The Double Life of Véronique

The Double Life of Véronique is a 1991 film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. The director is number two on the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound Top Ten Directors list of modern times.

The film concerns parallel characters: Weronika, a Polish choir soprano, and her double, Véronique, a French music teacher. The two women do not know each other, and yet they share a bond that transcends their separateness. It's a beautiful film and explores ideas of identity and love and connection.

I watched it at Hulu when they offered it free, but it's now behind their subscription paywall. You can watch this movie online at Veoh.com here.

This is the opening scene:

Slant Magazine gives it 4 out of 5 stars and calls it "a poetic overture on the power of senses and sensibilities." The BBC highlights Irene Jacob's starring performance: "It won the Best Actress gong at Cannes for Irène Jacob's delectable dual performance". It's included in the book 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

DVD Talk praises it and says, "The movie digs into its viewer and takes root, and it will draw you back again and again. The more you watch it, the more you will like it". A different reviewer at DVD Talk writing 5 years after the first reviewer says, "Every viewing of The Double Life of Veronique enriches one's appreciation of the beauty, mystique, and profound depth residing within Krzysztof Kieslowski's construction."

Roger Ebert considers it a "Great Movie" and opens his review with this:

Here is a film about a feeling. Like all feelings, it is one that can hardly be described in words, although it can be evoked in art. It is the feeling that we are not alone, because there is more than one of us. We are connected at a level far, far beneath thought. We have no understanding of this. It is simply a feeling that we have.

Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 85% and an audience rating of 92%.