nicholas.rhodes Review of The Mirror Has Two Faces

The Mirror Has Two Faces (1958)

Beethoven ....je l'emmerde...et en avant la musique !

[8/10 · 21 July 2006]

An interesting and well acted film with stunning performances from Michèle Morgan and above all Bourvil. Bourvil is a calculus teacher looking for marriage thru an agency. Michele Morgans parents come across the advert and try to fix up the two together. It should be said that Morgan is portrayed as initially unattractive ( not very convincingly ). The two marry, go off to Venice for a honeymoon, where things start to go awry. Later Morgan has a face lift to become more beautiful and Bourvil gets jealous of this or rather, he doesn't recognize his wife any more and gets violent and takes to drink, and holds the doctor responsible for the face lift ( played by Gérard Oury ) responsible. He then assassinates him whilst Morgan goes off with her sisters husband who has been deserted by his wife. You think they will be happy together in Montréal, Canada, but Morgan learns about her husband having assassinated the doctor and decides to return to France. Used to seeing Bourvil in comic roles, it is strange and rather unnerving to see him in the role of a violent jealous husband who takes to drink. Indeed the title of my comment represents words he spoke whilst under the influence of alcohol. In fact he only pretended to be interested in Beethoven because Morgans parents told him their daughter liked Beethoven and it was to demonstrate a common interest between the two. Needless to say, Bourvils conversation whilst drunk is impressive and violent, and reminds me of a comic sketch he did later on in his life called "L'eau Ferrugineuse" ( iron water ) in which he also portrays himself as a drunk person albeit this time in a comic rôle and not a serious one. A violent film then, without a happy ending, but nevertheless to be recommended for its magnificent actors' performance. From what I have seen, André Cayatte seems to have turned out a number of good films in his day, notably "Justice est faite" .