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Even though one can view each segment of Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy on its own, it seems absurd to do so; why buy the slacks instead of the entire suit? Created by Kieslowski and his writing partner Krzysztof Piesiewicz for France's bicentennial, the titles--and the themes of the films--come from the three colors of the French flag representing liberty, equality, and fraternity. Blue examines liberation through the eyes of a woman (Juliette Binoche) who loses her husband and daughter in an auto accident, and solemnly starts anew. White is an ironic comedy about a befuddled Polish husband (Zbigniew Zamachowski) who takes an odd path of revenge against his ex-wife (Julie Delpy). A Swiss model (Irène Jacob) strikes up a friendship with a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who eavesdrops on his neighbors in Red. The trilogy is a snapshot of European life at a time of reconstruction after the Cold War, reflected through Kieslowski's moralist view of human nature and illumined by each title's palate color.

The DVD set has numerous extras spread throughout the three discs; the end result is a superior collection. Each disc has a short retrospective, culled together from new interviews with Kieslowski's crew, plus film critic Geoff Andrew, biographer Annette Insdorf (who also does the commentaries), and fellow Polish director Ageniska Holland. Producer Marin Karmitz also reminisces about the experience. There's an exceptional effort to show the magic of Kieslowski (who died two years after the trilogy) through a discussion of his various career phases, interviews with the three lead actresses, four student films, and archival materials including simple--and wonderful--glimpses of the director at work. Excellent insight is also provided by Dominique Rabourdin's filmed "cinema lessons" with Kieslowski. Without viewing any of his other films, this set illustrates the uniqueness of Kieslowski. --Doug Thomas ... Read more

Reviews (45)

One of the GREATEST trilogy ever made!!!
This is just beautiful, beautiful master film making from one of the best director of films of any country (Kieslowski). The movies are rightly understated, smart and well crafted. I highly suggest watching them in order BLUE, WHITE, and RED and watch how things just comes perfectly together in RED. Kieslowski excellent use of music in BLUE is nothing short of amazing and is also acts and an unseen character. Plus Juliette Binoche is amazing to watch. She is extremely convincing as a woman in real grief. White starring another well known French actress, Julie Delpy and polish actor Zbigniew Zamachowski is more comedic and the actor plots his revenge on his French ex-wife and then there is the magnificent of Red starring Irene Jacob, as a young model who discovers an ex-judge has been listening on the conversation of those around him. I don't speak a lick of french and the films are in French with English subtitle, but after awhile, you will forget you are reading and become engrossed in just good story tellling. It is not for those who are looking for the type of drama, we here in America are use to, but this is CLEARLY the best foreign films ever made. I recommend this only for older audiences (over 25) probably over 30. There may be a few younger folks who may get into this, but this film is for people who appreciate a nicely even, perhaps slow paced film. I am not trying to be an elitist, far from it. I wish that everyone would view these films for themselves because they are crafted so well and the filming is so smart. The colors represent the color AND meaning of the colors of the French flag. I was sooooo excited when they FINALLY realeased these films on DVD. For you true film fans out there, this is a must own collection.

Visually engaging
The RED, WHITE and BLUE trilogy refers to the colors of the French flag. This must be a declaration of patriotism or admiration from the films' director, Krzysztof Kieslowski, since the various storylines mostly take place outside France. Go figure.

In BLUE, Julie (Juliette Binoche) mentally recuperates from the loss of her family in an auto accident, of which she was the only survivor. In WHITE, Karol (Zbigniew Zamachowski) emotionally recovers from a humiliating divorce and shabby treatment by his ex. In RED, Valentine (Irene Jacob) copes after injuring a dog with her car.

