Plots

We have arrived at the heart of the movie. Veronique gets off a train at St. Lazare and begins to explore the soundscape around her, hoping it leads her to Alexandre. She looks so small and fragile in this crowd and she soon comes face to face with someone from Weronika’s past, the woman in the hat who sat in on her audition in Krakow and scowled as she was chosen to perform the solo. Here, the woman stares intensely at Veronique and looks shocked to see her, as if she’s just seen a ghost (and in a sense, she has.)

But this interpretation does not entirely hold up, because as Veronique continues to wander around the station, looking for locales suggested by what she heard on tape, she runs into this woman again, who seems to be observing her from a cafe. She appears to be a symbol of destiny for both women and perhaps she was disapproving of Weronika’s triumph because she knew its costs and she’s here trying to warn Veronique not to seek eagerly the end to her mystery.

A man points her towards a restaurant that seems like a possible locale for the recorded sounds. As she enters, she immediately notices Alexandre. She hesitates briefly at the doorway, but then bravely walks in as he steps away from his booth (apparently to go to the restroom.) She approaches his table and takes a seat, notices another tape recorder picking up ambient sounds, and also sees an envelope addressed to her. Apparently he’s in progress of creating another set of clues for her. Then Alexandre approaches from behind her, she looks over her shoulder to see him.

He sits across from her. After placing an order with the waitress (tea with lemon for him, coffee for her) she asks if he’s been waiting long.  He replies 48 hours. He apologizes, she asks why, he replies that he wasn’t sure if she would come. She replies that she wasn’t sure he would be there. He then says he had to be there and would do so for two or three more days if necessary.  He wanted to see if it was possible, he says.

Be sure of what, Veronique asks. He replies that he wanted to see if it was psychologically possible. Veronique asks what that means. Alexandre notes that she must know that he writes children’s books. But now he would like to write a novel, something for adults. In his book, a woman answers a call of a complete stranger. And he wanted to see if it was possible, if a woman would do that.

Veronique is stunned and Alexandre says that she’s not saying anything. Veronique asks “why me?” To this Alexandre replies “because … I don’t know.”  Veronique nods for a second, then turn to run out of the cafe. Her response seems not at all surprising to me, she just found out that she was manipulated by someone for psychological test. In fact, what she was put through seems more like what social media companies subject individuals to on a routine basis, manipulating their behavior for curiosity and profit, not caring at all about the psychological effect of their actions.

Alexandre in this seem again seems like a stand in for Kieslowski. He started off as a documentary filmmaker, but said he had to stop because he hated the intrusion of it — that there would always come a moment in a non-fiction film where the subject would have to reveal himself or herself, and Kieslowski always felt pained to violate them that way.

Veronique has just revealed herself and it’s impossible to not feel for her, especially after the emotional investment she’s made.