"Drugoe litso" (in English "Another face") is a Russian TV film from 2008. It owes a lot to a 1940s American melodrama.The premise that a man can mould a woman into his ideal of a dream woman has been told numerous times in films, including "Pygmalion" (1938) and "Stolen Face" (1952), starring Paul Henreid and Lizabeth Scott.
"Drugoe litso" is more akin to "Stolen Face", because in both films a surgeon changes the female's looks. The latter intends to prove that another face doesn't create another personality. "Drugoe litso" focuses, among other things, on a man's subjugation of his female partner, a problem prevalent in today's Russia.
Vera's face is heavily disfigured during an explosion in the lab where she works. A handsome young surgeon undertakes to operate her free of charge using a new method he has devised. Vera gets an entire new face. She becomes a beauty. Her husband doesn't get accustomed to his wife's new face, and she moves away from him. The surgeon has fallen in love with Vera and they become a couple. He persuades her to dye her hair black and apply a bob hairstyle. She is several times mistaken for a woman named Dasha. Who was Dasha? Is she dead? How did she die?
This is a good old-fashioned melodrama - with a surprise ending. I imagined the three main actors of "Gaslight" in a black and white 1940's version of this film: Charles Boyer (the surgeon), Ingrid Bergman (Vera) and Joseph Cotten (the husband).
The film was directed by Igor Shternbeg. Starring: Aleksandra Afanasyeva-Shevchuk, Ilya Liubimov, Dmitri Volkov,
"Drugoe litso" is more akin to "Stolen Face", because in both films a surgeon changes the female's looks. The latter intends to prove that another face doesn't create another personality. "Drugoe litso" focuses, among other things, on a man's subjugation of his female partner, a problem prevalent in today's Russia.
Vera's face is heavily disfigured during an explosion in the lab where she works. A handsome young surgeon undertakes to operate her free of charge using a new method he has devised. Vera gets an entire new face. She becomes a beauty. Her husband doesn't get accustomed to his wife's new face, and she moves away from him. The surgeon has fallen in love with Vera and they become a couple. He persuades her to dye her hair black and apply a bob hairstyle. She is several times mistaken for a woman named Dasha. Who was Dasha? Is she dead? How did she die?
This is a good old-fashioned melodrama - with a surprise ending. I imagined the three main actors of "Gaslight" in a black and white 1940's version of this film: Charles Boyer (the surgeon), Ingrid Bergman (Vera) and Joseph Cotten (the husband).
The film was directed by Igor Shternbeg. Starring: Aleksandra Afanasyeva-Shevchuk, Ilya Liubimov, Dmitri Volkov,
