FILM
THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT The mysterious ‘Double Life of Véronique’ illuminates CU International Film Series BY MICHAEL J. CASEY
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This is most evident in the scene where Weronika sees Véronique boarding a tour bus in Krakow. The sight of herself in another place, living another life, strikes Weronika in a way no words can do justice. So Kieślowski and his ace cinematographer, Slawomir Idziak, capture the moment as a series of quick shots — the tour bus turning from right to left, Véronique walking to the back of the bus while the coach moves forward, the camera tracking around Weronika to get a better vantage — that bleed into transcendence. The frame dissolves, the connection is palpable and, for a brief moment, the veil between you and the screen falls. It’s moments like this that make my heart happy that pictures can move. Véronique is so loaded with such moments that the whole movie sings. A large part is thanks to Zbigniew Preisner’s chilling score, but also to Idziak’s images, which use gels to mask sections of the image in shadows while transforming this brown winter into greens, golds and vibrant reds — the color associated with Weronika/Véronique. Jacob is stunning as both. Her Weronika is so full of life and love that
But these are not heavy films weighed he is beauty incarnate. Blessed down by didacticism or dogma. They are with the voice of an angel, leavened by small moments that cut Weronika lives fully and loves deep. Take an early moment in Véronique passionately. But her heart is weak, and she will see neither the age of 25 nor the where Weronika bounces a rubber ball so hard it hits the plaster roof above her. A 30-minute mark of her movie. But there light trickle of dust showers Weronika, is another, this one named Véronique, and she raises her head to receive it. The living miles away in Paris. Both were born on the same day, both have alluring camera slows, the dust catches the sunlight and glistens. Though nothing obvious brownish-green eyes, and both are is happening, you feel something signifiplayed by Irène Jacob. cant is transpiring. CU film studies profesWelcome to The Double Life of sor emeritus Suranjan Ganguly — a pasVéronique, a masterpiece from preemisionate champion of Kieślowski — fondly nent filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski. calls these moments “epiphanies.” And Filmed in the fall of 1990 and the winter not just for the characters, but for the of 1991, Veronique was Kieślowski’s audience as well. first film after the fall of communism in his home country of Poland. Up to this point, Kieślowski had enjoyed both funding and censorship from the state. Then, the curtain fell on both, and he could tell whatever story he wanted. But he would also have to find the money to tell it. So Kieślowski and co-screenwriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz looked to France to fund and film the story of two women, separated by national borders but alike in so many ways they might as well be the same soul. Véronique was the first of four international co-productions Kieślowski made prior to his untimely death in 1996. Taken together, the Three Colors triptych and Véronique represent metaphysical explorations of the mystery of humanity with such grace and skill it’s hard not to be bowled over by them. Irène Jacob stars in a dual role in The Double Life of Véronique. Courtesy: The Criterion Collection BOULDER WEEKLY
when it departs, Véronique feels the absence. That Jacob is able to manifest this sense in every scene without explanation bolsters the movie’s spell. Prior to this film, Jacob had a bit part in Louis Malle’s Au revoir les enfants — another work of cinema that hits like a 10-ton truck — but nothing this complex, this demanding. How do you convey the metaphysical in a performance? It helps if you have Kieślowski behind the camera, but Jacob shares in the success. It even earned her the Best Actress prize at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. Not every loose thread in Véronique can be — or should be — tied up. For me, the biggest mystery is: Why isn’t this movie more known, seen, revered, beloved? Thankfully, it remains ready to be discovered and rediscovered time and time again. Do not miss it.
ON SCREEN: The Double Life of Véronique. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, International Film Series, CU Boulder, 1905 Colorado Ave. $10
NOVEMBER 28, 2024
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