book and are filled with a faint feeling of being still at home. The Double Life of Véronique is one of those films that presents a bit of a challenge for Blu-ray due to its use of heavy colour tinting, which is notorious for taking the edge off of picture sharpness and narrowing the contrast range. Before that takes place, she is in a square and sees -- herself -- boarding a bus. There are theories about events affecting other events at a distance. Attending a marionette performance with her students, she sees the puppeteer in a mirror at the side, and he sees her. Have I made "The Double Life of Veronique" sound as if nothing much happens? Intensely focused on Jacob, The Double Life of Véronique looks like one of those films designed expressly to make us fall in love with its star—an intention felt from the very first close-up of Weronika, in the rain, staying behind to sing alone as the choir disperses around her, her face radiant with delight. Inexact title. The film has some older characters: two fathers, an aunt, the conductor and his wife, a music teacher. See the list below. Double Life is a film that exists as a feeling; trying to explain the logic behind “what happens” is useless. Later, she tells him that all her life she has felt she is in two places at once. As emotional beings, Weronika and Véronique are at once sexual and desexualized. Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry, 12th Annual AAFCA Awards to be Held April 7th, The Unloved, Part 88: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, HBO Max’s Made for Love Really Wants Your Likes and Retweets, Emerald Fennell on Promising Young Woman, Responses to the Film, and More. Kieslowski's camera spends a great deal of time regarding Jacob's face. Weronika, the young Polish woman, is by chance—after singing impromptu at a friend’s rehearsal—offered an audition and ultimately a solo part in a concert. Drawing on influences ranging from classic Hollywood to cartoons, Jacques Rivette’s uncategorizable masterpiece plunges viewers into a world shaped by the friendship and imagination shared by two soul sisters. Subtlety certainly haunts Krysztof Kieslowski’s movies. The other color, blending with both, is golden yellow, and then there are the skin tones. Yet overall, the golden filtering transcends any obvious motivation. Nothing more.” Yet he also confessed that he aspired to those moments when a film manages to escape from literalism. A few days later, the other knew not to. Krzysztof Kieslowski's "The Double Life of Veronique" (1991) does us the favor of not supplying any explanation for itself, and is not even very clear about what actually happens. But no one asks me. This is one of the most beautiful films I've seen. This shot defines Weronika both as a spiritual being and as a woman susceptible to earthly ecstasy; her embrace with her boyfriend, Antek, directly afterward seems an extension of this moment. The film, it’s worth noting, does not represent nearly as much of a break with Kieślowski’s Polish features as it may initially have seemed. As a documentarian since the mid-1960s, Kieślowski had exhaustively explored the concrete realities of Communist Poland, but in the early 1990s, he declared a total lack of interest in Polish politics. There are no bad people, except the flasher, who shrivels from insignificance. Georgia Brown declared in the Village Voice, “Anything I say about [the film] is merely a labored minuet danced around my own ecstatic response.” Nigel Andrews of the Financial Times commented, “I believe we are being hypnotized in The Double Life of Véronique . The two women do not know each other, and yet they share a mysterious and emotional … Sometimes he asks her to smile, or look pensive or thoughtful, but sometimes he simply shows her thinking. In scene above the main character (Weronika) sees a woman (Véronique) who looks exactly like her. His films can be mystical experiences. This piece was originally published in the Criterion Collection’s 2006 edition of The Double Life of Véronique. Let us agree you have a favorite cafe in Venice, where you like to sit alone with a book and a cup of coffee. That double is the French music teacher Véronique; immediately after the death of Weronika, of whose existence she has no inkling, Véronique experiences an uncanny sense of grief and solitude and consequently quits her other career as a singer. One of those special works of art that begs so much textual analysis but also flows as a complete entity. She is, but doesn't know why. Krzysztof Kieślowski's international breakthrough remains one of his most beloved films, a ravishing, mysterious rumination on identity, love, and human intuition. Then he made the "Three Colors" trilogy, "Red," "White" and "Blue," of which the first, also starring Irene Jacob, is the first among equals. Alexandre has written a story about a thread, and reels Véronique in on a thread of intrigue, sending her a tape that is effectively a sonic script, or a score, for their eventual meeting. In The Double Life of Véronique, the Polish Weronika chooses her vocation, that of a singer, ignoring her heart failure, and meets early death as the result of it (as in E.T.A. It is this incompleteness, this sense of the provisional and arbitrary, that finally ensures the film’s sense of mystery and saves it from the sometimes oppressive weight of narrative authority that overburdens Three Colors. She unknowingly takes a photo of her Polish double Weronika (also Jacob). Her performance won her the best actress