La Double Vie de Véronique (The Double Life of Veronica, in English and Podwójne życie Weroniki in Polish) is Krzysztof Kieślowski's last film before he made the Three Colours trilogy. As far as I know, the last of the Three Colours trilogy - Three Colors: Red- is his last film, he died soon after. La Double Vie de Véronique is surprisingly his first film to be partially shot outside Poland - in France. This is the story of two women - Weroniki in Poland and Veronique in France. They are both talented in music - and their lives are very different. This is the ccentral theme of the film. The director has clearly put in a lot of fantasy in the film. I usually do not like a film with a lot of fantasy because it often becomes a tool in itself without an end. However, as we all know, there are glorious exceptions - Rashomon, for example, where fantasy has been used to take the film to an altogether different dimension. In the case of La Double Vie de Véronique, the fantasy is more or less in the background - the director never emphasizes it, although a supernatural element is vaguely present.
However, we are probably digressing from the main strength of the film - its music. The music of the film is almost a character, always present and almost has a personality. Tremendously soothing scores by Zbigniew Preisner has been used by the director as a central character. I must mention here that my own awareness of western music is elementary and hence I find it pleasantly surprising that the music in the film immediately touches a chord in the mind.
Some plain good acting and rich use of colours captivates the audience. Interesting use of symbols. Abundant use of filters - innovative and colourful cinematography.
Obviously, you can not miss the central message of the film. It is too grossly spelt out. This is the only drawback of the film, if one is intent on finding one. The message, delivered not too subtly, is that is there really any such thing as free will, or is destiny pre-determined or are we products of random chances.
Who knows?
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