Reflections on the Glass
The Double Life of Veronique, directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, is a masterful example of non-literalism through visual storytelling. It is an opaque and spiritual narrative filled with metaphor and symbolism which is crafted through nuanced cinematography and direction. The film captivates the viewer with exquisite visual elements that evoke emotions, and enter the characters' psyche, creating a dreamlike, contemplative state. Kieslowski delves into themes of identity, duality, fate, and the inexplicable connections that transcend physical boundaries. It is through using the camera and the performance of the lead actress that Kieslowski attempts to show the unfilmable, the metaphysical, the things that cannot be named.
This enigmatic film follows the lives of two women, Weronika in Poland, and Véronique in France, both played by Irène Jacob. They are doppelgängers, physically identical but living separate lives in different countries. Though unaware of each other's existence, they share an unexplainable, intuitive connection, that reaches into a spiritual and metaphysical realm transcending the typical human experience.
“The idea of a doppelganger derives from folkloric beliefs found in many cultures… According to these beliefs everyone has a double, an identical second self… It’s dangerous or even fatal, to be in the same place at the same time as one’s double.” -
Weronika, a talented Polish singer sees a woman of uncanny resemblance to herself in the streets of Krakow after an audition to a symphony. She is stunned and begins to feel ill and melancholic after the experience. A few days later she dies suddenly during a performance collapsing on stage from heart failure. Véronique, a French music teacher, feels an inexplicable sense of loss without understanding its source and quits her singing job. She feels as if a connection has been severed but cannot place where these emotions are coming from. As Véronique explores her life and relationships, she experiences feelings of longing and a sense that there is something beyond her everyday surface experience she must uncover.
In an interview with Kieślowski for a retrospective book on his films he stated… “The realm of superstitions, fortune-telling, presentiments, intuition, dreams, all this is the inner life of a human being, and all this is the hardest thing to film.”
Double Life explores the delicate, interconnected nature of human lives through moments of introspection, sensory experiences, and symbolic imagery. Throughout the narrative, the camera work employs visual metaphors to create an otherworldly atmosphere, inviting the audience to contemplate the mysteries of existence. The use of reflections, camera shots through prisms or glass, skewed angles and literal upside-down inversions of the camera express the sense of another entity perceiving Veronique, as well as Veronique seeing into the beyond. She is aware of this perception but is skeptical of its validity. In the film she is seen looking through windows and mirrors, often breathing on them. These reflections represent the duality and interconnection of the two women and serve as a recurring motif throughout the film, which symbolize both of their emotional depth. Veronique’s breath emphasizes the resonance she is feeling after the death of Weronkia. It is as if she wants to breathe life back into her reflection, her double, the thing she grieves but can’t explain through words. Both women are shown fumbling a with a strand of thread, twisting it around their fingers at times of high emotion. At one-point Veronique stretches the strand over a printout of her EKG result, as if tracing an equivalence between her and Weronika’s lifelines. This symbolizes her questioning of reality and her inner turmoil of identity within her existential dilemma. Her actions and subtle facial expressions combined with intimate framing bring the viewer into the vulnerable state of a women grappling with her existence. Kieślowski’s direction and Irène Jacob’s performances in these scenes are phenomenal. Without any use of dialogue or voice over the audience is plunged into the Veronique’s mind through use of mesmerizing visual compositions that blur the lines between reality and spirituality and emotional voyeurism.
Cinematographer Slawomir Idziak utilizes soft focus, ethereal lighting, and delicate handheld camera movements to create an otherworldly ambiance of a realm where the tangible and intangible intertwine seamlessly. The lighting and color palette evoke these emotions and establish the film's tone. Warm, gold glows signify moments of introspection and emotional depth while cooler tones of green and blue convey a sense of detachment and questioning. Closeup shots capture nuanced facial expressions, effectively conveying the characters' emotionally complex inner turmoil. The deliberate framing of scenes and the choice of camera angles offer unique perspectives. Best exemplified through Weronika’s death on stage, the camera is framed point of view and then falters and drops to ground inviting viewers to interpret and engage with the story on a profound level. The audience becomes Weronika, falls, dies, and then leaves her body floating upside down above the theater crowd as they rush to her lifeless corpse. What stands out is that all the scenes feel natural yet magical all at once. This enhanes the ethereal quality of the narrative and the depth of the characters’ inner life, while elevating the experience for the audience.
The film toys with the viewer, questioning our role in witnessing Veronique, however before the camera can fully engulf her, it pulls back, and allows her to exist as she is there and then. A beautifully simple scene in her apartment exemplifies this, the camera swoops away, floating like a ghost and follows her as she rolls off her bed playfully after reading a book. Leaving the viewer in a state of quasi-intrusion, but in marvel of the beauty in mundane everyday motions. This is a true turn in the story, a sense of wonder is given to the audience, is life just a series feelings, moments and contemplations interrupted by some happenstance flashings of light reflection or sounds from the street that draw our attention away from the inner self reflection, forcing us to exist here and now?
In an essay for the Criterion Collection Jonathan Romeny writes…
“While most events in the film are witnessed or experienced by one of the two heroines, here we cannot be sure who sees these images, or what the filter is that they pass through. At such moments, the film’s precarious realism collapses, and a sense of the mystical or metaphorical imposes itself.” -
As with the majority of Kieślowski’s films he does not offer explicit explanations to the story unfolding. Allowing room for personal interpretation and reflection. In a perplexing scene Véronique receives a mysterious phone call, and an obscured replay of Weronika’s death is seen and heard, dimly through an amorphous body of red-brown light or liquid, as if through a haze or a bubble. Ultimately this scene leaves the viewer offering nothing more than a thoughtprovoking exploration of what their personal feelings are in that moment experiencing the film for themselves.
R.J.A Kilbourn in his essay Kieslowski and Literature writes…
“Kieslowski, like other filmmakers, struggles with putting on the screen what is otherwise unrepresentable. At the same time, he admits to the final failure of the inherently visual medium of film to conjure the figurative or tropological effects that are literature's verbal stock-in-trade.”
Although the Kieslowski may have believed his work did not achieve his perceived goal, the Double Life of Veronique, and the emotional experience it presents is a modern cinematic triumph. Through artfully employed techniques of symbolism and metaphor that convey the dual existence of its protagonist, the narrative, explores complex themes, and invites viewers on a mesmerizing journey into the intertwined lives of its enigmatic characters. The meticulous attention to narrative detail, stunning cinematography and angelic acting this film is a testament to artistic vision and a mastery of visual storytelling. The unfilmable inner workings of the human experience and non-literal emotional depth and mystery of life, the connections held universally by all, truly reside in the interpretations and experiences one perceives. Kieslowski poses questions and provides a world where the viewer will find their own answers.
