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The Double Life of Veronique

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Wikipedia article


{{Infobox film

| name = The Double Life of Veronique

| image = The Double Life of Vronique.jpg

| alt = Promotional poster showing Irne Jacob

| caption = Promotional poster

| director = Krzysztof Kielowski

| producer = Leonardo De La Fuente

| writer =

| starring =

| music = Zbigniew Preisner

| cinematography = Sawomir Idziak

| editing = Jacques Witta

| studio =

| distributor =

| released =

| runtime = 98 minutes

| country =

| language =

| budget =

| gross = $2 million

}}

'The Double Life of Veronique' (, ) is a 1991 drama film directed by Krzysztof Kielowski and starring Irne Jacob. Written by Kielowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, the film explores the themes of identity, love, and human intuition through the characters of Weronika, a Polish choir soprano, and her double, Vronique, a French music teacher. The two women do not know each other, and yet they share a mysterious and emotional bond that transcends language and geography.

'The Double Life of Vronique' was Kielowski's first film to be produced partly outside his native Poland. It won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, and the Best Actress Award for Jacob. 'The Double Life of Vronique' was selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Plot



In Poland in 1968, a little girl is shown the stars in the winter sky. In France, a little girl is shown one of the first leaves of spring.

In 1990, a young Polish woman named Weronika (Irne Jacob) is singing at an outdoor concert with her choir when a sudden downpour causes the singers to rush for cover. After Weronika holds the last note alone, she meets her boyfriend, Antek (Jerzy Gudejko), and they go to his apartment to make love. The next day she asks her father to tell Antek she is leaving to be with her sick aunt in Krakw. Mentioning that lately she feels that she is not alone in the world.

Weronika travels to Krakw by train and meets up with her aunt, she later contacts a local friend who she meets up at her choir practice. As the choir rehearses, Weronika accompanies them in her soprano voice off-stage. Afterwards, the musical director asks her to audition. Overjoyed, Weronika rushes home with the sheet music. While walking through a square in the midst of a protest, Weronika notices a French tourist taking photos of the protestorsa young woman who looks exactly like her. Weronika smiles as she watches her double board the tourist bus that soon pulls away.

At the audition, Weronika's singing impresses the musical director and conductor, and she is later told that she won the audition. While heading home after the audition, Weronika suffers a mild cardiac arrest but she recovers. The next day, Weronika reunites with Antek. That night during the concert, while singing a solo part, Weronika collapses onstage and dies of a heart attack.

In Clermont-Ferrand, France that same day, Vronique (Irne Jacob), a young French woman and Weronika's double, becomes overwhelmed with grief after having sex with her boyfriend. She later goes to her music teacher, telling him she's quitting the choir. The next day, at the school where she teaches music, Vronique attends a marionette performance with her class about a ballet dancer who breaks her leg and then turns into a butterfly. She then leads her class in a musical piece by an eighteenth-century composer, Van den Budenmayerthe same piece performed by Weronika when she died. That night while driving home, she sees the puppeteer at a traffic light motioning to her not to light the wrong end of her cigarette. Later she is awakened by a phone call with no one speaking, only a choir singing the music of Van den Budenmayer. Vronique visits her father the next day, where she reveals she is in love with someone she doesn't know, and that recently she felt that she lost someone from her life. Back in Clermont Ferrand, she receives a package containing a shoelace, which she compares to her EKG graph, and a stranger shines light on her using a mirror.

Vronique learns that the puppeteer is a children's book author named Alexandre Fabbri (Philippe Volter), who based the marionette on one of his books and has written another about a shoelace. In the coming days, Vronique reads several of Alexandre's books. When Vronique visits her father, he gives her a package addressed to her containing a cassette tape. She listens to the tape, which contains the recordings of a typewriter, footsteps, a door opening, a train station, and a fragment of music by Van den Budenmayer. There are also sounds of a car accident and explosion. The postage stamp on the envelope leads Vronique to the Gare Saint-Lazare train station in Paris. She goes to a cafe in the station where she believes the recordings were made, and sees Alexandre. He tells her he's been waiting for her for two days, that he's working on a new book, and that he sent her the packages as a kind of experiment to see if she would come to him. Angered at being manipulated, Vronique leaves and checks into a nearby hotel. She runs into Alexandre, who asks for her forgiveness, and she brings him up to her room, where they both fall asleep. During the night, they confess their feelings for each other.