Though each film is a complete story in itself, BLUE and WHITE must be viewed before RED. At RED's conclusion, a most improbable happenstance brings together the major characters of all three films. The trilogy's lesson appears to be that life is a series of coincidences, and the potential for personal growth from any connection between one or more individuals is a mine of great richness if one cares to work it. Humans are reputed to be a social species. However, the set is perhaps best appreciated by a "people person", who relishes the interaction of daily encounters whether random or not. I'm not that sort (much to my wife's perpetual disgust), so my regard for the series is somewhat muted.

RED, WHITE and BLUE also make the point that there's commonality in the experiences of varied individuals. In each film, the major character observes an old person struggling to insert an empty bottle into the elevated aperture of a large, curbside container for recyclables. Only in RED does the protagonist (Valentine) give assistance. Perhaps the director had more in mind here, but it only indicated to me that Valentine was the more generous and less self-absorbed of the three, and, on a larger scale, that reaction to a set stimulus is not uniform among individuals.

I recognize the ability of the trilogy to inspire opinionated discussion, which, as long as it doesn't degenerate into name-calling and fisticuffs, is a swell thing, especially over pizza and beer. I liked the series for its visuals - it continually held my interest - but I'm not such a deep thinker as to regard it as the Greatest Cinematic Achievement Ever. Sometimes, I think, symbology can be overwrought to the point of detriment. And, as I'm beginning to sound pretentious, I'll stop here.

A work of art
to correct a correction in the review from the lady in texas, Juliette Binoche loses her daughter in Blue, not Red.

A must have.
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Enthralling
It's amazing that the editorial review from amazon.com should have a mistake, albeit small, regarding the first film of the trilogy. In Red, Juliette Binoche loses her daughter Anna..not her son according to the review. I emphasize this because detail is very important in Bleu, Blanc, Rouge. If you pay attention and put all three movies together, you will understand something about the trilogy that you most probably didn't catch the first time watching it.

I highly recommend this collection in particular because firstly, it's complete. Secondly, the quality is amazing. And thirdly, all three movies can be seen separately but in watching and rewatching the three together, I keep rediscovering the beauty of Kieslowski's work and appreciate it far more than when I first fell in love with it 7 years ago. I highly recommend it to any aficionado of true cinema. ... Read more

Reviews (37)

A fitting nihilistic end
A very dissapointing finale to the trilogy, Rouge stars another beautiful woman (Irene Jacob), this time as a model named Valentine. Thru the circumstance of hitting a dog and trying to find its owner, she comes to meet a retired judge who keeps track of his neighbours' phone calls with surveillance equipment.

My dissapointment with Red is that it has a potentially ground-breaking movie in this idea. In a pivotal scene, the judge responds to Valentine's confrontation over the surveillance by pointing out to her that helping the people she hears on his equipment may not be as simple as she thinks, and that sometimes one would do better to listen.

The movie could have taken this and make Valentine realize it more fully. Instead, it vindicates Valentine in her unformed and irrational disgust, tells us that judgment and even reality are arrogant illusions, and in its conclusion paints the judge as a traumatized, fragile soul in need of repentance. A fitting nihilistic end for a director who wanted to get to work destroying human values. While he does so intelligently, adroitly and subtly in Blue and White, here his enterprise fails.

You can actually feel your heart lifting as you watch it.
'Red' is the most magical of the 'Three Colours' trilogy, one in which metamorphosis or spiritual transformation is central. 'Blue' and 'White' could never be confused with social realism, but both were true to the inner, poetic reality of their protagonists. This isn't the case with 'Red' - none of its four main characters can be said to dominate the film: although there is definitely a controlling consciousness, it's not clear whose it is. As always with Kieslowski, the film's first sequence sets out its strategies in miniature. On an unexceptial Genevan (NOT Parisian!) street, the camera picks out one character and his dog, abandons them to peer into the bedroom of its heroine, Valentine, a student and model with a jealous boyfriend we hear but never see, who is working in England. Despite the technical virtuosity of this one-shot sequence, this opening could be considered realistic: we are introduced to characters and their environment. But there are two details that work against this. The heroine lives above a cafe called Chez Joseph, which also happens to be the name of the film's anti-hero, the misanthropic ex-judge Kern, who eavesdrops on his neighbour's telephone conversations by radio. This is only the first of the film's many patterned coincidences which take us out of psychological realism into a different kind of storytelling (the cafe sign is in red which will similarly, anti-realistically, be splashed throughout the film).

