Thursday, July 6, 2017

The Double Life of Veronique

Two identical, unrelated women in Paris and Warsaw (both played by Irene Jacob) are nonetheless metaphysically bonded and, when one dies suddenly from a heart condition during a music recital, the other, a music teacher, feels acute grief and sorrow while simultaneously being stalked by an aware puppeteer as part of a social experiment. Unique though specific to the director's canon, Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique is marked by its stunning cinematography, resplendent music, and a luminous, nuanced performance from the enchanting Jacob although the opaque subject is not expanded upon and left rather abstract.
*** out of ****