"I feel like I'm not alone, not alone in the world." (Weronika in "The Double Life of Veronique")The first image in Kieslowski's "The Double Life of Veronique" is Warsaw Poland seen upside down. The next image is that of a young girl Weronika lying in her mother's arm with her head arched back, we realize it is through her eyes we are seeing Warsaw. At the same time in France a young girl named Veronique is holding a leaf while listening to her mother speak to her. There is a link between these two girls, a connection."The Double Life of Veronique" is about the metaphysical, the unexplained, it's about unraveling the mysteries of life.
We find these two girls grown up into a young woman, they are both played by the beautiful Irene Jacob who would win Best Actress at Cannes for her performance here. Jacob plays Weronika in Poland, she is a young singer living with her widowed father. Weronika is seen as vibrant, full of life and love, but we also learn she has a heart condition. While staying with her Aunt Weronika wins a singing competition and gets the opportunity to sing at a concert, however as a warning she suffers a mild heart attack in a park. During the concert, her heart fails, she collapses and dies, there is a shot afterwards of the camera moving above the audience, perhaps it is her soul escaping. The last we see of Weronika is through her eyes in a glass coffin as dirt is shoveled upon her. Does she see this happening?
In France, Veronique is making love to her boyfriend, afterwards she senses something is wrong, although she's not quite sure why. We find out Veronique is also a singer, but she suddenly tells her instructor she wants to quit and only wants to focus on teaching as a music teacher to young students. At the school where Veronique works, she watches an assembly with her children featuring a marionette performer, he tells the story of a ballerina who performs for an audience, dies and turns into a butterfly. Afterwards, the plot turns into a mystery as Veronique gets a mysterious phone call featuring the music that Weronika was singing when she died, which incidentally is the same music Veronique is teaching her students.
As with all of Kieslowski's films, I am full of questions, does Weronika represent Veronique's absolute double, was she her soul mate, I think Kieslowski makes room for each of these interpretations. As he did in "The Decalogue", Kieslowski uses the a glass and mirror motif which sometimes distort the image. While on a train to visit her Aunt, Weronika looks through a glass ball which seems to bend the world into two, is Kieslowski suggesting an alternate universe? Veronique herself also has a glass ball, but the two also share similarities, both have widowed fathers they are close to, they both sing, they are both kind, and both are sensual and sensitive women. With both women, the use of mirrors are used to reflect meaning there are in fact two of them. There is also the use of string which both are seen wrapping around their hands, this could be seen as a metaphor of a link between the two also as an unraveling of the mystery Veronique feels compelled to solve.
"The Double Life of Veronique" is one of the most beautiful modern films ever made, done by cinematographer Slawamir Idziak, they used special filters to achieve their dreamlike effect at times it's as if the film is bathed in a golden color as if in sunlight. There is a moment when Veronique is awakened by what looks to be a reflection of sunlight shining on her face done by a boy with a magnifying glass living near by. Veronique sees this, but when the boy leaves, the light is still there, it leads Veronique to another link to the mystery, could this be Weronika's soul helping her on her quest?
There is also an air of mystery throughout the film, but it's also delicately beautiful. This is not a Hitchcock kind of mystery Veronique is trying to solve, but it's something more intangible, something that can't be thought out in words. I remember seeing an interview with Kieslowski saying that the reason he chose film was because it was only through visual expression could he fully explore the things that interested him. It is in fact through film techniques such as sound effects and music that Veronique ultimately solves the mystery.
The effect of "The Double Life of Veronique" is very powerful, Kieslowski delves between two worlds, the real, and the possible. Like all the films of his I have seen it is philosophical with and ends openly. I don't think it is done to discourage the viewers but to ponder the questions it raises. "The Double Life of Veronique" begs repeated viewings in order to get closer to what Kieslowski was talking about. Is there an alternate reality? Does the soul exist? Are we connected? Are we alone in the world?
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