The second detail is that the heroine is not introduced by her self, in person, but by her voice on the answering machine. Immediately we have a split within selves, between the present and the absent, that proliferates in this film of doubles, shadows and correspondances. Not only do characters mirror others, but individual characters see their identities diffused through different media (telephones, photographs, newspapers, TV, radio etc.), means of mechanical reproduction which assume a fetishstic or spiritual power. Despite its apparent realism, then, 'Red' is a work of magic or fantasy. When Valentine first enters Kern's dark, dank bungalow (a modern Plato's cave), having run over his dog, the camera takes on the sinister point-of-view familiar from slasher films, while the bleeping radio sounds announcing the judge seem like the laboratory appurtenances of a mad professor. In the second, more important meeting, the fact that Valentine is crossing thresholds into a magic realm is doubly signalled. The gate and dooorway is guarded by the mythical dog who brought the pair toghter, by way of a church. Before she enters, a wind suddenly shivers the leaves of a framing tree; later, at the moment we are supposed to hate him for his moral nihilism, Kern summons a blinding epiphany of sunlight. He may be a monster, but in his 'eavesdropping' on others, his making connections between disparate, disorganised lives and his creating consoling fictions in the face of tragedy, Kern is a substitute for both director and viewer. In the figure of the young judge, who seems to exactly replay the older man's life (both of whom are never seen in the same scene), we have that haunting Proustian conflation of past, present and future, the outer world and inner life, that Kieslowski strove for, but didn't quite catch, in 'Blue'.

'Red' is the most sympathetic of all the films in the 'Three Colours' trilogy. Perhaps this is because red is a warmer colour than blue or white. Or because Preisner's score is lusher, almost celebratory, close to Maurice Jarre. Maybe it's because Irene Jacob is a much more open, generous actress than her predecessors - like her name and colour, Valentine seems to irradiate love. Sometimes her innocence is too ideal to be true, and we find ourselves much more drawn to the fascinatingly ambiguous, charismatic, persuasive figure of the judge. Their stagy dialogues could have had the banal quality of Shavian dialectic if it wasn't for the metatextual patterns that cast shadows around the coherence of their words, shadows that make the film at once soul-soaring and unforgivingly bleak - is salvation of the few really worth the deaths of thousands?

A portrait in scarlet
Despite being the finale of the critically acclaimed "Colors" trilogy, "Red" ("Rouge") need not be seen after the similarly beloved "Blue" ("Bleu") and "White" ("Blanc"). As warm and rich as the shades of red scattered through it, this film is one of the most compelling non-American releases in years.

On her way home from a modelling session, Valentine (Irene Jacob) accidently runs over and injures a pregnant dog. The owner is Joseph Kern, (Jean-Louis Trintignant) an embittered, cynical ex-judge whose years of condemnation and acquittal have left him spiritually adrift. He now spends his time alone in his house, wiretapping the phones of his neighbors and predicting what will happen in their lives.

After Valentine expresses disgust at Joseph's activities, he turns himself in to the authorities. Their friendship grows into a bond of differing values and unhappy histories. As Valentine prepares to leave for England, the judge reveals the tragic circumstances of his early life -- a tragedy mirrored by some of the people he has been spying on.

Where "Blue" was cool and sensual and "White" was sharp and sexy, "Red" has a sweetness and richness to its story. Valentine's name suggests love, and that love -- a platonic friendship that teeters on romantic love -- brings Joseph back from his unhealthy cynicism. Her kindness and unhappiness appeal to him, reassuring him that people are not intrinsically bad. His spiritual transformation is subtle, but convincing; it's mirrored by the sun shining down on him near the film's end.

