Double Life of Veronique
20 February 2023
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
See
Her: Double life of Veronique/Weronika, a 1991 film by Krzystof Kieslowski starring young and beautiful Irene Jacob as both French Veronique and Polish Weronika. In the first part we follow bubbly full of life Weronika through her early steps of becoming a big singer until the moment of her unexpected sudden death on stage due to heart failure. From Krakow we then move to Paris where her unrelated twin Veronique wroks as a music teacher at school. Their lives seem parallel but not quite the same. It seems like through their existential but unexaplanable connection Polish Weronika was always one step ahead and making mistakes while the timid Veronique avoids making them, warned by her unbrelated twin.
Him: The Double life of Veronique directed by Krzystof Kieslowski tells the story of Weronika, a classical choir singer in Krakow. Her romance, ambition to join an orchestral choir, confiding in her aunt and wandering around the city. In so doing during a solidarity protest in the old town centre she sees a bus full of Frenc tourists taking photos, including her exact double, Veronique.
Think
Her: There’s something Lynchian aboutthis film. We instinctively want to know why a stranger woman in the hat is looking at Veronique/Weronika with such envy? Who sent the shoelace in the envelope? And what does it mean when Veronique touches timber in the final scene? But Krzystof Kueslowski is not giving us those answers, just like we never find out who killed Laura Palmer. Because that doesn’t matter.
Him: I love Sliding Doors as a concept, and this feels like an original version of that story, the kind detailed in literature by Dostoyevsky or Saramgo. It’s a classic conundrum to lose sleep over. Is there someone out their living my life better than I?
Feel
Her: This film evokes feelings. Leaving questions unanswered makes the characters stay with you after the movie is over and continue thinking about them. For that reason, I feel like it’s too early to talk about the feelings it evokes. Though I’m sure I’ll rewatch it again.
Him: I liked the subtlty, you see tangential characters appear in Weronika’s and Veronique’s halves. Both have a sense of connection to their other half out there somehwere, but it’s abstract. Until Veronique sees Weronika in the developed photos from Krakow. The ending was perplexing, and still might be unclear after rewatching.
