update:
BD extras:
Conversation with Kieslowski
Interview with Irène Jacob
‘Kieslowski, Polish Filmmaker’ Documentary
Short Films:
‘The Musicians’ (1958)
‘Factory’ (1970)
‘Hospital’ (1976)
‘Railway Station’ (1980)
Roger Ebert:
It is important to resist the temptation to figure out every last detail of "The Double Life of Veronique," the mysterious and poetic new film by Krzysztof Kieslowski. That way lies frustration.
The parts do not quite fit, and anyway this is not a puzzle to be assembled. It is a romance about those moments we all sometimes have when we think we see ourselves at a distance. Is there, we wonder, more than one me? Why haven't I ever seen a portrait in a gallery that looks exactly like myself - or anyone I know? How would I feel if I did? The movie is about two young women, one named Veronique, one named Veronika, both played by Irene Jacob. They never quite meet, although their paths almost cross one day. One lives in France, the other in Poland. They were born on the same day. They have identical heart problems. They are both wonderful singers. One dies, the other doesn't.
The movie could have been truly confusing if it cut back and forth between the two women, both played by the same actress, but it doesn't. We follow the Polish Veronika until she shockingly collapses during a music recital, and then we pick up the thread on Paris. This is the reverse of what Luis Bunuel once did when he had two different actresses play the same woman interchangeably. With Kieslowski we are also a little confused: Is this the same woman? Did she not really die? We listen for clues. Then we realize there are none. First we saw one woman, now we see the other.
There is a long central section in the film which is a triumph of narrative technique. Veronique receives a tape in the mail. She listens to it, and eventually is able to identify it as the sounds in a train station - a particular station. She has received other clues, from a secret admirer who seems to challenge her to find him. She follows the clues, using enormous ingenuity, but when she finally meets the admirer she is chagrined, because there was nothing there, really, but the game, and somehow she felt there would be truth and illumination at the end of her quest. Perhaps this part of the film is a parable for the puzzle that Kieslowski has set us.
Sometimes I play a game in my life, which consists of returning to an exact place and time and duplicating an exact action.
Here I am again, I think, following my own footsteps. This cafe, on a rainy morning in Paris in the winter. The same waiter, the same order, the same book in my hand. And next year I will do this again.
The problem with these games is that they are locked in time. I can always repeat my action next year, but never last year. I cannot make an appointment in the past. Something like that game is what "The Double Life of Veronique" is about, with the addition that only the filmmaker, only Kieslowski, knows both of the women.
Are they the same woman? No. Why are they so similar? Perhaps because there are only so many differences that are possible.
Why does the second woman seem to feel a fleeting moment of pain when the first one dies? Kieslowski is not interested in the answers to such questions, because they would be meaningless speculations. But the possibility of such connections between lives is infinitely interesting. To think about them is to touch the mystery of consciousness.
When I do think I see myself at a distance, by the way, I never hurry to catch up. What if I were right? What would we say to each other?
Andrzej Wajda's
Katyn (2008) is set to be released in the UK on January 25th. Unlike the SDVD, the film will be presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1. Winner of seven Polish Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Supporting Actress (Danuta Stenka) and Best Cinematography (Pawel Edelman). Courtesy of Artificial Eye.
Variety:
The 1940 massacre by the Soviets of some 15,000 Polish Army officers at Katyn, Russia, reps the hub from which spokes of drama emanate in the WWII epic “Katyn.” First work in five years by Andrzej Wajda, Polish cinema’s leading eminence grise, doesn’t feel like the personal project one might expect from the son of one slain at Katyn. Instead, this plays almost like an academic master class, meticulously exploring the event’s ramifications but only catching full fire at the end. Foreign-language film Oscar nominee did boffo biz domestically last year, and should make a victory lap around arthouses offshore.
Returning to the WWII period of the director’s outstanding early trilogy of “Generation,” “Kanal” and “Ashes and Diamonds,” current pic assumes a typically Wadja-esque dispassionate stance toward the heroes and villains of history. Wadja himself lost his own father in the Katyn massacre at age 14 and lived through the years of Nazi occupation, Soviet repression and unrest as the Solidarity movement led to Poland’s eventual transition to a free-market economy.
Wajda is now a mentor to a new generation of Polish filmmakers, and his interpretation of one of the key tragedies of Polish history takes on for domestic auds the stature of words from a prophet. It’s in this context that one should understand “Katyn’s” local success, reaping more than $14 million on theatrical receipts alone.
Pic’s criss-crossing storylines sympathetically unfold a full spectrum of experiences of those who lived and died during the period covered.
A key strand follows Anna (Maja Ostaszewska), whose story parallels that of Wadja’s mother. It’s 1939 when Anna arrives at the eastern border of Poland in search of her husband Andrzej (Artur Zmijewski), a Polish officer who resists her pleas to run away with her, preferring to stay with his calvary regiment. Having been captured by the invading Soviet army, the regiment is doomed to be shipped east for internment in Russia, where most of them will be killed at Katyn in 1940, per explanation in the opening credits.
