Mistakes in mirror scenes in Peggy Sue Got Married
Steve Poole
A while back, several articles discussed the opening shot in
Peggy Sue Got Married. It is a mirror shot without a mirror.
Doubles are used. I had seen the movie several months before,
but missed the first few minutes, so I had to watch it again
to see that shot. The movie also closes with one of these
mirror shots using doubles.
Several weeks after I had seen those shots, I began to wonder
if they reversed things correctly in these mirror shots. I
watched the scenes again and found several mistakes. A list
follows. If you want to try to find the mistakes yourself,
stop reading here, watch the movie, and compare your list to
mine. A VCR helps.
In the opening shot, you are supposed to be looking into a
mirror. Kathleen Turner plays Peggy Sue's reflection. We see
her face. Another actress plays Peggy Sue not in the mirror.
We only see her back. Here are the mistakes I noticed.
1) The lettering in the TV commercial is not reversed.
2) The numbers in the picture on top of the TV are not reversed.
3) The Peggy Sue in the mirror (Kathleen Turner) has her wedding ring
on her left hand. It should be on her right. The double, who is
playing Peggy Sue not in the mirror, has the ring on her right hand.
You see the double's hand and Turner's at the same time in one shot.
They realized that the ring should be on opposite hands for Turner and
the double, but they didn't get the correct hands!
4) Other failures to reverse things for Peggy Sue in the mirror: At
the reunion, we see that her hair clip is on the right side of her
head. In the mirror, it should be on the left. The same mistake for
the orientation of her belt.
At the end of the movie, the scene is a room. You can see a bed and a
window and the people in the room. This scene goes on for a while.
Then the very last shot in the movie is supposed to be looking into the
mirror in this room. This is another mirror shot with doubles. The
shot pulls back so that you can see the mirror and the room.
1) They didn't reverse the room. In the scene before the mirror
shot, you see the room. The head of the bed is on the left side of the
screen. You don't see the mirror, but it is to the right of the bed.
When the camera looks in the mirror, you should see the head of the bed
on the right of the screen. Instead, it is still to the left. The
camera is actually looking into the same room through a hole in the
wall that is supposed to be the mirror.
2) When Charlie and his double hold up their arms, one of them
has a watch on that arm and the other doesn't.
--
Steve Poole
ARPA: po...@emx.utexas.edu
UUCP: {ames,gatech,harvard,rutgers,utah-cs,uunet,uwm.edu}!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!poole
J.D. Baldwin.
>A while back, several articles discussed the opening shot in
>Peggy Sue Got Married. It is a mirror shot without a mirror.
>Doubles are used.
Yes, I was the one who asked the original question.
>Several weeks after I had seen those shots, I began to wonder
>if they reversed things correctly in these mirror shots.
I have seen the film since my original question, and have noticed many
of the same things you did.
[two reversing "mistakes" deleted]
>3) The Peggy Sue in the mirror (Kathleen Turner) has her wedding ring
>on her left hand. It should be on her right. The double, who is
>playing Peggy Sue not in the mirror, has the ring on her right hand.
>You see the double's hand and Turner's at the same time in one shot.
>THEY REALIZED THAT THE RING SHOULD BE ON OPPOSITE HANDS FOR TURNER AND
>THE DOUBLE, BUT THEY DIDN'T GET THE CORRECT HANDS! [emphasis mine]
This one clinched it for me. These aren't mistakes--they are Coppolla's
way of saying, "these people *are* in the mirror." Consider the fantasy
nature of the film, and this "looking-glass" reference becomes obvious.
This theory (I am utterly convinced of it, myself) is, I admit, not *totally*
supported in a consistent way by all of the mistakes you mention, but the
wedding ring one could not *possibly* be a mistake. Even if the director,
crew, and everybody else missed the placement of that wedding ring, is it
conceivable that the two actresses (Turner and her double) would have missed
the error, when they are the ones wearing the rings? I don't think it's
very likely that they would have failed to speak up about this detail had
it been a true error.
>Then the very last shot in the movie is supposed to be looking into the
>mirror in this room. This is another mirror shot with doubles. The
>shot pulls back so that you can see the mirror and the room.
So the film begins and ends with this reference to the "mirror world."
Someone in the original thread called this Coppolla's way of "framing" the
picture. An apt description, I think. Think of that other "looking-glass"
story, and consider this aspect of the film in that light.
>1) They didn't reverse the room. [supporting details deleted]
From a lesser director, I would believe that this was just a technique to
avoid the expense and trouble of building a mirror-image set of the room.
Not from FFC.
>2) When Charlie and his double hold up their arms, one of them
>has a watch on that arm and the other doesn't.
This is an example of a detail that does not support my hypothesis. Maybe
it's a joke, maybe it's an error.
Let me say that I do not think that all of this adds up to anything more than
a cute reference. I can't think of anything else in the film that refers to
what I have noted here. It is possible that Coppolla added these references
as an afterthought or a joke. I think this is a fine picture, and thought so
before any of this mirror stuff came up. What all of this adds up to for me
is a nice surprise--an unexpected twist in an already enjoyable film.
--
From the catapult of: |+| "If anyone disagrees with anything I
_, J. D. Baldwin, Comp Sci Dept |+| say, I am quite prepared not only to
__||____:::)=}- U.S. Naval Academy|+| retract it, but also to deny under
\ / bal...@cad.usna.navy.mil |+| oath that I ever said it." --T. Lehrer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
James Preston
}
}1) The lettering in the TV commercial is not reversed.
}
}2) The numbers in the picture on top of the TV are not reversed.
}
}3) The Peggy Sue in the mirror (Kathleen Turner) has her wedding ring
}on her left hand. It should be on her right. The double, who is
}playing Peggy Sue not in the mirror, has the ring on her right hand.
}
}the reunion, we see that her hair clip is on the right side of her
}head. In the mirror, it should be on the left. The same mistake for
}the orientation of her belt.
Um, gee, did it ever occur to you that maybe the camera is supposed to be
looking _out_ from the mirror instead of _into_ it? I mean, like, there
could even be some symbolism in that, you know?
--James Preston