The Double Life of Veronique (1991)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Double Life of Véronique (1991) – K. Kieslowski

A beautiful puzzler from Kieslowski (after his Decalogue but before his Three Colours trilogy) that places radiant Irene Jacob into two roles (Weronika and Veronique) – but even she isn’t fully aware that both exist.  The movie begins in Poland where Weronika is a classical singer who, although untrained, wins a prestigious position in a concert.  She has a boyfriend, a funny aunt, and a caring dad.  One day, she catches a glimpse of her doppelganger on a tourist bus.  Later we transition to Paris and follow Veronique, a schoolteacher, who feels that she has always been two places at once.  She abruptly decides no longer to pursue singing (probably a good idea). She receives messages from a mysterious presumed suitor.  She figures out the puzzle and her mysterious suitor fashions two marionettes in her likeness.  The movie concludes.  So, what is Kieslowski’s message?  Perhaps it is difficult to ferret but the themes swirl all about:  the commonalities in human experience, the role of mysterious and maybe miraculous coincidences, the controlling hand of fate in our lives, probably more.  All told,  these slices of lives are delicious, even if they have no point (or we are left only to speculate with no concrete evidence of the points).