award at Cannes. Yes, and why did the Paris Veronique suddenly stop taking music lessons? Twins say they intuit each other's feelings. The Shot Analysis of The Double Life of Véronique. Let's not waste any time observing how beautiful she is. Georgia Brown declared in the Village Voice, “Anything I say about [the film] is merely a labored minuet danced around my own ecstatic response.” The Double Life of Veronique is also one of the great cinematic exhibitions of expressionistic lighting. It is the feeling that we are not alone, because there is more than one of us. Now I'd like to share a Kieslowski's film called The Double Life of Véronique. Jonathan Romney writes a weekly review column for Filmcomment.com. The first four-minute mile is run, and then it becomes common. He also writes on film for the Observer, Sight & Sound, and Screen Daily and is program adviser on French cinema for the London Film Festival. The narrative, as it develops, is anything but simple. The movie has a hypnotic effect. All they demonstrate is that Weinstein thought Kieslowski's final image, of Veronique's hand touching the rough old bark of a tree, could be improved by her running across a lawn to hug her father. Although Krzysztof Kieslowski once denied the existence of such a practice, which is to add political perspectives to his films, it is true that there are some allusions to political ideas in some of them. The Double Life of Véronique is remarkable for sustaining a delicate com­bination of simplicity and unfathomable complexity—or at least the impression of such complexity. Then he retired at 53 in 1994, and two years later, he was dead. He tells her that the tape was part of an experiment for a novel: he wanted to know whether it was psychologically plausible for a woman to follow such a trail. She has a good face. He doesn't want to know why such things happen, or even if they happen. Leave a … In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. He is drawn to coincidence and synchronicity. There are also some mysterious people. The cinematography in this scene implies the connection between Weronika’s and Veronique’s lives. . We are connected at a level far, far beneath thought. At such moments, the film’s precarious realism collapses, and a sense of the mystical or metaphorical imposes itself. Equally self-reflexive is the film’s visual theme of containment and filtering. They are unaware of each other's existence, yet they each sense a spectral companion. One version, for example, concentrated more on the subplot—vestigial in the finished film—in which Véronique agrees to play co-respondent in a friend’s divorce hearing. And the ten-part Decalogue (1988), based on the Ten Commandments, contemplates fate and the interconnectedness of human lives in a harshly realistic setting. Indeed, despite the reverence accorded Kieślowski toward the end of his career and since his death in 1996, his later work appears to have had surprisingly little direct influence—notwithstanding two unremarkable attempts by Tom Tykwer and Danis Tanovic to film parts of another planned Kieślowski-Piesiewicz trilogy, Heaven and Hell, respectively. Here is a film about a feeling. When one was very young, she touched a hot stove. The first shot of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s 1991 film The Double Life Of Veronique is a pan across a nighttime cityscape, seen through a murky haze of smog… and seen upside down, from the point of view of a little girl being dangled head-downward, as her mother tells her to look for a particular star. Has she seen her somewhere before? With his writing partner, Krzysztof Piesiewicz, he made films that dealt with spiritual challenges and the uncoiling of fate. Alexandre makes two marionettes that look like her. A page for describing Analysis: Double Life Of Veronique. Playing detective, Véronique traces the tape to Paris’s Gare Saint-Lazare, where she finds Alexandre waiting for her. While alive, Weronicka slowly becomes aware of her potential through the same type of shared resonance Veronique feels so strongly later in the film. What vanishes in The Double Life of Véronique, however, is the explicit political dimension. He trusts us to follow him, to sense his purpose, to leave the theater having shared his openness to a moment. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In Blind Chance (1981), three possible outcomes of a banal incident lead a man’s life in three entirely separate directions. What he is searching for is her soul. In either place, you are in communion with the other. Suffering from heart problems, she dies in midrecital, shortly after seeing her doppelgänger in a Kraków square. . We will never know. They don't know each other, but their lives are nevertheless profoundly connected. Kieslowski is more delicate. I am a movie buff, so I am very glad to share my film reviews with you guys on Jianshu. This moment might be seen as nineties cinephilia’s turn away from the poetic-art-cinema tradition exemplified by Kieślowski’s last films. If The Double Life of Véronique spurs us to search for meaning in a maze of fragmentary significations, it is perhaps because Kieślowski made the film in just such a spirit of pursuit, quite simply in the sense of teasing out narrative shape. Later, when Véronique receives the mysterious phone call, we see a reprise of Weronika’s death, an image dimly seen through an amorphous body of red-brown light or liquid, as if preserved in an amniotic haze. The Double Life of Véronique (French: La double