The next morning, while talking to Alexandre, Vronique says that she feels that "I was here and somewhere else at the same time" and that someone has been guiding her life. Vronique proceeds to show Alexandre the contents of her handbag, and he comes across a proof sheet of photos taken on Vronique's recent trip to Poland. Alexandre notices what he thinks is a photo of Vronique, but she assures him it is not her. She then sees the picture, realizing that it was Weronika in the picture. Vronique is overwhelmed and breaks down crying as Alexandre comforts her. It becomes clear that Weronika's fate has somehow compelled Vronique to stop singing and avoid the same death.

Some time later at his apartment, Vronique sees Alexandre working on a new marionette with her image. When asked about the purpose of a second identical marionette, Alexandre explains that he needs an additional puppet in case one becomes damaged. He shows her how to work the one marionette while the double lies lifeless on the table. Alexandre reads his new book to Vronique about two women, born the same day in different cities, who have a mysterious connection. Later that day, Vronique arrives at her father's house, stops at the front gate, and reaches out and touches an old tree trunk. Her father, who is inside the house, seems to sense her presence.

Cast



Production



Filming style

The film has a strong metaphysical element, though the supernatural aspect of the story is never explained. Like the later 'Three Colours: Blue', it showcased Preisner's musical score as a major plot element, crediting his work to the fictional Van den Budenmayer. The cinematography is highly stylized, using color and camera filters to create an ethereal atmosphere; the cinematographer, Sawomir Idziak, had previously experimented with these techniques in one episode of 'Dekalog', and Kielowski would later use colour for a wider range of effects in his 'Three Colours trilogy'. Kielowski had earlier used the idea of exploring different paths in life for the same person, in his Polish film 'Przypadek' ('Blind Chance'), and the central choice faced by Weronika/Vronique is based on a brief subplot in the ninth episode of 'Dekalog'.

Filming locations

The film was shot at locations including Clermont-Ferrand, Krakw and Paris.

Alternative ending

A Criterion Collection region 1 DVD was released in November 2006 in the United States and Canada, which includes an alternative ending which Kielowski changed in the edit at the request of Harvey Weinstein of Miramax for the American release. Kielowski added four brief shots to the end of the film showing Vronique's father emerging from the house and Vronique running across the yard to embrace him. The final image of the father and daughter embracing is shot from inside the house through a window.

Music



The film was scored by Zbigniew Preisner. In the film his music is described as being by Van den Budenmayer, a fictitious 18th-century Dutch composer created by Preisner and Kielowski for attributions in screenplays. Music "by" the Dutch composer plays a role in two other Kielowski films: 'Dekalog' (1988), and 'Three Colours: Blue' (1993) in which a theme from his 'musique funebres' is quoted in the 'Song for the Unification of Europe'. Its E minor soprano solo is prefigured in Weronika's final performance.

Puppetry



The puppet acts in 'The Double Life of Vronique' were performed by American puppeteer and sculptor Bruce Schwartz. Unlike most puppeteers who usually hide their hands in gloves or use strings or sticks, Schwartz shows his hands while performing.

Reception



Critical response

'The Double Life of Veronique' received mostly positive reviews. In her review in 'Not Coming to a Theater Near You', Jenny Jediny wrote, "In many ways, 'The Double Life of Veronique' is a small miracle of cinema; ... Kieslowskis strong, if largely post-mortem reputation among the art house audience has elevated a film that makes little to no sense on paper, while its emotional tone strikes a singularperhaps perfectkey."

