Audrey Hepburn

Albert Finney

Georges Descrières

Claude Dauphin

Nadia Gray

Jacqueline Bisset

Eleanor Bron

William Daniels

Gabrielle Middleton

Judy Cornwell

Irène Hilda

Dominique Joos

Olga Georges-Picot

Clarissa Hillel

Karyn Balm

Yves Barsacq

Kathy Chelimsky

Roger Dann

Jacques Hilling

Jean-François Laley

Robert Le Béal

Paul Mercey

Albert Michel

Libby Morris

Moustache

Denise Péron

Sophia Torkely

Hélène Tossy

Carol van Dyke

Mario Verdon

Patricia Viterbo

Joanna Vogel

Cathy Jones

Madeleine Gug

Frederic Raphael

Stanley Donen

Christopher Challis

Henry Mancini

Marc Frédérix

Georges Bouban

Grazia De Rossi

Joseph de Bretagne

Willy Holt

Richard Marden

Alberto De Rossi

Maurice Binder

Arthur Carroll

Henri Tiquet

James H. Ware

Christian Ferry

Austin Dempster

Jacques Corbel

Maurice Askew

Drama

Romance

Comedy

Two for the Road

Stanley Donen Films

United Kingdom

English

Italiano

Français

infidelity

husband wife relationship

southern france

architect

marriage

europe

road trip

flashback

on the road

traveling couple

How long are you going to resent the past?

Two for the Road is directed by Stanley Donen and written by Frederic Raphael. It stars Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn. Music is by Henry Mancini and Christopher Challis is the cinematographer. Film basically deconstructs in non-linear fashion the relationship between Joanna (Hepburn) and Mark Wallace (Finney). Set out on the road as the couple meet, go on vacation, fall out and make up, narrative is threaded over a 12 year period.

Donen and Raphael have crafted a picture that takes the many emotional strands of a man and woman relationship, and lays them out bare for us all to see. It's this honest like approach, coupled with the two watchable lead actors, that really engages me personally. There's moments of fun, slapstick even, but these are always coupled to an onset of sadness or regret, making this neither comedy or drama, but a near perfect fusion of the two - or bittersweet to coin an actual word for it. Mancini's music is sweet and breezy, the title track apparently one of his personal favourites, while Challis' Panavision photography is often beautiful. There's some credibility stretching with Hepburn playing her younger self, and one on going gag is overcooked in the extreme, but Two for the Road still feels fresh and interesting to those willing to invest fully in the thematics of the human marital condition. 

Film also signs off with a killer bit of dialogue from the protagonists that you wont be able to forget. 8/10

CinemaSerf

"Joanna" (Audrey Hepburn) and husband "Mark" (Albert Finney) are taking a road-trip to the South of France where they are to attend the opening of a home designed by him for "Maurice" (Claude Dauphin) and "Francoise" (Nadia Gray). It's clear from the outset that this couple's days in the sunlit uplands have long passed and that they are really now just going through the marital motions. Along the route, though, Stanley Donen introduces us to this couple - using flashbacks - and we we discover the happier times as they met, commandeered an old jalopy, made love under the stars etc... We are also presented with the scenarios that led to the cracks developing, to their loss of trust in each other, to their own equally selfish behaviour and ultimately bringing us to the point where start. Is it all irredeemable? To be honest, that didn't really matter. What we have here is an electric relationship portrayed by two stars who have a genuine, natural, chemistry together. Finney, particularly, looks like he is genuinely enjoying his time and Hepburn just oozes a joyousness and flightiness that makes the love story compelling and engaging to watch. As it develops, both grow up and we have to grow up with them - an experience that we all, however reluctantly, have to endure with always unpredictable results. The well constructed dialogue is authentic and frequently quite witty, and it is delivered confidently by two actors clearly at ease in the other's company. Henri Mancini delivers a delightfully suitable accompaniment to this tale of the lives and loves of two people who don't really know how, or why, they've got to this position in their lives and even in their latter stages, that still exudes an agreeable degree of joie-de-vivre!

Two for the Road (1967) ORIGINAL TRAILER

Dan Ireland on TWO FOR THE ROAD

Two for the Road( 1967)

They make something wonderful out of being alive!

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A review by John Chard

Written by John Chard on Sun May 12 2019

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