Few filmmakers could pull off the symbolism that springs up in any of the "Colors" movies. In this one, red springs up everywhere -- walls, glasses, jeeps, lipstick, clothing, phones, bowling balls, little lights lining a model runway. The most obvious example is the enormous red picture of Valentine that's put up over the city.

The writing is simple but profound, with immense weight on simple statements like "Why don't you do anything?" or "You deserve to die!" Perhaps the only questionable part of the movie is the way it draws together characters from "White" and "Blue." It's either strained or genius -- hard to tell which.

Jacob does an excellent job with the difficult character of Valentine. She's almost too nice and innocent to be real, the incarnation of all that is good, but Jacob makes her come to life; without a word, she can convey a wealth of emotion with her face. Trintignant has a harder job: he has to bring across the weary, existentialist judge without making him unsympathetic. And he does so astoundingly.

In the French flag, red stands for fraternity. Not necessarily in the sense of brothers or college pals, but rather a love for one's fellow man. And that sense of fraternity is what drives "Red."

"I feel something important is happening around me."
"Red," the final entry in Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Three Colors" trilogy, raises the stakes in terms of storytelling by adding a metaphysical twist to the proceedings. So profound is this twist that it immediately makes you regard the previous two entries in a different light as it turns out there is tighter connection to the three films than previously thought. On its own, "Red" is an enjoyable viewing experience, but when regarded as part of a larger tapestry, it becomes a genuinely intriguing work of creative art.

A fashion model named Valentine (Irene Jacob) accidentally hits a dog while driving one night. She takes it to its owner, a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who has a bad habit of eavesdropping on the conversations of others. Even though Valentine and the judge come from different worlds, the two of them start to develop a bond between them. One day the judge tells Valentine of a relationship he was in earlier in his life that ended on a painful note. In a strange twist of fate, the lives of two young lovers named Auguste (Jean-Pierre Lorit) and Karin (Frederique Feder) start to unfold in an eerily-similar fashion to that of the judge and his lover thirty years ago. Valentine herself then becomes part of destiny's game when she boards a passenger barge.

There's a fascinating connection between the three "Three Colors" films in the character of an elderly lady who struggles to put an empty bottle into a recycling bin. While the character appears to be nothing significant in "Blue" (1993) and "White" (1994), Valentine's interaction with her in "Red" redefines the events of the earlier films. In this respect, it is very important to watch the three films in the proper sequence in order to appreciate just how much of a role fate plays in the lives of the trilogy characters. In the acting department, "Red" is blessed with outstanding performances with Jacob being especially radiant in her part. Even though the character she plays is essentially a passive participant in destiny's web, Valentine never loses her place as the emotional and dramatic core of the film thanks to the talented Jacob. She ably brings Kieslowski's trilogy to a thought-provoking and unique conclusion.

History repeats it's self..only this time ..She exists.
one of my all-time best movies ..a film that's worthy to watch over and over for it's richness in story , direction , acting and a wonderfull Sound track by Zbigniew Preisner that would certainly impact You..About the movie ,that paranormal atmosphere within the relationships of the characters in that movie gives it such an enigmatic feel with a surprising end ...for you'll figure out some how that it's a story about fate and history that almost repeats it's self..( a complex linking ) but this time..that gentle pretty young woman exists to change that history repeating it's self with her fate.................. ... Read more

Reviews (57)

A brilliant shade of "Blue"
Director Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Blue" is the first of a trilogy of films which take their title from the colors of the french flag (blue, white, and red) and their theme from the French motto of "liberty, equality, fraternity." In this achingly beautiful interpretation, liberty comes as the result of loss.

The film opens in a shroud of bluish fog, as Julie (Juliette Binoche), her husband Patrice and their young daughter are on a car trip. Because of the fog, the Alfa Romeo continues to go straight when the road curves, and the car collides with a tree. Only Julie survives.

