The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, October 5-11
The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski
A psychic, euphoric film, Kieslowski’s French-Polish story has a rudimentary plot, yet it leaves you with the utmost clarity and exhilaration in the midst of a nebulous world. It expresses the feelings and states of mind of two women, Weronika and Véronique (both incomparably portrayed by the serene, porcelain Irene Jacob), who live similar lives, look identical, but have never met, though they are profoundly and unavoidably connected. The director contains his metaphors of sky and earth, heaven and hell, love and death, through visceral tones of green, red, and gold—evoking the paintings of Edward Hopper.
The film is designed to make us fall in love with the stunning face on screen, from the first shot of Weronika singing in the rain, to the last of Véronique caressing a tree. A then practically unknown Jacob delivers a delicate, unblemished performance. Few but Kieslowski could execute such a film; though it welcomes analysis, it spigots ethereal sensuality and a universal human understanding. A finespun balance of candor and complexity, Véronique confronts the nameless, the invisible, the dark matter surrounding all of us and the inevitability that we’re all banded together via life, and via death. Samantha Vacca (October 7, 7pm at the Museum of the Moving Image’s Kieslowski retrospective)