The New York Film Festival opens with The Double Life of Veronique' which won her an acting award at Cannes.

by Robert Brown
The New York Times, September 15, 1991

A little more than 200 years ago, Samuel Johnson met a celebrated actress of the day and, somewhat to his surprise, liked her very much. This was because, as he explained to Boswell, she was without "that vulgar assurance that flattery breeds on ignorance." This, today, may be said of Irène Jacob, who, at the age of 25, won the best actress award at this year's Cannes International Film Festival for her work in "The Double Life of Veronique."

The film, directed by Krzyzstof Kieslowski, is the opening attraction of the 29th New York Film Festival, beginning Friday at Lincoln Center; the movie will open to the public in November. At Cannes, Vincent Camby of The Times called Miss Jacob radiant, and he praised "The Double Life of Veronique" as a "magnificent visual and aural experience." The dual role Miss Jacob plays in the film is her first starring role, and even with such an auspicious accolade so early in her career, she remains calm, not at all exultant.

"The Double Life of Veronique" is somewhat difficult to describe, as Miss Jacob would be the first to admit. It concerns the symbiotic relationship between two women, both 20 years old and of identical appearance, who were born on the same day - one in France, the other in Poland. Their families have no connection with each other, have never even met.

But the women, Veronique and Veronika, not only look alike, they also share many traits. Both have the curious habit, for example, of slowly rubbing one eyelid with a gold ring. What happens to one is intuitively sensed by the other and sometimes serves as a warning of a particular danger to be avoided. Both are musicians and gifted singers.

"It is not about reincarnation," Miss Jacob says firmly. "It is much less explicit than that. We can't give simple, clear explanations of what the relationship is. I have found that in France so many people have said to me that they really loved it - and then they add that they didn't really understand it."

That reaction may be in part, she adds, because the director cut almost half of the raw film when they were finished shooting. "Maybe it would have been clearer in the longer version, but I think it is better as it is," Miss Jacob says. "Not everything in life is to be explained."

Of Mr. Kieslowski, who also co-wrote the screenplay, she says: "Every night we would get together and talk about the scene we would shoot the next day. What were the emotions, the nuances the character would experience? It was so helpful and necessary, because I am playing two women, both of whom are gifted and passionate but who feel that there is something missing from their lives, that somehow the pieces don't fit together. Perhaps this is a feeling that many people have in the world. I think it is."

The film, as it stands, does offer a sort of resolution, which makes no claim to be an explanation. Veronique's lover, Alexandre, looks through the contents of her purse and finds a number of photographs she has taken on a recent trip to Cracow. In one, he sees a young woman who looks exactly like her and assumes it is Veronique. It cannot be, she says - the woman is wearing clothes that Veronique has never owned or even seen. She is transfixed by the photograph, which appears to her as both a confirmation of her intuition that another life parallels her own and a deepening of the mystery that has haunted her.

As for Miss Jacob, she was born in Paris, she studied acting there and at the Dramatic Studio in London, and also attended the Geneva Conservatory of Music in the course of accompanying her father, a physicist who traveled a great deal. Her English is excellent, slightly accented. When a remark of hers concerning Louis Malle is misinterpreted, she is quick to set things right, exclaiming: "No! No! That's not what I said. One must be so careful in talking to journalists."

Mr. Malle's name had come up because it was he who cast her in a small role as a piano teacher in his 1987 film "Au Revoir les Enfants." This was her debut in motion pictures. Mr. Kieslowski saw her and asked her to read for the lead in "The Double Life of Veronique."

Though of course delighted to have won the prize at Cannes and eager to share the praise with her colleagues, she brings perspective to her success.

"If I had won the award 15 or 20 years from now, after I had done a series of good films, maybe I would take it personally and look back with some satisfaction," she says. "But now I am at just the beginning, and my life is about expecting and working and hoping."

Miss Jacob has recently completed "Claude," an independent American production in which she plays her first English-speaking role. "Claude," to be released next year, is a quirky comedy, a romance in which the love of a good woman (Miss Jacob) redeems a man whose life has been a series of bizarre misfortunes.

Her next big project is back home in Paris, where she is to play the part of Célimène in "The Misanthrope." She is looking forward to the part, expecting and working and hoping.