Although her bandages and bruises disappear rather quickly, Julie's emotions take much longer to heal. The rest of the movie is an eloquent, moving look at how she deals with the aftermath of her loss, from the seemingly trivial annoyance of finding mice in her new apartment to the discovery that her husband had kept a mistress for years.

She tries to repress her emotions by freeing herself from her past: she sells the contents of her country estate and moves to a small apartment in a section of Paris where no one knows her, signing the lease with her maiden name. All she brings with her, besides books and clothes, is a chandelier of dripping blue crystals, a prism which refracts the past.

As one would guess from the title, the color blue washes over this movie, tinting it with melancholy. But more striking than the film's use of color is its music. Patrice was a famous composer who was writing a concerto to celebrate the unification of Europe at the time of his death. Although Julie destroys his notes after his death, his secretary had made a copy and sent it to his partner, Olivier (Benoit Regent), who is now working to complete the unfinished symphony.

Throughout the movie, whenever Julie's emotions well up within her, strains of the concerto flood the movie -- the screen goes black so the viewer, too, focuses only on the music, which seems to express at once both the anguish and release that Julie feels.

Through Kieslowski's cinematography and Binoche's subtle facial expressions, the viewer is immersed in the understated emotion of the film -- an immersion that does not end when the credits roll, for the film leaves a few issues unresolved that make it, like its main character, such a captivating enigma. END

Unique Blue
Blue by Krzysztof Kieslowski is one of those movies that you have to be in the right mood to watch it, in order to better understand it and like it. The story is not as simple as it seems to be. Julie looses her husband and a little daughter in a car accident, she sells their house and everything they had, and dissapears. Of course, life and death themes are inseperable from all Kieslowki's movies, but this one goes deeper than his other ones. Blue shows how unexpected things happen to everybody, how, most of the time, we are lost in our lives, and how nothing is predictible. Blue is about love, different kinds of love; about hate, about all those feeling we have inside us, but hardly ever talk about. Blue can be a sad story, and make you depress, or if you watch it from another perspective it will have a positive effect on you. That is what makes this movie so unique- each time you try to analyze it, you will discover something new, because it has so many different meanings. Simply fascinating! Juliette Binoche's acting is wonderful. Zbigniew Preisner's music is breathtaking. Blue is a real masterpiece!

Elegant philosophical exploration
The most obvious association we have with blue is depression. In the three colours of the French Republic, blue stands for freedom. Trois Couleurs : Bleu is about both. More precisely, it is an exploration of what personal freedom means, and if we can find it in a social context where we cannot live without relationships.

The female character of Bleu is Julie (played by Juliette Binoche), who is part of a car accident where her husband and daughter both die. The husband was a famous composer, and was working on a piece for the European Union's inauguration : his co-worker is in love with her and becomes her very temporary lover. As in "The Sweet Hereafter", the accident is not a focal point made to display special effects, but a motor of narrative. Julie desires to start a new life where she has no more links to anything.

While it is laudable to once again see a moral balance being drawn, it is tiring to see how much movie-makers want to make their characters start from a position of over-independence, instead of over-dependence. About a Boy is another good example. Nevertheless, Blue provides an elegant philosophical exploration of the same issues, superior in most ways to the latter movie.

In some ways it is also spiritual : not only in the beautiful esthetics of the movie or how it shows the interconnections people's lives, but it is also hard not to compare Julie's attempts at complete detachment with the most moderate eschewing of attachment as proposed by Buddhist doctrine (indeed, the ending of Bleu could be interpreted as supporting this moderate view).

Kieslowski's "Blue" period
Blue is the color of sadness and depression. And "Blue" ("Bleu") is the first film in the celebrated Colors trilogy by Krzysztof Kieslowski. Accompanying the rich "Red" ("Rouge") and sharp "White" ("Blanc"), this is a beautiful and haunting look at grief and getting past it.

