The Double Life of Véronique

Original title: La double vie de Véronique

1991
R
1h 38m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Irène Jacob and Guillaume de Tonquédec in The Double Life of Véronique (1991)

Psychological Drama Drama Fantasy Music Mystery Romance

Two parallel stories about two identical women; one living in Poland, the other in France. They don't know each other, but their lives are nevertheless profoundly connected.Two parallel stories about two identical women; one living in Poland, the other in France. They don't know each other, but their lives are nevertheless profoundly connected.Two parallel stories about two identical women; one living in Poland, the other in France. They don't know each other, but their lives are nevertheless profoundly connected.

Director
- Krzysztof Kieslowski
Writers
- Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

54K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Krzysztof Kieslowski
Writers
- Krzysztof Kieslowski
- Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 10 wins & 11 nominations

Trivia
Julie Delpy auditioned for the lead roles. By her own admission, she lost the role when Krzysztof Kieslowski asked her to act sexy and she responded by putting her finger in her ear. Kieslowski ended up casting her in Three Colors: White (1994).

Goofs
After Weronika collapses on stage an extra can be seen running onto the stage, he accidentally pulls down a large spotlight which falls onto some people in the audience.

Quotes
Véronique: [sees a puppet] Is that me?
Alexandre Fabbri: Of course, it's you.
Véronique: Why? Why two?
Alexandre Fabbri: I handle them a lot when I perform. They get damaged easily.

Alternate versions
The American version features a different ending: in the original, Véronique drives to the house where her father is still living and pauses outside to touch a tree. He realizes that she's outside and raises his head from the bench where he's working. The American version features one minute of additional footage showing the father stepping outside the house, calling his daughter, and Véronique running into his arms. Kieslowski shot the additional sequences after the film's premiere at the New York Film Festival in 1991 at the insistence of Harvey Weinstein, who at the time was president of the film's US distributor, Miramax films.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: The Last Boy Scout/Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country/Convicts/Hook/The Double Life of Veronique (1991)

Soundtracks
Verso il cielo
Music by Zbigniew Preisner
Text from Dante Alighieri (as Dante)
Performed by Wielka Orkiestra Polskiego Radia Katowice (as Le Grand Orchestre de la Radio et Télévision Polonaise de Katowice), Chór Filharmonii Slaskiej (as Choeurs Philharmonique de Silésie), Elzbieta Towarnicka (soprano) and Jacek Ostaszewski (flute)
Conducted by Antoni Wit

User reviews161

Review

Featured review

Life, Conscious, Connection, and Death.

The Double Life of Veronique | 10/10

This is an incredibly haunting and poetic work that raises a plethora of questions regarding life, death, and the unexplainable connection that some people share. I was stuck in a sort of trance while watching this, as beautifully photographed scenes seemed to follow one after the other for the film's entirety.

There wasn't a moment that I had lost interest, and the questions posed throughout are some that I found myself thinking about on many different occasions as a child. Do we, perhaps even simultaneously, share the same thoughts, feel the same feelings, and take part in the same actions as another person we have never met? Is it more than instinctual for us to avoid certain things, or act in certain ways? This film spoke to these questions, but of course never answered them. It turns out, I believe, that there are no answers to begin with.

This is the fourth Kieslowski film I've seen, and most certainly the best. Visually, it shares a few things in common with the Colors Trilogy, and Irène Jacob (Veronique and Veronika) was actually the main character in Red. Her acting is extremely good in both films, and the mood she creates in this one is understated, but incredibly graceful. I should mention the music in the film as well, which in addition to being beautifully presented, plays an important role in the connection between the two women. This is one of the best films ever made, presented by a man of great vision who left us far too soon.