The Mirror Has Two Faces

A schoolteacher places a newspaper advertisement to find a wife. Afraid of beautiful women, he chooses to marry someone not counted as beautiful. Marie-José is intelligent and sensitive, but as the marriage goes on the man's belittling manner comes out and her life flattens into monotony. Then an accident changes everything. André Cayatte's film makes what appearance costs a woman its direct subject. The man chose his wife because she was not beautiful, and when she changes he cannot accept her. The telling does not endorse that attitude; on the contrary it shows the smallness of the man. Michèle Morgan plays Marie-José and Bourvil, known for his comedies, plays her husband, a part that opened unusual ground for him. Without spoiling the end, the film arrives somewhere entirely unexpected.