allyatherton Starring Irene JacobDirected by Krzysztof KieslowskiWritten by Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof PiesiewiczImagine if each of us is matched somewhere in the world, by our exact double - someone to share our thoughts and dreams.I loved this one. It is quirky, different and beautifully shot. There are no car chases or murderers on the run, just a wonderfully crafted and mesmerizing movie. It's a work of art as much as it is a movie and it had me glued to the screen. This was right up my alley, it's just the kind of oddball, quirky thing that I enjoy.Brilliantly acted by Irene Jacob and she is incredibly beautiful as well. I can't praise this enough. I must watch more foreign movies, especially directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski.Mesmerizing 10/10

fanbaz-549-872209 The idea that we all have a double is as old as the hills and as old as that metaphor. Buy one get one free. Irene Jacob is given plenty of footage to show what she is made of. Nudity is right there in the first five minutes. But apart from that and some fine camera work there isn't much to hang on to. Soft porn to lift the tired plot left me cold from the start. Others love this kind of movie. It has all sorts of mysteries and what's going on here moments that passed for movie making when this film was made. It seemed like new ground to some but it wasn't. Just the same old tricks in another box. One scene sums it up. One of the Veroniques tells her father she is in love, in her underwear! 'Anyone I know?' he asks. Most fathers would tell her to go and get dressed.

Alex Harsanyi This film just inspired me to watch more older films. In the summer i was in a Christian camp where they showed the main scene (for me it is) when Alexandre Fabbri is playing with the marionette ballerina. When I arrived home I immediately started searching for this film and finally i found it! It took me 3 days to watch it. This became my favorite film of all my life. There are scenes and quotes that mean so much to me. I feel I am not the only one with this feeling because as I can see, there are events that are alternative, and has effects that are different for you and your friends either.What is the most interesting thing what i've ever seen/heard? There is only one music in the film and makes you happy or sad depending on the scene. The cameraman's work is excellent too! :) I absolutely would nominate this for Golden Globe of all times.

randomchoice I hated this movie while watching it.After much debating with myself and a friend I have come to the conclusion that this movie is about death. While I still have no sympathy for anyone or anything in the movie, I think the movie is nevertheless a lot more coherent than I initially thought, and for this - and also for the excellent filmography - I am giving it an 8/10. (1)A friend of mine suggested this movie is about the various possibilities of existence which cannot be realized simultaneously in real life. I felt this wasn't right but I didn't have another interpretation to offer. But now I do. Let's see what Weronika and Veronique are all about:(a) SimilaritiesThey are both sickly creatures. They have a father, they don't have a mother. They are both engaged with music. They know and interact with a series of characters of no consequence (the aunt, the colleague from school, etc.) They both appear in a love relationship where their lovers are more involved than themselves. They both dismiss those lovers. They both have a plastic (?) ball and are fascinated by what the world looks like as reflected through it. They both watch an old woman through the window. They both seem to drift without touching the world around them. They both see their doppelgänger.(b) DifferencesWeronika lives in Poland. She is not independent (lives with her dad / aunt). She seems young and inexperienced. She moves to another city for the sake of her aunt. Feels that she is not alone in the world. She dies singing.Veronique lives in France. She is financially independent (she lives on her own, has her own job). She seems more mature, and already anchored in music (she has a music teacher, she teaches music). She quits her music lessons although her teacher thinks she has a great talent. She feels alone in the world. She falls in love (Weronika never seems in love; talking to her aunt, she seems excited to have slept with that guy but abandons him). She accepts the game played on her by the anonymous stalker. She becomes acquainted with her puppeteer. She sees her doppelgänger, in the end. She begins to see how he may be the one manipulating her. Veronique's story begins as Weronika dies. This chronological details is supported by the photo / negative from Poland, which is the moment when the stories of the two girls become anchored in reality and aligned in a particular chronological order.So far, what does this movie seem to be about? Let's say that Veronique's first apparition and inexplicable grief is a premonition of what might happen to her if she continues taking music lessons / trying to make a career in music. This premonition leads her to abandon her existential possibility of realizing her potential through music. Having abandoned this possibility (I don't feel like it should be called her 'ideal' - Veronique doesn't really seem to have a passion, a dream, an ideal!), she somehow loses her path. Is she the ballerina who breaks her leg and then turns into a butterfly, as the ballerina in the puppeteer's story? This seems rather to be Weronika's story. Veronique refuses to break her leg, so there's no question of her turning into a butterfly. Is, then, the movie about a character with a talent for music to whom her talent is fatal, and for whom abandoning the talent would lead to perdition all the same? If yes, then the movie does make sense, although I'm still not sure about the puppeteer. It's as if the puppeteer had somehow condemned both these girls to death, and loves them when they have accepted their sentence. (Antek too could be some kind of a puppeteer: he tells Weronika he loves her only after she had come to the city and was already pursuing her talent! Likewise, Alexandre too tells Veronique he loves her only after she had accepted to enter the game of the anonymous caller.)If this death sentence were the true meaning of the movie, then it also would be easier to understand why Veronique has two lovers (the first, unnamed one, and then, Alexandre), and Weronika only one: Veronique quits music and drives away her first lover, and this could be a rejection of dying for her talent. Her condemnation to death is, however, still there: having failed to kill her through music, the puppeteer steps in himself.The weird thing about this interpretation is that, although both girls do seem to have some relation to music, neither of them gives the impression that music is the biggest thing in their lives. Music is just something they happen to be good at, good enough to be remarked and regretted when they cannot / refuse to pursue it. For the rest, these girls look like lambs brought to the slaughterhouse. For example, when Weronika's aunt asks her how her audition had gone, Weronika answers something like (I don't remember the exact wording): it went TOO well. Apathetic...(2) My conclusion about the movieAfter lots of thinking, here's, then, my conclusion regarding what this movie is about: I think it is about condemnation to death, regardless of other life details. This idea seems supported by that episode where Veronique holds the shoestring across the graph paper in a straight line over her recent EKG graph. The straight line of an EKG = death.Everything else in the movie is ballast. The doppelgänger thing is rather a red herring: it muddles the waters without any pay-off, really.Now I understand why the music is throughout so sad / sinister. Also, why there is so much ballast, so many gestures of no consequence. So many attempts at a plot but with no actual realization. The characters are doomed, and that's all.