FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Krzysztof Kieslowski - The Double Life Of Veronique

This is a film about a feeling and like all feelings, it cannot be described in words. But art can conjure it up. It is the feeling that we are not alone. There is someone else besides us. In a distant sense we are connected to each other through thoughts. We cannot comprehend it, it is simply a feeling. There are many theories of events that have influenced other events far away. Chimpanzees on one island were taught something, while chimpanzees on another island took it over - synchronously. Or are they in both places simultaneously? Krzysztof Kieslowski's La double Vie de Véronique does us the favour of not explaining ourselves. The film leaves in suspense what is currently happening. It conjures it up with the face of Irene Jacob. She plays two roles, the Polish Veroniqua and the French Veronique. Kieslowski understood that the human face is the greatest subject in cinema. His camera looks very intensively at the face of Jacob. I don't want to waste any time at this point in describing how beautiful it is - because Kieslowski's camera searches for the soul behind it. Sometimes she smiles, sometimes she looks lost, sometimes she just thinks. She herself seems vulnerable, romantic, full of joy and tender. She has a good face and we are included in her self-perception. The film opens with a fun-loving young woman, Veroniqua, who travels to Cracow to visit her aunt. Her clear voice arouses the interest of a choirmaster. She is chosen to sing in the concert hall. Before the performance she sees herself getting into a coach. As if rooted to the spot, Veroniqua stops, frozen in pain. She doesn't notice the other woman, who looks like Veroniqua, and takes snapshots with her camera. Without realizing it, the stranger takes pictures of Veroniqua. In Paris we meet Veronique, a teacher. With her class she visits a puppet theatre. Through a mirror behind the stage, she can see the puppeteer and he can see her. Shortly afterwards, she announces that she is in love. Her father asks her if she is sad and she answers in the affirmative (although she does not know exactly why). I think we know the reason: something like an excitement of the time must have come from Krakow to Paris. Veronique and the puppeteer Alexandre (Philippe Volter) are connected. She finds him and flees from him, she has fallen in love. Later she will tell Alexandre that she has felt all her life that she is in two places at once. We know this feeling. Suppose you are in a strange city, sitting in a cafe. Suddenly you think you have experienced exactly this situation before (although you have never been there before). Alexandre has carved two puppets that look like Veronique. He tells the story of the two: When she was little, one puppet touched the hot stove. A few days later, the other knew that this touch was painful and refrained from doing so. Why does the Parisian Veronique suddenly and unexpectedly stop taking singing lessons? A "normal" film brand Arthaus would have explained this to us in detail. Fortunately Kieslowski did not. He does not want to know how such things confess. He wants us to admit to ourselves how such things feel. Should now the wrong impression have been created that there is hardly any action in La double Vie de Véronique? The film has a hypnotic effect, we are drawn into the characters without the distance that a plot would allow us. Both women, Veroniqua and Veronique, are good and real. They do nothing to be ashamed of. There is this moment when Jacobs holds Veronique's face in the sun. We feel; she lives this moment, she enjoys it! It is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen! Cameraman Slawomir Idziak reveals the ardent beauty of Jacobs! A whole palette of red and green tones, which in themselves stand for nothing, but make the film look so wonderful, so enchanted! They underline the third striking colour: a golden yellow, which emphasises Jacob's flawless face. There are several other characters, two fathers, an aunt, a singing teacher and everyone looks at them with love and wisdom. The film knows no evil people. There are also mysterious characters, like the woman in the black hat. She turns around and looks after Veronique. Who she is; we don't know. That is the art of Krzysztof Kieslowski, who is a wonderful director! Together with his author Krzysztof Piesiewicz, he has made many explorations of human fate. La double vie de Véronique seems like a single

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)