Written by Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, the film explores the themes of identity, love, and human intuition through the characters of Weronika, a Polish choir soprano, and her double, Véronique, a French music teacher.
In 1990, a young Polish woman named Weronika is singing at an outdoor concert with her choir when a rainstorm interrupts their performance.
One day, while walking through the Main Square, she spots a French tourist who looks identical to her and watches as her doppelgänger boards a bus and takes photographs.
On the same day in Clermont-Ferrand, France, Véronique, who looks exactly like Weronika, is overcome with grief after having sex with her boyfriend and later tells her music teacher that she is quitting the choir.
Véronique reads his books and then receives a new package from her father with a cassette tape containing sounds such as a typewriter, a train station and a fragment of music by Van den Budenmayer.
Similar to Three Colours: Blue, Preisner's musical score plays a significant role in the plot and is credited to the fictional Van den Budenmayer.
Sławomir Idziak, the cinematographer, had previously experimented with these techniques in an episode of Dekalog, while Kieślowski expanded on the use of color for a wider range of effects in his Three Colours trilogy.
Kieślowski had previously explored the concept of different life paths for the same individual in his Polish film, Przypadek (Blind Chance).
In the latter, a theme from Van den Budenmayer's musique funebres is quoted in the Song for the Unification of Europe, and the E minor soprano solo is foreshadowed in Weronika's final performance.
In her review in Not Coming to a Theater Near You, Jenny Jediny wrote, "In many ways, The Double Life of Veronique is a small miracle of cinema; ... Kieslowski’s strong, if largely post-mortem reputation among the art house audience has elevated a film that makes little to no sense on paper, while its emotional tone strikes a singular—perhaps perfect—key.
"[6] In his review in The Washington Post, Hal Hinson called the film "a mesmerizing poetic work composed in an eerie minor key."
[7] In her review in The New York Times, Caryn James wrote, "Veronique is poetic in the truest sense, relying on images that can't be turned into prosaic statements without losing something of their essence.
The film suggests mysterious connections of personality and emotion, but it was never meant to yield any neat, summary idea about the two women's lives.
[10] In his review for Empire magazine, David Parkinson called it "a film of great fragility and beauty, with the delicacy of the puppet theatre."
He thought the film was "divinely photographed" by Slawomir Idziak, and praised Irène Jacob's performance as "simply sublime and thoroughly merited the Best Actress prize at Cannes."
"[12] In a five-star review of the DVD release of The Double Life of Veronique, Ivana Redwine of About.com described the film as "[c]aptivating" and "mesmerizing", while praising Jacob's performance as "superb".
[13] At BBC, Matthew Leyland gave the film three stars out of five and wrote, "It's a ravishingly pretty piece, but it may tax viewers searching for answers that remain out of reach.