In his review in 'The Washington Post', Hal Hinson called the film "a mesmerizing poetic work composed in an eerie minor key." Noting that the effect on the viewer is subtle but very real, Hinson concluded, "The film takes us completely into its world, and in doing so, it leaves us with the impression that our own world, once we return to it, is far richer and portentous than we had imagined." Hinson was particularly impressed with Jacob's performance:

In her review in 'The New York Times', Caryn James wrote, "'Veronique' is poetic in the truest sense, relying on images that can't be turned into prosaic statements without losing something of their essence. The film suggests mysterious connections of personality and emotion, but it was never meant to yield any neat, summary idea about the two women's lives."

In his review in the 'Chicago Sun-Times', Roger Ebert wrote, "The movie has a hypnotic effect. We are drawn into the character, not kept at arm's length with a plot." Ebert singled out Sawomir Idziak's innovative use of color and cinematography:

In 2009, Ebert added 'The Double Life of Veronique' to his Great Movies list. Krzysztof Kielowski's 'Dekalog' and 'The Three Colours Trilogy' are also on the list.

In his review for 'Empire Online', David Parkinson called it "a film of great fragility and beauty, with the delicacy of the puppet theatre." He thought the film was "divinely photographed" by Slawomir Idziak, and praised Irne Jacob's performance as "simply sublime and thoroughly merited the Best Actress prize at Cannes." Parkinson saw the film as "compelling, challenging and irresistibly beautiful" and a "metaphysical masterpiece."

At the 'All Movie' web site, the film received a 4-star rating (out of 5) plus "High Artistic Quality" citation. At 'About.com', which specializes in DVD reviews, the film received 5 stars (out of 5) in their critical review. At 'BBC', the film received 3 stars (out of 5). Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film five stars out of five. On the aggregate reviewer website 'Rotten Tomatoes', the film received an 83% positive rating from critics based on 30 reviews.

Box office performance

The film was the 50th highest-grossing film of the year with a total of 592,241 admissions in France. In North America the film opened on one screen grossing $8,572 its opening weekend. In total the film grossed $1,999,955 at the North American box office playing at a total of 22 theaters in its widest release which is a respectable result for a foreign art film.

Home media



A digitally restored version of the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection. The release includes audio commentary by Annette Insdorf, author of 'Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kielowski'; three short documentary films by Kielowski: 'Factory' (1970), 'Hospital' (1976), and 'Railway Station' (1980); 'The Musicians' (1958), a short film by Kielowski's teacher Kazimierz Karabasz; 'Kielowskis Dialogue' (1991), a documentary featuring a candid interview with Kielowski and rare behind-the-scenes footage from the set of 'The Double Life of Vronique'; '1966-1988: Kielowski, Polish Filmmaker', a 2005 documentary tracing the filmmaker's work in Poland, from his days as a student through 'The Double Life of Veronique'; a 2005 interview with actress Irne Jacob; and new video interviews with cinematographer Slawomir Idziak and composer Zbigniew Preisner. It also includes a booklet featuring essays by Jonathan Romney, Slavoj Zizek, and Peter Cowie, and a selection from 'Kielowski on Kielowski'.

Awards and nominations

* 1991 Cannes Film Festival Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (Krzysztof Kielowski) 'Won'

* 1991 Cannes Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize (Krzysztof Kielowski) 'Won'

* 1991 Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress (Irne Jacob) 'Won'

* 1991 Cannes Film Festival nomination for the Golden Palm (Krzysztof Kielowski)

* 1991 Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Music (Zbigniew Preisner) 'Won'

* 1991 Warsaw International Film Festival Audience Award (Krzysztof Kielowski) 'Won'

* 1991 French Syndicate of Cinema Critics Award for 'Best Foreign Film' 'Won'

* 1992 Csar Awards Nomination for Best Actress (Irne Jacob)

* 1992 Csar Awards nomination for Best Music Written for a Film (Zbigniew Preisner)

* 1992 Golden Globe Awards nomination for Best Foreign Language Film

* 1992 Guldbagge Awards nomination for Best Foreign Film

* 1992 Independent Spirit Awards nomination for Best Foreign Film

* 1992 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film 'Won'

In July 2021, the film was shown in the Cannes Classics section at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

See also



* List of submissions to the 64th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film

* List of Polish submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

* Doppelgnger

Notes



References



Bibliography



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