Parallel lines for two lives

This Krzysztof Kieslowski film is screening in selected cinemas to complement the NFT's current tribute season. The great Polish director's first French co-production won Irène Jacob the Best Actress prize at Cannes in 1991. She plays identical women, one born in Poland, the other France.

The first and better half was shot in Poland where Veronika leaves her home town to study singing in Krakow. Despite complaining of chest pains, she goes onstage for her first professional performance and collapses.

Thanks to the music of Zbigniew Preisner and Kieslowski's infallible sense of fate catching up on us, this is one of the most extraordinary passages in modern cinema.

Meanwhile the French Véronique takes a different course. She, too, is a singer with heart trouble but gives it up to become an elementary-school teacher. The film is so beautifully made that its slightly obscure but lyrical second half still stands up.

Kieslowski, who himself died early from heart trouble (caused by excessive smoking) seems to know exactly what he is talking about where the strange workings of fate are concerned.

The Double Life Of Veronique
Cert: 15