Sunday 20 March 2016

Two For the Road (1967 Stanley Donen)

Most brilliantly presented study of marriage in jumbled up time is all the work of screenwriter Frederic Raphael. Chris Challis had adventures with the car in making the photography as real as possible. Henry Mancini underscores the bittersweet series of events perfectly.

Some of the fashions are hilarious.


Partly based on the real travels of Raphael and his wife Sylvia along Route Nationale 6, or as far as Rome, where this was written. He took all the plot elements and wrote them on the back of cards, shuffled them, then wrote the film in the random order of the cards. Donen approached him on the back of Nothing But the Best."I like surprises, and I like to surprise directors."

He doesn't believe in cause and effect but, in an echo of Pressburger "There are coincidences, oddities, contradictions. Everything contributes to the truth of one's life."

Not sure where the hotel is, will find out.

Since this viewing I keep hearing Audrey reciting that nursery rhyme which I think includes '..and didn't get home till early tea' - it's her voice...

No comments:

Post a Comment