- Why did you make two?
- I always make two. Just in case one of them breaks.
This is a story of two girls born on the same day, looking and feeling the same, even bearing the same name - Weronika\Véronique - but living in two different countries - one in Poland, another in France - unrelated and unknown to each other, yet connected in some inexplicable way.
Both eventually face the same choice and this is what the story is based on.
2 stories do not happen quite at the same time, although they do go along together. The Polish Weronika storyline slightly precedes the French Véronique's - it's just one step ahead. Just enough to provide that certain subconscious warning, that gut feeling that is based on the first girl's experience.
Véronique is like a reincarnation Weronika, feeling what she feels, learning from her, drawing upon her knowledge, grieving over her without quite understanding what or who it is that she is feeling and grieving over.
Her blissful youth, her delightful beauty, and ah, she is so fresh, shining, emanating the joy of life. Her desire to feel and hear and see - most of all - to feel -life - the sounds and smells and the sunlight and the rain and the golden sundust in miriads of particles showering down on her. Closing eyes and breathing, and running, and hearing the water splashing, and the rustling of the leaves, and feeling the sunlight on her face.
Such bliss is almost too much to bear - enough to tear one's heart apart for it overflows.
The first one reached out, touched the flame and burnt up, the second one pulled away just in time.
The film has a surreal atmosphere about it, but the surreal element is never explained - and it doesn't need to be. One either feels it and Knows, or one doesn't.
Just the way it happened between the Puppeteer and Véronique - that inexplicable feeling of certainty and knowledge bordering on the impossible - when they Know and words are unnecessary.
As I watched The Double Life of Veronique (1991) I saw many things that I had seen in Three Colours Blue (1994) by Kieślowski. The lovemaking scenes, the walking in the street, the sunlight and rain on the face, the tree trunk touching - the light and the textures and gestures - some scenes coincide and mirror each other. In a way, he is a puppeteer himself who creates that universe and tells a story through a heroine (Irène Jacob - Juliette Binoche).
A special attention is given to colour. The light in the film is very peculiar, like the old Victorian paintings by Grimshaw. Slightly eerie, greenishly yellow and blurred - it conveys the sense of mystery and good old days, there is something so solid and ancient about it - and not quite real. It is a dream, a chidlhood memory, golden-coloured and blurry and harbouring endless mysteries.
The cinematography is by Slawomir Idziak in both films, in The Double Life of Véronique (1991) he was sort of introducing and exploring it, in Three Colours Blue (1994) he went further - he had become a skillful user in creating atmosphere with colour and lighting.
The film was shot alternately in Clermont-Ferrand, Krakow and Paris - for the first time Kieślowski had moved beyond Poland while making a film, and the locations are beautiful and pictureque - each shot is like a painting.
Puppetry is another key topic in Véronique. There is a beautiful story of a ballerina who wants to be a famous dancer but breaks her leg and dies, but then she turns into a butterfly and flies away. There are many sympols in the film, and the Puppeteer with his puppets is one of them.
The Puppeteer is the prototype of God ot Destiny Maker. The one who knows everything.
Véronique looking for the Puppeteer may be not just following her love, but also following the mystery of her being, for he seems to silently hold the answers. He is also a storyteller - in real life, and if viewed as a symbol - One who makes stories and watches over his creations - and sometimes gives them a second chance - 'just in case the first one breaks'. And love for him and unity with him holds endless mysteries.
And finally, and most importantly, the music. It is the central theme both in Véronique and in Three Colours: Blue, and all by Zgibnew Preisner. In The Double Life of Véronique the music is attributed to Van den Budenmayer, a fictitious eighteenth-century Dutch composer invented by Preisner and Kieślowski. E minor soprano from Three Colours: Blue\Song for the Unification of Europe is prefigured in Weronika's final performance.
I loved the story, the the symbols and parallels, the lighting, the music, and the fact that it does not provide direct answers - and still you Know. The delightfully fresh and sensual Irène Jacob, the slightly eerie and mysterious lighting, the locations, the storyline, the strikingly dramatic music, the importance placed on the subconscious - all this makes The Double Life of Véronique truly special - though that is not quite the word.
In my mind a deep connection has been established between The Double Life of Véronique (1991), Three Colours: Blue (1994) and Damage (1992). All of these films were made approximately at one time, and seem to possess similar, though at the same time diametrically different atmosphere. The first two were made by Kieślowski and Piesiewicz, the music was by Preisner and the actresses and the characters they portrayed were like an extension of each other. I can see and feel the direction in which Kieślowski goes there and it gives me a sense of keen delight. Damage (1992) was made by Louis Malle, but there's again Juliette Binoche and the music of Zgibnew Preisner - so it is another note or step in the procession.
I also found out (shamefully hadn't paid attention to it before, but everything comes at the right time, I guess, and the time is now) that the third film from The Colours Trilogy by Kieślowski - Three Colours: Red features Irène Jacob. So for me the story line continues.