Rediculousness

The Double life of Veronique is an older movie from Krzysztof Kieslowski. By older I mean 1991 so I could only find it in VHS at my local video store. Not having watched a VHS in a very long time I was surprised how bad the quality seems and how faded the colours looked so I would like to track down a DVD copy of the film to get the full experience.

In any case I've been wanting to see this film for months ever since seeing The Three Colours Trilogy earlier this year. The story plays off the idea of having a double in the world. Basically there is a Polish Weronika and a French Veronique who have lived similar lives and are inexplicably connected. Both are talented singers, young and in love and both have this odd sense of connection like neither is alone in the world. When Weronika in Poland dies, Veronique in France suddenly feels alone and lost for no particular reason. I won't give you all the details but you can get the gist of it from that.

The story telling in the film is like a fairy tale with a narrative that weaves, almost unreasonably, the lives of it's characters together while exploring the strange connections between family, lovers and some unseen unconscious connection between some people. Irene Jacob's plays both the Polish and French versions of Veronique and is captivating. I fell in love with her a little in Red from the Three Colours Trilogy which is another film where Kieslowski dives into the strange connections between people and the even stranger ones that go unseen to most of us.

The cinematography in the film is beautiful with shadow heavy lighting and shots emphasizing a duality of perspective. The music is beautiful as it must be with both Veronique's being talented singers and the repeated song throughout the film that both characters happen to be working with will be stuck in your head for days.

I'm not sure why but I love Kieslowski's films. They're heavy with imagery and dream like story telling and always seem to give a stark but hopeful look at what it is to be a person these days.

Did you know that Krzysztof Kieslowski's actress Irene Jacob also sings?