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The Two Faces of "Mirror"

July 2006

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.

In Barbra's version, her character Rose undergoes a Fifth Avenue cosmetic makeover. Her husband, Gregory, is displeased at first but soon comes to appreciate his wife's new look. Everyone lives happily after.

In the original film, a plain looking woman named Marie-José elects to undergo plastic surgery, much to the dismay of her husband, Pierre. Pierre responds by killing the plastic surgeon.

Barbra's version of "Mirror" is a well researched remake, and if you take the time to analyze the original film, you'll notice many similarities. Barbra's remake of "The Mirror Has Two Faces" is a true homage to the original.

Here is a side by side comparison of several scenes from both versions of "Mirror."


Though these scenes do not correspond story-wise, Barbra used the most shocking visual element from the original film for her own first on-camera appearance. The image of Marie-José's plastic surgery bandages is strikingly similar to Rose's mud mask.


Pierre looks at a picture of Marie-José for the first time in an early scene, elements of which Barbra used during the breakfast scene between Rose and Hannah. The original dialogue has Pierre remarking how pretty Marie-José is. He is quickly corrected by her mother, who tells him that Marie-José is the other one.


In this scene, both Pierre and Gregory review the results of their advertisement while sitting at their classroom desks. Barbra even managed to get the same camera angles. And notice how the stacks of paper are positioned exactly.
 


In these scenes from the sisters' weddings, both Marie-José and Rose receive advances from their respective brother's in-law.
 


The seduction scenes in both versions have an uncanny resemblance to each other. In the original, they are on their honeymoon when Pierre confesses to Marie-José that he found her through an ad. Her devastation at hearing this is too much for Marie-José to bear. Barbra fashioned her performance in this scene much the same way.


Notice how identical the scenes are when both women reveal their new selves for the first time. Barbra replicates this scene perfectly, right down to Gregory's starched collar.


This is the breakfast scene from both films. In the original, Pierre's meddlesome mother lives with the couple and their two children. Though not a central character in the original film, the mother played a pivotal role in breaking up her son's marriage.


Again, see how perfectly Barbra managed to replicate the brother in-law love scene.


Barbra borrowed another visual element from the original. In the first film, Marie-José looks into the mirror, contemplating having plastic surgery. Notice the multiple mirror imagery in both versions of the scene. In Barbra's film, Rose thinks things over after her makeover has occurred.


In the original film, Marie-José's sister flirts with Pierre. Barbra duplicates this interaction during Gregory and Rose's wedding scene.

Marie-José and Pierre honeymoon in Venice. Barbra uses the exact same image of The Grand Canal during the montage of Gregory's trip to Europe.

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 at 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's star).

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.