Julie de Courcy (Juliette Binoche) and her family are in a car accident when their brakes fail. Julie is injured, but her composer husband and their daughter die. She can't bring herself to commit suicide, but neither can she just go home and get over it. So instead she leaves her palatial house in the country after a night with her husband's old friend Olivier (Benoît Régent), who has been in love with her for years.

Julie arrives in Paris with nothing but a blue cut-glass lampshade, takes back her maiden name, rents an apartment, and tries to leave her old life behind. Though she says she doesn't want love or friends (because they are "traps"), she befriends a promiscuous young woman and is pulled back to Olivier when he starts to finish her husband's unfinished work. In turn, Olivier reveals to her the side of her husband she never knew -- the other woman he loved.

The Colors trilogy is based on the colors of the French flag: Blue, white and red, standing respectively for liberty, equality, and fraternity. In this, Julie is unconsciously seeking liberty from her past life and her grief. This grief is shown beyond mere tears and unhappiness. She rakes her knuckles over a rough wall, rips off a strand off the hanging lampshade, as little ways of showing her inner turmoil. At the same time, the revelations about Julie's husband raises questions about their marriage and about Julie herself.

The powerful music celebrating the EU pops up periodically, often when Julie experiences strong emotion. At times, the screen goes dark, and the overwhelming, soaring symphony is all you can detect. And as Kieslowski does in "White" and "Red," this film is sprinkled with color and symbolism. Blue crops up in little dancing bars of light on Julie's face, in her clothing, a swimming pool, in rain-slicked windows, a misty blue morning and a lollipop.

This may be Binoche's best performance. Her expressive eyes and subtle facial expressions convey every tormented or peaceful emotion that Julie feels. One of the best shots in the entire movie is the final one, in which we see Julie, unhappy and tearful, slowly starting to smile. (She also is shown weeping underwater, something I've never seen before) Régent seems rather colorless beside Binoche's reverberating performance, but his quiet, sweet Olivier is an underrated character.

A harrowing, beautiful and ultimately romantic film, "Blue" brims over with pathos and beautiful direction. A true piece of cinematic art.

A film about human connection
The film can be seen in different levels, beautifully acted by the Juliet Binoche. It has great piece of cinematography, and use of lights to portray emotions and state of mind.
On one level, the film is about a woman, in early 30s, lost her husband (a renowned composer) and her child in an accident. Devastated by the loss, she tried to deny her past and shelved herself in solitary existence. She occasionally tested herself, to test her capacity to feel, with failure, desperate to forget his past, left her family house, instructed her attorney to make arrangement to sell the house, and settled in a small, cozy parisan apartment. She lived in her apartment, away from everybody. Her only contacts to the world was her mother an Alzheimer patient, living in an old age home. A live contrast with her present situation, when she is trying to forget her past, her mother, an Alzheimer patient living with a permanent oblivious memory. She eventually comes back to accept her existence through series of events that unfolds. In another plane the film is about connection. One is living so long he/she can connect to his/her surroundings. In the café, when she listens to the tune of the flutist, which he claimed to invent alone, the tune which is similar to composition that her husband was working, immediately connects her to her husband, her loss and present state of mind. This was beautifully displayed by niece piece of cinematography, as lights and shades goes warmer and warmer, when she started connecting the tune to herself. There are similar pieces in the story, which again forces her to connect to her world, her associations and so forth. The theme was nicely projects in the last scene, when the images of the different characters, association passed floating on the screen. These connections allowed her to rejuvenate the will to live. Kieslowski's various other movies, like RED, Double Life of Veronica, centered around this theme of strange human connections, not very obvious, but in certain metaphysical plane. In this context his films actually took a flight in a spiritual plane. The meaning of human existence is in connection with the surroundings. It can transcends the life from pain and sufferings. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

