La Double Vie de Véronique (1991)

La Double Vie de Véronique (1991)
Directed by: Krzysztof Kieślowski

A haunting piece of cinema driven by one of the greatest soundtracks ever composed for the screen. La Double Vie De Véronique is a bridge between Dekalog and Kieślowski's three colours trilogy.

There is no reason to question the central themes that run along beside this dramatic storyline; a free thinking Polish girl who sacrifices her life for the music she performs is contrasted with her French doppelganger as she too indulges in a journey of self discovery. These key aspects of the script undergo a great deal of experimentation by the crew in preparation for the director’s most famous works that came shortly afterward.

However, the film is so much more than a trial, treading water before the tableux conceptions in Three Colours Blue or the playful feats of language explored in Three Colours White. La Double Vie de Véronique is a bittersweet tale of love, anguish and identity across Europe. Kieślowski breaks away from The Cinema of Moral Concern, which was dealt with so thoroughly by other Polish directors such as Andrzej Wajda, and paves the way for his own unique blend of colour, drama and composition.

Zbigniew Preisner is one of my favourite contemporary composers, and it was while working with Kieślowski that his work was most delicately utilized. His exquisite melodies play a dominating role in the majority of Kieślowski's later work, demonstrating one of the most accomplished collaborations in European cinema to date.