Friday, January 23, 2026

THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VÉRONIQUE / LA DOUBLE VIE DE VÉRONIQUE (1991)

Polish-born writer/director Krzysztof Kieslowski’s calling-card film; not his best (that’d be TROIS COULEURS: BLEU/’93), but plenty mesmerizing/confounding, with subconscious logic replacing normal narrative design.  The story involves two protagonists (one French/one Polish) who, a bit like the Holy Trinity*, are also one.  Polish Veronique (Irène Jacob, a young Ingrid Bergman type), who takes a miraculously fast ride from amateur choir member to soaring soprano classical soloist within days before being felled at her debut by a heart ailment.  (Or is it the high tessitura?)  While simultaneously, Parisian Veronique (still Irène Jacob) is more acted upon than acting in a metaphysical tale that brings her tru-love thru the psychic powers of an admiring Children’s Books author.  He ‘pulls’ her to a train station  restaurant meet-cute thru brain waves . . . or something.  It all seems perfectly logical while you watch, as if Wong Kar-Wai’s visual æsthetics were being realized before the fact by a Pole in Paris.  The film, more program music than program, as compelling as ever.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *And speaking of Trinities, Kieslowski’s early film BLIND CHANCE/’87, gives us three takes on one storyline.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/05/przypadek-blind-chance-1981.html

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