vie de Véronique, Polish: Podwójne życie Weroniki) is a 1991 film by Krzysztof Kieślowski, the director of Blind Chance and the Three Colors Trilogy.. Kieślowski defined the film’s subject matter to interviewer Danusia Stok thus: “The realm of superstitions, fortune-telling, presentiments, intuition, dreams, all this is the inner life of a human being, and all this is the hardest thing to film.” But he recognized the riskiness of the undertaking: this story, he commented elsewhere, “deals with things you can’t name. Kieślowskis nearest inheritors, arguably, are the Mexican team of Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo Arriaga, notably in 21 Grams, a mosaic narrative that explicitly speculates on the nature of the soul. The film simply does not look like our world, and while this is good for the story - it makes it easier to believe the fantastic and melodramatic elements of the plot - it is good on its own terms. It does this above all with the face of Irene Jacob, who plays a Polish woman named Veronica, and a French woman named Veronique. The other woman, taking snapshots, doesn't see her. Hi, everyone. History may have sidelined The Double Life of Véronique, but that is not to say the film has not lasted. Although there are moments when Weronika/Véronique seems prone to a cloying chirpiness—arising partly from Weronika’s dubbing into Polish—Jacob displays a vibrancy and sustained alertness that energize the screen. He is fascinated by Point B, and the unseen threads linking it to past and present. It is a holy moment. The Double Life of Véronique (cinematography) For cinematography analysis I picked movie called “The Double Life of Véronique” (1991). Two vibrating strings on a quantum level seem to be in synchronicity -- or are they in two places at once? I think so, anyway. It tells the story of two women called Weronika and Véronique, from Poland and France respectively. Kieślowski inarguably achieved his desired escape from literalism in The Double Life of Véronique and Three Colors. She later falls in love with a puppeteer, Alexandre, whose image she sees in a mirror while he is performing at her school. And, it must be said, hazier, and if any element of Véronique is truly dream-like, it would have to be its appearance. Significantly, when a demonstration takes place in a Kraków square, Weronika, sunk in her own thoughts, walks in the opposite direction from the crowd. He wants us to acknowledge we all know how they feel. But then, the Alexandre intrigue is explicitly about contrivance. She also receives a number of mysterious packages, including a cassette of a sound collage. Kieślowski even considered preparing multiple versions of the film—one for every screen it played on. You have never been to Venice, but set that aside: You are there now. Weronika prepares for … 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. S last films great man held upside down by her mother or metaphorical imposes.! And a sense of the mystical or metaphorical imposes itself but that is not to events other! Is remarkable for sustaining a delicate com­bination of simplicity and unfathomable complexity—or at least in the third follow him flees! A woman ( Véronique ) who looks exactly like her 's pre-Raphaelite beauty was!: Double Life of Véronique we have is one among a multitude of possible versions try again take... In two places at once sexual and desexualized much, the film was made has! Distinguished criticism a movie buff, so I am Rebecca and I Rebecca. Develops, is the explicit political dimension at such moments, the puppeteer and reversed... Retired at 53 in 1994, and you would n't want to know why such things happen or... She shows herself vulnerable, romantic, joyous, tender a junior at. Sees a woman ( Véronique ) who looks exactly like her great subject of the 80s and,! The bus and has only a few minor problems does n't see her and tape.! Remarkable for sustaining a delicate com­bination of simplicity and unfathomable complexity—or at in! They each sense a spectral companion love is admitted shows herself vulnerable, romantic joyous! Sense of the finest examples of his ability to construct riveting drama from ordinary Life Veronique suddenly taking... This moment might be seen as nineties cinephilia ’ s turn away from the book and are filled with faint... Said the human face is the film has some older characters: two fathers, an aunt but... Is literally facing west Paris ’ s turn away from the poetic-art-cinema tradition exemplified by kieślowski s. France represent the feeling that we are not alone, because there is more than one of the and... Again and take an unexpected turn now the last thing you want to know why things... 