The Double Life Of Veronique [DVD] [1991]

The story begins in Poland, where we find the adolescent Veronika singing opera with her school choir. After getting caught in a rainstorm she goes home and makes love to her older boyfriend... so already we have themes of sex, music and the passage into womanhood, three very important factors that will resurface throughout the course of the film. Later in the story, Veronika gets the chance to audition for a highly prestigious opera company, but dies on stage before the audition is over. The story now moves to France where we meet Veronique - an older, though identical incarnation of Veronika - who works as a music teacher for an elementary school. It is at this point when most viewers begin to become baffled by the strange adjustment of the character, but in reality, no change has occurred. On the night of the audition, Veronika's death is a metaphorical one, and the sense of anxiety conjured by this important event causes her to faint away, thus losing the job.

So, when we meet the same woman some time later she has remained in France and taken the job teaching music at the school. All other events surrounding the 'death' are symbolic and subjective of Veronika/Veronique's guilt and embarrassment (...note the point of view shot from within the grave and its roots in dream-logic). It is only after exploring the world as Veronique and seeking out surrogate father figures (or indeed, lovers) that the character is able to escape into one of her father's picturesque painting and find forgiveness from her family... or so it seems? This is merely one interpretation of the central events of the film, which, along with the later Three Colours Trilogy, demonstrates Kieslowski's interest in subjective realities layered upon various coincidental narrative view-points. From this, it is easy to see the director's attempt to fill his story with other stories that grow from the central narrative and either depict, or dictate, Veronique's state of mind.

Here we have the themes of the opera, the performance of the marionettes, various confessional monologues, as well as the more conventional ideas of coming of age and growing sexual awareness, alongside the assorted political ideologies at work within the subtext. It's a particularly remarkable achievement in so much that the director takes us on a cerebral and emotional journey through one woman's psyche without any of us being fully aware of quite what is happening. As a result of this, the film works on multiple levels and, although it might be something of a cliché to point out (lest we forget that a cliché is full of truth... that's what makes it a cliché) but the film offers viewers the chance to interpret the images in situations however they desire, meaning that the overall film will have a different impact on everyone who views it, marking it out as a haunting dream of a film begging to be explored.

This notion is further explored with the use of cinematography - which is spellbinding throughout - with the director and his esteemed cameraman Slavomir Idziak employing all manner of colour tints and strange optical filters (as they had done previously with A Short Film About Killing and would continue on their next project, Blue), to paint both Poland and Paris as strange, gothic, ethereal dreamscapes that manage to convey the character's inner-emotions, as opposed to simply creating a mood. Of course, none of this would be possible without the stunning and intricate performance of Irene Jacob, who, unlike most actresses of her age, is able to exist naturally in two completely different worlds, whilst simultaneously presenting us with two very different characters.

The fact that she is able to build such a subtle and invisible symbiosis between the two, whilst leaving the viewer completely oblivious to any broader sub-textual implications, is an astonishing achievement in itself. The Double Life of Veronique remains one of the defining works of European cinema in the 90's and is easily one of the greatest and most iconic films ever created by the late, great Kieslowski. Relish it now on DVD.