THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE
1991 - France / Poland - 96
min. - Feature, Color
La Double Vie de Véronique
(Original Foreign title)
Podwojne zycie Weroniki
(Polish title)
Director - Krzysztof
Kieslowski
Box office -Domestic gross:
$1, 512, 000
Sound by Dolby Stereo
Produced by Canal Plus /
Norsk Filmstudio A/S / Sideral Productions / Tor
Release Nov 24, 1991 (USA)
Released by Miramax
PLOT SYNOPSIS:
The Double Life of Véronique
is the story of two young women who are - in some mysterious and irresolvable
way - the same woman leading two different yet interconnected lives. Those
familiar with Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's later "Three
Colors" trilogy of Blue, White, and Red will recognize his fascination
with accidental happenings and chance encounters, as well as Irène Jacob (from
Red) whose performance as both Veronika and Veronique won the 1991 Cannes Film
Festival award for best actress. Veronika and Véronique are born on the same
day in 1966, one in Poland, the other in France. They grow up separately,
unaware of each other's existence, but with the vague and rarely expressed
feeling that they are "not alone." The story begins in Poland, where
Veronika (like Véronique) is a talented vocalist and music student who wins a
prestigious singing competition and is given the chance to perform with a local
symphony. On the night of the concert, while singing a duet onstage, Veronika
loses consciousness and dies. Véronique is emotionally wounded by the loss of
her double and decides to end her singing career. The film charts the effect of
Veronika's death on Véronique and on her dispassionate and unsatisfying
relationships with men, especially her father. She is led to puppeteer and
children's book author Alexandre Fabbri (Philippe Volter), whose puppet shows
and stories are dramatic variants on her own mysterious problem. While looking
through photographs of Véronique's trip to Poland, Fabbri discovers a picture
of Veronika walking through a student demonstration in Kracow. He shows the
picture to Véronique, who intuits the significance of Veronika's perfect
likeness to herself. - Anthony Reed
REVIEW:
Polish master Krzysztof
Kieslwoski's most ravishing film is an ethereal rhapsody grounded in the
resolutely sensual presence of its lead, Irene Jacob. With its oblique story
line, cryptic rhyming patterns, and focus on mood and tone, this elusive movie
is more poem than narrative. Slawomir Idziak's shimmering cinematography gives
the movie a spectral sheen, perfectly conveying the rich and shifting mysteries
of coincidence, fate, and human connection Kieslowski explores. The movie bears
more than a passing resemblance to Kieslowski's final film, Red, yet another
movie that evinces the filmmaker's obsession with fraternity, not to mention
Irene Jacob's face. Mostly captivating, Double Life's metaphysical meditation
occasionally verges on silly self-absorption; at its worst, the movie's solemn
search for profundities could almost be a parody of European artiness. Even at
its most dubious though, the movie is unfailingly alluring; its golden, lambent
beauty remains rapturous throughout. Lyrical and elliptical, the movie can also
be read simply as an ode to its lead: Jacob's Veronique is clearly an idealized
projection of feminine perfection, so perfect that Kieslowski had to make two
of her. Muse and artist were rewarded equally upon the film's release, as the
movie won Jacob a Best Actress award at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival and garnered
Kieslowski the best reviews of his career at the time. - Elbert Ventura
CAST:
Irène Jacob -
Veronique/Veronika
Wladyslaw Kowalski -
Veronika's Father
Guillaume de Tonquedec -
Serge
Sandrine Dumas - Catherine
Aleksander Bardini -
Orchestra Conductor
Claude Duneton - Le Pere de
Veronique
Claude Duneton - Veronique's
Father
Philippe Volter - Alexandre
Fabbri
Halina Gryglaszewska - La
Tante
Halina Gryglaszewska - Aunt
Jerzy Gudejko - Antek
Kalina Jedrusik- Gaudy Woman
Louis Ducreux - Professor
Dominika Szady - Beata Malczewska
Chantal Neuwirth -
Receptionist
Jan Sterninski - Lawyer
Bernadetta Kus - Pauline
Monier
Jacques Potin - L'Homme Au
Manteau Gris
Nausicaa Rampony - Nicole
Jacques Potin - Man with Grey
Coat
Boguslawa Schubert - Woman
with Hat
Boguslawa Schubert - La Femme
Au Chapeau
Jacek Wojcicki - Barbara Szalapa
Thierry de Carbonniere -
Professor
Lorraine Evanoff - Claude
Alain Frerot - Mailman
Philippe Campos - Nicole
Pinaud
Aleksander Bardini - Le Chef
D'Orchestre
Wanda Kruszewska - Lucyna
Zabawa
Youssef Hamid - Le Cheminot
Kalina Jedrusik - La Femme
Barjolee
Alain Frerot - Le Facteur
Youssef Hamid - Railway Man
Gilles Gaston-Dreyfus -
Jean-Pierre
PRODUCTIOPN CREDITS:
Krzysztof Kieslowski -
Director / Screenwriter
Leonardo de la Fuente -
Producer
Bernard P. Guiremand -
Producer
Krzysztof Piesiewicz -
Screenwriter
Slawomir Idziak -
Cinematographer
Zbigniew Preisner - Composer
(Music Score)
Jacques Witta - Editor
Patrice Mercier - Production
Designer
AWARDS:
Best Actress (win) - Irène Jacob - 1991 Cannes Film Festival
Ecumenical Award (win) - 1991 Cannes Film Festival
Fipresci (International Critics Prize) for Best Film in Competiti
(win) - 1991 Cannes Film Festival
Best Polish Film (win) - 1991 Golden Duck
Best Music Score (win) - Zbigniew Preisner - 1991 L.A. Film
Critics Association
Best Film - 1991 SOC
Best Foreign-Language Film (nom) - 1992 Golden Globe
SIMILAR MOVIES:
Passion of Mind (2000, Alain Berliner)
My 20th Century (1989, Ildikó Enyedi)
Sliding Doors (1998, Peter Howitt)
Possible Worlds (2000, Robert Lepage)
Przypadek (1982, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
Trois Couleurs: Bleu (1993, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
Trois Couleurs: Rouge (1994, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
Drift (2001, Quentin Lee)
Heaven (2002, Tom Tykwer)
MOVIES WITH THE SAME
PERSONNEL:
Trois Couleurs: Bleu (1993, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
Trois Couleurs: Rouge (1994, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
Przypadek (1982, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
Trois Couleurs: Blanc (1994, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
Amator (1979, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
The Secret Garden (1993, Agnieszka Holland)
L'Amour à Vingt Ans (1962, Marcel Ophüls, Renzo Rossellini,
François Truffaut, Andrzej Wajda)
Cyrano De Bergerac (1990, Jean-Paul Rappeneau)
OTHER RELATED MOVIES:
Decalogue (1988, Krzysztof Kieslowski