QUIXOTIC OBSESSIONS
For the late Krzysztof Kieslowski, celebrated director of RED, WHITE, and BLUE, life is an undivine comedy--and film-making a far stranger farce. No doubt that the absurdities that this Pole faced througout his life afforded him a peculiar brand and blend of pessimism, humanism, and humour which informs his works.In CAMERA BUFF, originally entitled AMATOR in Polish with the implication on the word amateur, the film-maker is Filip, a factory worker. He acquiresan 8 mm camera with the intention of filming his daughter's development. This biographic projects soon develops into other things, such as bearing witness to the society around him. It comes to a point where the authorities cautions him in his filmic projects. Filip's double life takes over and he is slowly becomes isolated from his family and friends. In the end Filip finally faces up to his obsessions. What began as a humourous movie about obsessive cinephilia turns and, later, totalitarian film-making, doubles back into a study of human vulnerablity. Filip's final gesture is revisited by Kieslowski, the man behind the camera, in a scene towards the end of of his last movie RED. The autobiographical is not far away from Kieslowski's meditation on politics and art. Kieslowski started out as a documentarist. Once, it turns out that he may have recorded a murderer stuffing her victim's dead body in a train locker. When the authorities seized the cameras for his documentary, it turns out that the event was not filmed. In addition, Kieslowski offers fragments of a documentary in CAMERA BUFF. This documentary within the movie was once a potential project but was turned down by the censors. Kieslowski not only relates to his characters, the 'not fulfilled' as one commentator puts it, but may be populated by his echoes, shades or twins. Actual incidents and personages intrude upon the fictional world. Stories get repeated with slight variations. Lives are lived simultaneously in different parts of the world. Some are born too soon or too late, depending upons one's point of view, but all are after the same things in life.Kieslowski is a moralist film-maker andhe eschews a heavy-handed moralism for a compassionate world view. No one is entirely evil and we must understand them, he would suggest. And so his characters may seem lost and clueless, but in the end Kieslowski offers them a sense of ambigious redemption and release. Their lives and ours are part of a human comedy afterall. ... Read more

Reviews (28)

BEAUTIFUL AND HAUNTING
Irene Jacob stars in the dual role of Veronika, a Polish singer with a heart condition, and Veronique, a French puppeteer, who has some inexplicable connection this Polish version of herself. It is an interesting exploration of Veronique's life after Veronika dies, and of how Veronique feels a profound sense of loss at the death of her twin. This film was directed by Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski just before he made his Bleu, Blanc, Rouge trilogy. While this film is a bit oblique and hard to follow at times, it is worthwhile for its dark and fascinating subject matter and the sensual treatment of the scenery and characters. Also notable is the gorgeous soundtrack by frequent Kieslowski collaborator Zbigniew Preisner.

Surreal and too beautiful. Don't miss it.
Surreal and too beautiful.

To say this is 'one of the most beautiful movies and Kieslowski is a genius' is stating the obvious. It is a dream and ... who else to dream about, other than the beautiful Irene Jacob!

Irene herself is a dream in this movie as she portrays two gifted look-alike musicians, sharing the names Veronique (in France) and Weronika (in Poland). They share the same ill-health, destiny and sadness. And they share an unknown effect on each other's life, despite being worlds apart. The inexplicable depression that Veronique feels when Weronika dies while performing on a stage, makes you ponder 'whether in my life I too wasn't depressed for some or other inexplicable reasons?' 'Is there another I somewhere concerned about me?' 'Is that why I was sad during that time?' 'Is someone else sharing my sorrows being somewhere in this world?' 'Will I meet him/her sometime? Somewhere?' Yes, unanswerable questions, inexplicable feelings and surrealistic thoughts. That sums up this movie.

There is an excellent sub-plot too, a puppet and its master. It is very symbolic and highly metaphorical. I still don't think I understood it properly. The music is haunting. Like the violin in "Un Couer en Hiver", Veronique's vocal music stikes chord with you. It is enchanting and sad at the same time. Close your eyes and you are drowned in dreams!

