Written by Kevin Pearson.
![]() Even today, The Double Life of Veronique stands out as the most unique and ambiguous film of Kieslowski’s career. It is the mysterious story of - seemingly - two women, one living in Poland and the other in France, whose lives share similarities so intimate that they seem to be connected with one another. When one dies, the other feels grief so foreign and strong that she has no idea what to make of it. Towards the film’s end the woman in France, Veronique, discovers a picture of a woman resembling herself and is captivated by the possibilities of what it means, leaving her to focus on the metaphysical possibilities of the world around her. Before the film was made, the project was considered an alien one for Kieslowski. Having made his mark on Polish cinema first with short documentaries that extended back to the 1960s, he became the face of Polish filmmaking during the mid 70s and the 80s with films like The Scar (1976) and Camera Buff (1979) that explored the post-war despair of Poland; films like No End (1984) also had political implications that drew on his documentary period. In his fictional work, however, he was beginning to explore subjects and themes that would anticipate The Double Life of Veronique, making 'personal' films that focused on the place of luck and fate in life. Blind Chance (1987) lived up to its title, while The Decalogue (1989/90) looked at the concept of fate as guided by the moral messages of the Ten Commandments.
The Double Life of Veronique was Kieslowski’s first film featuring an international cast as well as being an international production (with half the film set in Poland and the other in France), yet it is also not a complete break with Poland and with his past filmmaking style. The film has many of the hallmarks of Kieslowski’s past, whilst simultaneously showing the future he was about to step into, with his Three Colours trilogy (1993/4). The first part of the story (set in Poland) deals with Veronika, allowing Kieslowski to implement his old filmmaking realism to ensure that certain aspects of Polish life stand out: in one scene, Veronika is shown in the midst of a street protest, and in another we see the transportation of a statue of Vladimir Lenin. These cues tie the film to Kieslowski’s past style, but set it instructively alongside all the elements that mark the material as new ground for him.
Kieslowski’s switch to a more sophisticated production style allowed him to give a more rounded approach to conveying the themes in this film. As he once said, “It’s a film about emotions and nothing else.” Kieslowski thus layers his film with colours, textures and a plot that all emphasize the emotions in the story. The scenes play like meditations, with colours and music fully inhabiting scenes. There is little standard narrative drama here, rather there is a collection of moments from characters’ lives that assume fuller meaning because of the force that the colours and music play in their characterization. The end result of the textures of the scenes is a film that in fact almost has a closer relationship to the avant-garde than to traditional narrative drama. Small, precise moments make up the film; every shade of colour and texture is not only supporting the story through mise-en-scene, but is a development of the film’s themes and ideas.
While the audience is aware of the connections between Veronique and Veronika, Veronique is not. She unknowingly grieves for Veronika’s death, but doesn’t know what this grief means. The film therefore introduces a character to make Veronique more aware of her surroundings: through the puppeteer, Alexandre. Veronique becomes aware of him at one of his performances, becoming entranced by the performance and by him. The texture of his face in a mirror, and the music surrounding the performance enthrall her. The scene offers little explanation of why there is romantic interest, but Veronique’s intense focus on him and his performance links her character very emotionally to him in a way that the audience is made to understand.
The floodgates open to the world of the metaphysical when Alexandre discovers a picture of Veronika in Veronique’s collection of photographs. First he assumes it is her, but Veronique attests to the fact it isn’t - yet she can’t help but become overwhelmed by the possibilities of what this connection could mean. The purpose of Alexandre finally becomes clear. As Kieslowski explains, “Alexandre’s made Veronique aware that something else exists, that the other Veronika did exist. He’s the one who noticed, and perhaps he understood what she couldn’t understand herself.” The rest of the story shows how Alexandre weaves Veronique’s life into his art, but his initial purpose in the plot is that he is the one who begins to make her think with all her senses. His function is also made clear by the scene in which the two finally meet in a café, accomplished by him sending her a cassette of the surrounding noises of the area and hoping she is able to use the clues in the recording to track him down. It is a scene with little to do with narrative, but rather makes obvious what kind of levels the film is focusing on. In one way, The Double Life of Veronique plays into the classical sense of metaphysics as defined by Aristotle, saying that in every person there is a second life being lived elsewhere that keeps them from being alone. Because Aristotle did not define metaphysics by a specific religious doctrine, the film is able to be true to his concept, allowing it to be a purely emotional work that exists on a more abstractedly spiritual level than a religious one.
The Double Life of Veronique began life as merely a film that was crowded between two major periods of work for Kieslowski; the depths and density the film reaches on an internal level, however, make it a great and important work its own right. This article was published on May 17, 2007. Post your views Article comments powered by Disqus |
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