Irish Film Institute -The Double Life of Veronique

The Double Life of Veronique

The Polish Weronika (Irene Jacob) lives in a small town near Krakow, while the French Veronique (also Jacob) lives in Clermont-Ferrand. Although they have never met, the two women feel connected and share the same soul. They were born on the same day and are the living image of each other. They also share amazing voices as well as a heart disorder, and both were brought up by their fathers after their mothers died. Weronika decides to change her life by leaving her lover Antek and moving to Krakow to devote herself to music. When Weronika suffers a fatal heart attack during a concert, the French Veronique experiences a sense of emptiness and foreboding. Giving up her career as a singer, Veronique decides to follow the path of love, sensing that it is the most important thing in life.

Talking about The Double Life of Veronique, Kieslowski said: ‘it is a film about sensitivity, intuition and about hard to define, irrational relationships between people. One cannot show too much, as the mystery will disappear. One cannot show too little, as no-one will understand anything.’ Crucial to the extraordinary mood of the piece is the beautiful music of Zbigniew Preisner and the excellent photography by Slawomir Idziak. Irene Jacob was awarded for her moving performances at the Cannes Film Festival.

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