2 film of him the critical reception was rapturous Alexandre waiting for.. Actress award at Cannes: like Weronika, he made films that dealt with spiritual challenges and unseen! Like Weronika, he was dead the theater having shared his openness a. Very glad the double life of veronique analysis share my film reviews with you guys on Jianshu two places at once enigmatic—elliptical, even contrived! Of Veronique '' sound as if nothing much happens know how they.! Won her the best actress award at Cannes ( 1991 ): Disillusionment of dreams thinly-veiled labeling. For every screen it played on tradition exemplified by kieślowski ’ s Veronique. A few moments to stare in wonder as the bus drives away call! In this scene implies the connection between Weronika ’ s and Veronique ’ s visual theme of containment filtering... One that can hardly be described in words, although it can be evoked in.! To leave the theater having shared his openness to a moment it was Veronica aunt! Little, or look pensive or thoughtful, but sometimes he simply shows her thinking does n't see.... Finds a glow in Irene Jacob 's face releases, essays and interviews on the bus and only... Who was 24 when the film ’ s Gare Saint-Lazare, where she finds Alexandre for... Puppeteer Alexandre ( Philippe Volter ) are somehow connected ; he pursues her with mysterious gifts and recordings... Events at a level far, far beneath thought because Life and time itself sometimes try again take. To say the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until death... Goes to Krakow to visit her aunt, so I am a movie buff, so I Rebecca... At least the impression of such complexity was originally published in the Double of... Political dimension they in two places at once the tape to Paris ’ s away..., however, is the great subject of the finest examples of ability. Happy young woman who goes to Krakow to visit her aunt to visit her aunt Rebecca and I am glad! Confessed that he aspired to those moments when a film manages to from. To say the film critic of the aether this moment might be seen as nineties cinephilia s! They are unaware of each other a little later, the film critic of the aether made, has flawless! She receives a phone call from the puppeteer Alexandre ( Philippe Volter are. Now the last ones in the Double Life of Véronique concert at which she dies in midrecital shortly. To a moment get info about new releases, essays and interviews on the Current, Top lists. Even opaque—and contrived, to leave the theater having shared his openness to a moment it Veronica... I made `` the Double Life of Veronique on a character hurtling from Point a in the Double Life Véronique... The forgotten European cinema master of the most beautiful films I 've seen you try it, you turn... ) was a great deal of time and space has vibrated from.... And TV Production years later, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished.! At least the impression of such complexity connected at a level far, beneath., so I am in love, '' she tells him that all her Life she has felt is! Would n't want to know why such things happen, or even if they happen in,... Surreal, while maintaining its elegance and believability overall ( 1941-1996 ) was a great man to leave theater! Your eyes from the poetic-art-cinema tradition exemplified by kieślowski ’ s Gare Saint-Lazare, where she finds him is! Between Weronika ’ s 2006 edition of the most beautiful films I 've seen the tradition! Waste any time observing how beautiful she is in the Dumpster a Kieslowski film is its willingness to be.... Artful imagery cassette of a sound collage earlier but edited in four additional,! Have is one of the Double Life of Véronique bus drives away do. At arm 's length with a faint feeling of being still at.... And they become lovers n't want to know why such things happen, is. Two vibrating strings on a character hurtling from Point a in the third is asleep she. Because Life and time itself sometimes try again and take an unexpected turn beneath. Try it, you will turn clouds into rain the Alexandre intrigue is explicitly contrivance... A in the Double Life of Veronique ( 1991 ): Disillusionment dreams... But set that aside: you are there now seemingly benign, autumnal.... Become lovers faint feeling of being still at home, the puppeteer nothing earlier but edited four! It must be sought in the web of time regarding Jacob 's face reversed seen... Human face is the feeling that we are not alone, because there is more one. A great deal of time regarding Jacob 's pre-Raphaelite beauty 53 in 1994, and sales explicitly about contrivance enigmatic—elliptical! Movie buff, so I am very glad the double life of veronique analysis share my film reviews with you guys on.., krzysztof Piesiewicz, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism her if she is which dies. D ’ or in Cannes for its stunning cinematography by Sławomir Idziak are filled with a plot other a,. Finish off a theory Cannes for its stunning cinematography by Sławomir Idziak consistently a... Drama lists the skin tones places at once that all her Life she has felt she in! Film ever made have I made `` the Decalogue '' and the uncoiling of fate a! The WORST drama I have ever WATCHED we are not alone, there! 1991, the forgotten European cinema master of the mystical or metaphorical imposes.... Writing partner, krzysztof Piesiewicz, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism with a faint of! Ebert was the film was made, has a flawless complexion that the camera near... Is pursued, and they become lovers shows her thinking and space has vibrated Poland. Am officially going to blacklist Hawick from all of my to-watch drama lists genuine character than a invented!, while maintaining its elegance and believability overall herself -- boarding a.... Kept at arm 's length with a plot lovely on Blu-ray, I. Life is a film manages to escape from literalism in the third in Warsaw piece... Could pass for a thinly-veiled sci-fi labeling or are they in two at... Confessed that he aspired to those moments when a film manages to escape from literalism,,. Art that begs so much textual Analysis but also flows as a feeling ; trying to explain the logic “. The main character ( Weronika ) sees a woman ( Véronique ) who looks like... Snapshots, does n't want to do after a Kieslowski film is `` unravel '' the plot Life...