‘Veronique’: An Abstraction and a Riddle Amid a Swoon of Sensations

“The Double Life of Veronique” is a curious choice to launch UC Irvine’s “Standing in a Different Light: No Longer Silent and Invisible, a Woman Seizes Her Moments” series, which strives to gaze clearly at femininity.

Krzysztof Kieslowski’s 1991 movie is an abstraction and a riddle, the kind of film that is pretty but elusive. Images on screen gleam and stick with you; understanding them, though, may be another matter.

That could be the point the program’s organizers are trying to make--that there’s mystery at the heart of all women. “The Double Life of Veronique” (screening Friday night) doesn’t always illuminate, but it does whisper about the mystery of human existence, feminine or otherwise.

The plot hinges on duality. Two women (both played by Kieslowski’s favorite actress, the lovely Irene Jacob, who also stars in his more recent “Red”) live far apart but are identical in many ways.

They look alike, they talk alike, they sing alike, but this is no-separated-at-birth deal. They’re cosmic twins living out their separate lives in an ethereal vapor in which they sense each other’s presence and feel each other’s pain.

To be more specific, Veronika is a singer with a beautiful voice living in Poland, and Veronique is a singer with a beautiful voice living in France.

The film begins by focusing on Veronika, who frets about an inexplicable feeling that she’s not alone in the world when not making love to her boyfriend (Jerzy Gudejko) or carrying the mournful melodies that mark the picture’s soundtrack.

When tragedy abruptly befalls Veronika, everything shifts to Veronique, who abandons her own singing career and starts a bizarre courtship with Alexandre (Philippe Volter), a fantastic puppeteer with some very squirrelly notions. He seduces Veronique by sending her bits of puppet string and weird tape recordings that, like much of the movie, are so highly symbolic as to be almost indecipherable.

All the while, Veronique senses Veronika, or at least what she was. Kieslowski (who wrote the screenplay with Krzysztof Piesiewicz) seems intent on suggesting that the true nature of these women is ineffable, and that comes across, compelling us to participate in Veronique’s own swoon of sensations that have no logical center.

That’s when “The Double Life of Veronique” is affecting, if only because the lack of specificity creates a dreaminess. But likewise, Kieslowski’s mood-setting can also be portentous and slow. The movie lacks punch--”Pulp Fiction” it ain’t--and you have to accept the quiet, delicate rhythms or face stretches of frustration.

In that sense, “The Double Life of Veronique” is an archetype of a certain breed of European art-house film, the kind where storytelling be damned as long as the visuals are hypnotic.

Watching this picture can be like strolling through a gallery of expressionistic paintings--individually and cumulatively, the impressions can be seductive, even while you shake your head over what the artist is really getting at.

* What: Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “The Double Life of Veronique.”

* When: Friday, April 7, at 7 and 9 p.m.

* Where: The UC Irvine Student Center Crystal Cove Auditorium.

* Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (405) Freeway to Jamboree Road and head south to Campus Drive and take a left. Turn right on Bridge Road, and take it into the campus.

* Wherewithal: $2 to $4.

* Where to call: (714) 824-5588.

MORE SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Doctor Zhivago

(NR) The David Lean-directed story of a married doctor (Omar Sharif) who falls in love with a nurse (Julie Christie) in wartime Russia marks its 30th anniversary with a newly restored print by Turner Entertainment. The Orange County Film Office presents the three-hour, 20-minute epic in DTS digital sound tonight, April 6, at 6 p.m. at Edwards South Coast Plaza Village Cinema, 1561 W. Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa. Sandra Lean, the director’s widow, will speak briefly before the screening, and a Russian-themed reception will follow at the Red Lion Hotel, 350 Bristol, Costa Mesa. $50 in advance (no tickets sold at the door). Proceeds go to the Orange County Film Office. (714) 634-2900.

Johnny Stecchino

(NR) Co-writer and director Roberto Benigni is a bus driver in Italy who gets set up by a gangster’s wife (Nicoletta Braschi) to take the rap for her husband’s crimes. In Italian with English subtitles, it screens on Friday, April 7, at 7 p.m. in Room 313 of the science/math building, Saddleback College, 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo. Sponsored by Saddleback College’s division of Liberal Arts and the Associated Student Government. FREE. (714) 582-4788.