|
A Director's Eye
Here is a side by side comparison of several key scenes from
both versions of "Mirror" which shows just how much attention
Barbra actually paid to the original.
Synopses of
"Le Miroir à
Deux Faces" (1958)
As the film
opens, we meet Pierre, a middle aged school teacher, sitting in
a police station, confessing to having "killed someone." As the
opening credits begin to roll, Pierre starts to narrate the
story in a flashback. It all began ten years ago in a newspaper
office where Pierre was placing an advertisement, looking for a
bride. Though we never learn why he places the ad, it is perhaps
because he is unattractive himself.
The ad is answered by the parents of Marie-José, a rather plain
looking woman with a love for Beethoven. She works as a clerk in
a music store. Her parents show Pierre a picture of Marie-José
and her sister, and when he remarks how pretty she is, he is
quickly corrected. "Marie-José is the other one," her
mother informs Pierre.
Pierre visits the record store and invites the unsuspecting
Marie-José to a Beethoven concert. They begin to date, and
together they attend the wedding of Marie-José's sister. At the
wedding, the sister, a vivacious flirt, makes advances toward
every man in the room, including Pierre. Marie-José's brother
in-law, Gérard, is the true love of her life, and when he tells
Marie-José how much she means to him, she breaks down in tears
and runs out of the reception.
Marie-José and Pierre marry and honeymoon in Venice. On their
wedding night, Pierre tells Marie-José how he used a newspaper
want-ad to find her, an emotional blow for Marie-José. Pierre's
insensitivity towards his wife on their wedding night puts an
end to Marie-José's romantic plans for the evening when she is
reduced to tears.
The story now moves ten years forward, and we find Pierre,
Marie-José and their two children living together with his
mother. On his way home from work, Pierre is involved in an
automobile accident requiring an extended hospital stay. The man
responsible for the accident just happens to be a doctor - a
plastic surgeon - who offers Pierre free medical and hospital
care as recompense.
The doctor first meets Marie-José the hospital, and realizes
that he can offer Pierre a "bonus." He talks with Pierre about
the possibility of performing plastic surgery on his wife, but
Pierre will have none of it. After some insistence, Pierre
agrees to at least present the proposal to Marie-José, but he
never mentions it to her.
Marie-José
learns of the proposal of free plastic surgery from one of the
nurses, and is livid with Pierre for not telling her. She
contemplates the doctor's offer, and without telling Pierre,
books herself on an "extended holiday" during which time she
undergoes the operation.
When she returns
to Pierre some weeks later, the "new" Marie-José is met with
violent hostility. Pierre calls her a tramp and refers to the
doctor as a charlatan. He can not come to grips with the new
look of his wife, and harbors a deep resentment towards the
doctor for "taking his wife away from him."
Pierre and
Marie-José fight constantly about her transformation, and during
a drunken rage, he physically attacks her. Marie-José leaves him
and runs into the waiting arms of her brother in-law, Gérard.
They begin a torrid love affair and decide to run away to Canada
together.
Back home, Pierre has taken to the bottle. With his wife's
desertion, he decides to pay the good doctor a visit. Three gun
shots later, Pierre has murdered Marie-José's plastic surgeon.
Marie-José and Gerard are at the airport when she receives a
telegram informing her of her husband's arrest. She decides to
return home, not to be with Pierre, but because her children
need her now.
Comparing the Two
Barbra
Streisand's 1996 film, "The Mirror Has Two Faces" was fashioned
after a 1958 French film of the same name (Le Miroir à Deux
Faces) directed by André Cayatte. The first lines of the
original film tell us to expect a story of murder and intrigue.
In fact, it is an extremely dark tale with a tragic ending, and
there is certainly no dancing in the streets as the credits
roll.
As a fan of
Barbra's version, curiosity could not keep me from watching the
original film with an eye on comparing the two. The first thing
you'll notice is the name of the actress who plays the female
lead. She is a homely woman we first see working in a record
store who dreams of romance while listening to Beethoven (no
Puccini for this mademoiselle). The character's name is
Marie-José and is portrayed by French actress Michèle
Morgan (Barbra's Rose Morgan is perhaps a subtle
tribute to the original film).
The male character is Pierre Tardivet, played by the French
actor Bourvil, a much older school teacher who places an
advertisement looking for a bride. Unlike the Streisand version,
a platonic relationship is not a condition of the relationship.
Indeed, the two stay married for ten years. They live with
his meddlesome mother and have two children.
But here's where
the story line really differs. While Barbra's Rose Morgan was
never an ugly duckling, she nonetheless elects to undergo a
cosmetic makeover while shedding a few pounds. Marie-José, on
the other hand, is a homely woman who is not pleased by her
appearance. She chooses to undergo full blown cosmetic surgery.
Her appearance is completely changed, and she reemerges from her
surgery as a stunning beauty, a fact that her husband can not
come to grips with. Pierre is so upset that the woman he married
was "taken away from him" that he holds the doctor who performed
the surgery accountable. In the ultimate act of payback, Pierre
murders the poor, unsuspecting plastic surgeon.
While all this
is going on, Marie-José runs away with her sister's good looking
husband Gérard (whom she loved all along). The film ends when
she receives a telegram at the airport telling her that her
husband has been arrested. She decides to return home, not to
help her husband, but to be with her children.
But the twist is
interesting. While you despise Pierre's actions towards his wife
(not to mention his behavior towards the poor plastic surgeon),
it's Marie-José who is also a villain for abandoning her
children.
|
Le
Miroir à Deux Faces was produced by MGM and
released in 1958. It was dubbed into English for
American audiences (a VHS video was released a few
years back, but might now be out of print). |
|
|