Irene Jacob is dreamy and natural, aimless, sympathetic, gorgeous, child-like innocent and sexy at the same time. She definitely deserves all the awards for her stunning double role.

'La double vie de Veronique' comes out with flying colours when compared with Kieslowski's much acclaimed colour trilogy (White, Blue and Red). Watch this movie seriously, you will enjoy it. Thank you Kieslowski!

"Double Life," twice the beauty
One of Krzysztof Kieslowski's finest films is "The Double Life of Veronique" ("La Double vie de Véronique"). It's not just a philosophical, arty film, but a subtle and unique tale full of Kieslowski's directorial magic, and gives Irène Jacob a chance to shine in her most challenging role.

There are two women, the Polish Weronika and the French Veronique (both played by Irène Jacob). They have never met, never spoken, and do not know that the other exists. They share the same losses and the same health. Weronika is a singer, and Veronique is taking singing lessons. But their lives and souls are bound together, and their personalities are yin-yang opposites, one practical and one a stargazer.

What is more, each has the strange feeling that she is, somehow, not alone in the world. One night, Weronika dies onstage while singing. Suddenly in France, Veronique is stricken with a strange feeling, and stops taking her lessons. Weronika has died, but she still lives. Soon she begins to explore, searching for the truth about her double life, and a strange puppeteer who somehow is a link between both girls.

"Double Life of Veronique" is one of those rare films that just begs to be analyzed. Is it about being puppets in some enormous scheme of things? About fate? Sacrifice? Love? One woman's soul in two bodies? Political symbolism? Or is it simply about some mysterious dimension of the spiritual? The symbols and metaphors can be unwound any which way, and in the end they all work. Even the ending is ambiguous -- is it happy, or sad?

Krzysztof Kieslowski's direction is impeccable. His use of light and shadow, and the atmospheric music, make "Double Life" practically a work of art. He dots "Double Life" with plenty of little hints about the inner states of the characters. The stars and leaves, for example, hint at the personalities of Weronika and Veronique -- one a dreamer, one down-to-earth. Kieslowski also used a minimalist approach to dialogue, often using pauses and silence that speak louder than the ordinary words.

At times this film seems like a love letter on film to Irène Jacob. Not only is she followed constantly by the camera, but her character is difficult but rewarding. Jacob shines without really seeming to, with the emotion and wonder of a small child in an adult body. Philippe Volter's aura of mystery adds to his excellent acting in his too-brief scenes. Unfortunately, few of the other characters are given much dimension -- the whole focus is on Weronika and Veronique.

This bewitching tale of love, loss, and interconnected souls winds a spell around this film. Interpret it as you will. Kieslowski's "Double Life of Veronique" is exquisite.

Unforgettable
Some movies inexplicably stick to your mind and make you return to them over and over again. Just like "Unbearable lightness of being" this movie posses that quality. Nothing much happens in it. But little that does touches you in a very personal and emotional way. Beautiful, quiet masterpiece of a brilliant director. Definate must see for anyone who likes European cinema.
Red, White and Blue are also wonderful movies by the same director.

Veronique - a work of great beauty and mystery
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Perhaps there is a double life in each of us. The life we lead and the life we might have led.

In this superbly crafted film the late director Kielowski poses a series of questions about why we became who we are.

it seems that ultimately we are creatures subject to the vagaries of fate, destiny and random chance.

Irene Jacob is simply superb in the dual-role lead.

Director Kielowski was at his probing, questioning best as he mapped out this journey that compels us until the very end.

"La Double Vie de Veronique"is a film more about suggestion than substance.

Like life itself, it hints at mysteries for which there are no answers.

"La Double Vie de Veronique" is art of a high order.

FIVE STARS for the sheer beauty and mystery of it. ... Read more