Left side face or Right side face

In Angel (Ernst Lubitsch, 1937), Maria(Marlene Dietrich) is forced to choose between her husband Frederick(Herbert Marshall) and Halton(Melvyn Douglas) who calls her "Angel". It's called love triangle.

Like Snowpiercer (2013) which I took up at the previous entry, her choice between Frederick or Halton is expressed with "Left or Right". Almost always when she is with Frederick, he is positioned on the left side.

When she is with Halton, he is positioned on the right side the whole time.

When they are together, Frederick is positioned on the left while Maria is positioned in the center and Halton on the right.

Although Halton loves her, she tries to end the relationship with him. Although she needs more attention from Fredrick, he ends up ignoring her. The wind of love blows gently from right to left, so to speak.

But the thing is, Maria shows her left side of her face whenever she looks at Fredrick and her right side whenever she looks at Halton. The secret of "Left or Right" lies rather which side of her face she shows than in which side they are. It indeed helps her express different emotions toward each of them. Because each side of her face gives us different impression.

Film acting is, in large part, reacting and listening.

10 Lessons in Film Acting from Michael Caine

The chief requisite for an actor is the ability to do nothing well, which is by no means as easy as it sounds

Alfred Hitchcock 

As Michael Caine and Alfred Hitchcock say, reacting which is the key of film acting is doing nothing well. All you have to do is do nothing, that is, show the right side of your face in the right place(during reacting).

Of course, Marlene Dietrich looks perfect and symmetrical. It is a common perception that the more average the face the more attractive. On the other hand, completely symmetrical faces are disconcerting. Even Dietrich's face can't be completely symmetrical. The difference might be subtle but certain. It's like a beauty mark to highlight the skin's whiteness or a few highlights for low-key lighting to emphasize the darkness. Slight asymmetry emphasizes symmetry. The nuance dedicates not only to her beauty but also her (re)acting. Although she just does nothing well, we can tell how she feels. It's called the Kuleshov Effect.