The Double Life of Veronique [VHS]
by Krzysztof Kieslowski
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Actor: Aleksander Bardini, Halina Gryglaszewska, Ir?ne Jacob, Kalina Jedrusik, Wladyslaw KowalskiDirector: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Cinematographer: Slawomir Idziak
Writer: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Editor: Jacques Witta
Producer: Bernard-P. Guiremand
Producer: Leonardo De La Fuente
Producer: Ryszard Chutkowski
Writer: Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: French (Original Language); Italian (Original Language); Polish (Original Language)
Format: Color, NTSC
Running Time: 98 minutes
Release Date: 2001-04-03
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: Paramount
Studio: Paramount
VHS Movie Reviews of The Double Life of Veronique [VHS]
Movie Review: Heartbreakingly gorgeous
Summary: 5 Stars
Irene Jacob is exceptionally captivating playing the dual role of Veronika, an aspiring Polish soprano, and Veronique, a French music teacher. The Double Life of Veronique is a highly cerebral story of two people who feel a profound connection with someone they do not know and have never met. We first meet Veronika in Poland: singing in a choir, meeting a lover, auditioning. She wakes up one evening from a strange dream, gasping, and tells her father that she believes she is not alone. She begins to suffer bouts of breathlessness. During her debut performance, she collapses on stage. We then meet Veronique in Paris: teaching music to young students, watching a puppet show, visiting her father at his country estate. When Veronique begins to receive mysterious packages from an unknown admirer, she believes that she is deeply in love, and that the source is the answer that would fill the inexplicable and sudden void in her life. However, as with life, illusion may be more intriguing, but proves fleeting. What remains is a profound revelation that leads her to an inevitable conclusion and closure.
The Double Life of Veronique is a highly provocative film that examines a soul's search for identity and connection. Kieslowski uses a sepia overlay on the film to create a monochromatic, almost ethereal atmosphere. The suffusive darkness achieved by this technique is a manifestation of the mystical and dreamlike elements of the story (note the similar effect achieved in Agnieszka Holland's Olivier, Olivier). As in Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, the visual otherworldliness of the film is a representation of the exploration of the subconscious. Note the elements of fairy tales and vivid dreams in the film. The unfolding of the story is elliptical and obscure, as if the protagonist is reluctantly waking from a sweet, intangible dream. In fact, she is.
Movie Review: A beautiful work of art
Summary: 4 Stars
Throughout his career director Krsysztof Kieslowski worked as a documentary film maker, before doing his doing his most memorable works on film.
His movies offer recurring themes such as coincidences, reverbation, connection, and even parallel lives, and deliver a compelling fly on the wall look at human existence. With Veronique and his famous Blue, White and Red Trilogy, he has crafted some of the most visually memorable movies you will see. In fact, I saw this movie after seeing it recommended on Roger Ebert's website.
It is a simple truth, universally acknowledged that there is little in the world more beautiful and affecting than a beautiful woman in her pristine prime. So it is with Veronique affectingly portrayed by Irene Jacob.
Not only do see her in wonder, in bemusement, and nude and being made love to, like the camera in love with it's object, it's like we step into that life and see the things we would not normally see with an all seeing eye. This is how this movie excels as a work of art. We get to know who she is by how she is.
The only weakness I find is with the story and the characterisation. While Irene Jacob is a compelling presence, the other characters and the story do not develop particularly well.
A little disturbing is the introduction of the puppeteer, a somewhat shadowy and mysterious character, with somewhat of a stalker like obsession with French Veronique. He sends a shoelace through the mail.
Does he represent some sort of all knowing intelligence, and are his intentions towards her actually good? The sequence where he makes love to her while she is sad, could be interpreted a number of ways.
I find Irene Jacob fascinating, and she did another movie with Kiezlowski called Red. I consider that a much better movie, it tells a story, and draws parallels between the old judge and the young man, and I would call Red a masterful work. Red is part of a trilogy, yet it is a stand alone movie. It also garnered three Oscar nominations. Unfortunately, Red proved to be his last movie. I do recommend both movies.
Movie Review: Cinematic perfection
Summary: 5 Stars
I fear that using words to try and describe the great essence of this film won't do it proper justice. I will restrict myself by only saying that this film is perfection on screen. Kieslowski was a true master...Movie Review: Astounding artistic achievement
Summary: 5 Stars
Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski made a dozen or so quality films, but beginning with The Double Life of Veronique, he suddenly catapulted into the artistic stratosphere inhabited by such greats as Fellini, Kurosowa, and Bergman. Starring Irene Jacob, whose acting is as superb as her beauty, the film is a complex metaphysical examination of twin souls briefly touching then parting and leaving only question marks. Jacob plays both roles, and Kieslowski moves at will between their two lives, sometimes with few visual clues. It may take several viewings to get their lives straight, but it is worth it. Long out of print, this film eluded me for about five years before I found a VHS tape, which I watched many times before it was released on DVD. If you like great filmmaking and don't mind subtitles, I highly recommend this film as I do Kieslowski's other masterpieces, the trilogy Blue, White, and Red, which are absolutely incredible films. (Jacob also stars in Red -- in my opinion the best of these three great films.) Though from Poland, Kieslowski made all of these films in French. Unfortunately, he passed away at the peak of his directorial powers.Movie Review: The "Meeting"
Summary: 5 Stars
In the film, Veronique catches just a glimpse of her "other self" as a bus pulls away, but that glimpse raises the question: suppose the two Valentines actually did meet? Such a meeting would pose some fascinating questions, I think. And the possibility of such a meeting made me recall two wonderful pieces of fiction by the master Argentinean poet/philosopher/writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). In two of his short stories such meetings actually do occur; "The Other" (from "The Book of Sand" - 1975) and "August 25, 1983" (from "Shakespeare's Memory" - 1983). Could Kieslowski have read these works?
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