The Three-Sided Mirror

Jean Epstein’s 1927 psychological avant-garde film, “The Three-Sided Mirror,” delves into the fragmented romantic life of a wealthy, emotionally fragile businessman. Incapable of truly committing, he sequentially pursues three distinct women: the refined English socialite Pearl, the passionate Russian sculptress Athalia, and the unassuming working-class girl Lucie. Each relationship is a fleeting engagement, marked by his inherent weakness and an aversion to the responsibilities love demands. Rather than confronting his emotional shortcomings, he repeatedly retreats, finding solace in the speed of his sports car, seeking escape on the fashionable shores of Deauville. This pattern of evasion culminates in a sudden, almost poetic, fatal encounter with a descending swallow. The film’s true innovation lies in its tripartite structure, where each segment recounts the businessman’s affair through the specific lens of one of the women, weaving together their recollections, present narration, and the past events into an intricate, indistinguishable tapestry of time. This non-linear, subjective narrative challenges conventional storytelling, proposing a proto-Resnais exploration of memory and perception.