Action crosscuts among Anna, Andrzej in the internment camp and other characters: There’s also an interned general (Jan Englert) and his proud wife (Danuta Stenka), who refuses to knuckle under German pressure to participate in their anti-Russian propaganda.
Andrzej’s friend Jerzy (local star Andrzej Chyra) reps one of the few who will survive Katyn, but at the cost of his own soul, as he acquiesces after the war to attribute Katyn to the Nazis, lest the atrocity embarrass the Soviet overlords who were truly responsible. Jerzy’s storyline intersects with that of sisters Agnieszka (Magdalena Cielecka) and Irena (Agnieszka Glinska), who take opposing stances toward the new postwar regime.
Wajda, aided and abetted by co-scribes Wladyslaw Pasikowski and Przemyslaw Nowarkowski, demonstrates a masterful ability to convey plot points, illustrate character and create atmosphere with just a few lines of dialogue and spryly rendered visual brushstrokes. Precision-engineered editing (credited to Milenia Fielder) fluidly moves between time periods and locations, although non-Polish auds may struggle to keep up, especially as some thesps look physically quite similar (Ostaszewska and Stenka, for example, or Zmijewski and Chyra).
Some will admire the general absence of sentimentality, but for others, pic might seem too cold and lacking in emotional punch until the final, flawlessly rendered scene that shows (and this is no spoiler) the massacre itself, a near-mechanical series of shootings that’s a veritable charnel house of horror.
Thesping throughout is of a piece with Wajda’s restraint, and features fine work from all involved. Score by renowned Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki rumbles and sighs with rich poignancy without swamping the action. Other craft contributions are quietly pro, reflecting what must have been a vast budget for a Polish movie.
Camera (color, Panavision widescreen), Pawel Edelman; editor, Milenia Fielder; music, Krzysztof Penderecki; production designer, Kamil Przelecki; art director, Magdalena Dipont; costume designers, Magdalena Bierdrzycka, Andrzej Szenajh; sound (Dolby Digital Surround Ex), Jacek Hamela, Leszek Freund, Marek Wronko; casting, Ewa Brodzka. Reviewed at the Berlin Film Festival (noncompeting), Feb, 15, 2008. Running time: 121 MIN.
Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's
Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle a.k.a
Zidane (2006) is set to be released in the United Kingdom on January 25th. Nominated for Best Documentary at the 2007 Cesar Awards. Courtesy of Artificial Eye.
Variety:
For that narrow cross section of auds passionate about soccer and experimental cinema, docu "Zidane, A 21st Century Portrait" will rep a masterpiece; for everyone else, pleasure will vary depending on individual interest in the sport and/or avant-garde filmmaking. First collaboration between gallery artists Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno studies Real Madrid's French superstar Zinedine Zidane closely during an ordinary league match, capturing in process his extraordinary skill and subjective experience of the game. Pic should score minor B.O. goals from May 24 release in France with the World Cup looming, and fill tiny niches throughout Europe.
Pic was shot on a single day, during a single, not particularly consequential match on April 23, 2005, per subtitles. Footage covers most of the match during its 90-minute running time as Zidane, nickname Zizou, captains Real Madrid against Villareal, observed by 17 cameras, a mix of 35mm and high-def rigs, supervised by ace lenser Darius Khondji ("The Interpreter").
Zidane is seen from various distances, at first through the sort of long, high-angle shots familiar from most TV broadcasts, as Spanish commentators are heard babbling quietly in the background (untranslated by French subtitles). Then, with a huge roar of crowd noise, pic cuts to medium close-ups Zidane as he fields the ball gracefully.
More extreme close-ups zoom in on his feet or torso at times, while views from cameras positioned at the very top of the stadium afford a bird's eye view of the match.
Highlights include a showboat pass from the corner by Zidane to Ronaldo that scores a goal in the first half, and Zidane getting a red card for a foul. Zidane is considered one of the very best in the game today, a fact sports fans will be able to appreciate from footage seen here.
On another level, pic offers an audiovisual portrait of a 21st century icon in a new millennium way, one that could easily play galleries. Helmers Gordon (who won Blighty's Turner Prize in 1996) and Parreno's claim in press notes that they are drawing on a tradition stretching back to the classical painting and through to Andy Warhol holds water.
However, those who come seeking a traditional docu about the sport or Zidane will be sorely disappointed.
Prose is restricted to subtitles that run across the screen occasionally, quoting from an interview with Zizou about his thoughts on the game and personal memories. Closest equivalent in recent memory would be Claire Denis' docu "Vers Mathilde," about the dancer Mathilde Monnier.
Pic reaped a spectrum of reactions at projection caught, ranging from rapt fascination to irritated boredom and ankling. Reception from non-fest auds likely to be just as mixed.
Camera (color, widescreen, HD-to-35mm), Darius Khondji; editor, Herve Schneid; music, Mogwai; sound (Dolby Digital), Tom Johnson; supervising sound editor, Selim Azzazi. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (non-competing), May 23, 2006. Running time: 91 MIN.
Pro-B
