The Double Life of Veronique
La Double Vie de Véronique
Podwojne zycie Weroniki
Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski
Written by Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Cinematography by Slavomir Idziak
Original Score by Zbigniew Preisner, based on the Concerto in E minor of Van den Budenmayer
Running time: 98min
Languages: Polish and French (available with English subtitles)
Year of Release: 1991
Cast (selected)
Irene Jacob as Veronika/Véronique
Wladyslaw Kowalski as Veronika's father
Jerzy Gudejko as Antek
Halina Gryglaszewska as Veronika's aunt
Janusz Sterninski in a cameo as a lawyer
Claude Duneton as Véronique's father
Philippe Volter as Alexandre Fabbri
Synopsis
Weronika, in Poland, is a young woman who has the unsettling feeling that she is incomplete. During a visit to her aunt in Krakow, she sits in on a rehearsal of Van den Budenmayer's choral concerto, and is invited to audition for the soprano solo. She wins the part, but in the middle of the concert falls over, dead. The film then shifts to Paris, where a young woman, Veronique attends a puppet show about a ballerina who breaks her ankle, dies, and comes back to life with wings. At this show, Veronique is struck with a feeling she describes to her father as in love with someone she does not know, the puppeteer, Alexandre. When they finally meet up, Alexandre casts doubts on the sincerity of his interest in her, admitting that she may have been a test case for the believability of a scenario he is writing.
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