Two for the Road (film)

''Two for the Road'' is a 1967 British romance film directed and produced by Stanley Donen, and starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. The film tells the story of a married couple who reflect on their twelve-year relationship while on a road trip from England to the French Riviera. As they survey their foundering marriage in the present, the evolution of their relationship reveals itself through vignettes from four previous trips they took along the same route. The film was made from an original screenplay by Frederic Raphael. Supporting cast members include Eleanor Bron, William Daniels, Claude Dauphin, and Nadia Gray.

Raphael conceived the idea for the film while driving with his wife to the south of France. He pitched the concept initially to producer Joseph Janni, who declined to make the picture, and then wrote the script for Donen. Originally the film was to be made by Universal, but after the studio backed out, Donen took the project to Twentieth Century-Fox. ''Two for the Road'' is notable for combining the styles of a traditional Hollywood romance with elements of the French New Wave. Cars figure prominently in the film and, when the narrative jumps in time, help to establish the current year. ''Two for the Road'' was a rare Hepburn picture where she did not wear a wardrobe designed by Hubert de Givenchy, since Donen wanted her to have a more conventional appearance. The film's theme song was written by Henry Mancini, who called it the favourite of his career.

Upon its release, ''Two for the Road'' received mixed reviews, in large part due to its experimental, non-linear structure. Additionally, Hepburn's role as a wife and mother in a collapsing marriage was a radical departure from anything she had played previously. In subsequent years, the film has garnered more praise from authors, with some citing it as Donen's greatest film, and Hepburn's performance as the best of her career.

Plot

The story begins in 1966 in Romney Marsh, Kent. The wealthy and successful architect Mark Wallace and his wife Joanna drive their 1965 Mercedes 230SL past a wedding on the way to Lydd Airport, where they take a British United Air Ferries flight to France. Upon arriving in France, they begin a drive to the Saint-Tropez to meet with Mark's longtime client, Maurice Dalbret. As they make their way to the south of France, the unhappy couple reflect on four previous trips they made along the same route. The film jumps between their present and past trips to show how their relationship has broken down over time.

The first trip takes place in 1954 when Mark and Joanna catch sight of each other on a ferry from England to Dieppe. Mark is a young architect on a photography trip, while Joanna is travelling with her choir to a festival in Menton. When the ferry arrives in Dieppe, Mark becomes alarmed thinking he has lost his passport, but Joanna finds it in the top of his backpack. On the road to Abbeville, Mark and Joanna cross paths again after the choir's Volkswagen Microbus runs off the road and he stops to help them. Mark travels with the girls to Abbeville, and after everyone but Joanna and him catches chickenpox, the two go on alone together southwards. Mark tries repeatedly to ditch Joanna, but she stays with him. She finally tells Mark she loves him, and they spend the night together. Eventually they arrive at the Mediterranean where they stay in cheap hotels and spend their days at the beach. At the end of their week together, Mark asks Joanna to marry him.

The second trip is in 1957 when the Wallaces have been married two years. On this trip, they travel with a family from Erie, Pennsylvania in a 1957 Ford Country Squire. The family consists of Mark's former girlfriend from the University of Chicago, Cathy Seligman, her husband Howard Maxwell-Manchester, and their daughter Ruthie. The relationship between the Wallaces and Maxwell-Manchesters is notably strained, in large part due to Ruthie's disagreeableness. After Ruthie says out loud in the car that Cathy called Joanna a "suburban English nobody," Mark and Joanna leave the Maxwell-Manchesters and continue travelling by themselves.

The third trip takes place in June 1959, when the Wallaces travel for the first time on their own as a married couple, driving a rundown 1950 MG TD. This is the happiest of the couple's trips in France. Along the way, Joanna announces that she is pregnant. After the MG catches fire while driving, the Wallaces pull into a luxury hotel, the Domaine Saint-Just. They stay the night at the hotel and in the morning push the burnt-out car away. On the road, they are picked up in a Bentley S1 by a wealthy couple that was also staying at the Domaine. The couple, Maurice and Françoise Dalbret, mention that they need an architect, and after learning that this is Mark's profession, ask if he would help them. The Wallaces stay at the Dalbret villa in Ramatuelle, where Maurice gives him the details of the project and introduces him to his Greek partner Nikos Palamos. At the end of the trip Dalbret hires Mark to work for him.

Sometime after the birth of the Wallaces' daughter, Mark travels alone to France in a red 1961 Triumph Herald. During the trip he spends a night in a hotel with a woman named Simone. This sequence includes a voiceover of Mark reading a letter to Joanna, in which he lies about his activities and claims disingenuously to miss her.

In 1963, Mark and Joanna travel in the Triumph, now with their daughter Caroline, to see the project Mark is working on for Dalbret and Palamos. The Wallaces fight continually during the trip. When they arrive at the Dalbret property, Joanna meets Françoise's brother, David, and begins an affair with him. After she and David spend the night together Mark confronts them, and Joanna confesses she is in love with David. David later gives her the choice to leave Mark and come with him, however, she elects to return to Mark.

On their present trip in 1966, the Wallaces stay at or pass through many of the same locations from previous trips. During the drive, they discuss their failing marriage and the possibility of a divorce. When they stop for the night in a hotel, Mark is engrossed in work and pays little attention to Joanna. They arrive finally at the house Mark designed for the Comte and Comtesse de Florac in the fictional town of Cap Valéry. There is a party at the house and the guests include David and his fiancée Sylvia, and Maurice. During the party, Mark receives a phone call from the potential client Hal Van Benius, who says that he has hired Mark for a job that will require him to be in the United States for two years. Mark and Joanna sneak out of the party and take a slow drive through the forest. While they drive, they admit to one another that despite their frequent unhappiness and past unfaithfulness, they love one another and could never be apart.

In the final scene, the couple is crossing the Franco–Italian border on the way to meet Van Benius in Rome. At the border, Mark believes he has lost his passport, but Joanna holds it and leaves it for him on the steering wheel while he searches the trunk. The film ends as the Wallaces call each other "bitch" and "bastard" and drive into Italy.

Cast

* Audrey Hepburn as Joanna Wallace
* Albert Finney as Mark Wallace
* Kathy Chelimsky as Caroline Wallace
* Eleanor Bron as Cathy Maxwell-Manchester (née Seligman)
* William Daniels as Howard Maxwell-Manchester
* Gabrielle Middleton as Ruth Maxwell-Manchester
* Claude Dauphin as Maurice Dalbret
* Nadia Gray as Françoise Dalbret
* Georges Descrières as David
* Dominique Joos as Sylvia Albino
* Jacqueline Bisset as Jackie
* Judy Cornwell as Pat Wainwright
* Irène Hilda as Yvonne, Comtesse de Florac
* Roger Dann as the Comte de Florac
* Mario Verdon as Nikos Palamos
* Carol van Dyke as Michelle, Palamos's mistress
* Libby Morris as the American at the party
* Karyn Balm as Simone

Production

Background

Raphael conceived the idea for ''Two for the Road'' in 1963 while driving with his wife from London to Rome. This was a trip the couple had taken many times through their relationship, having first done it hitchhiking and now driving in an expensive car. He described himself thinking during the drive, "imagine if we overtook ourselves on the road ten years ago. Ten years seemed a long time in those days. Then I said, 'wait a minute. That's a movie.' "Stephen M. Silverman, ''Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and His Movies'', (New York: Knopf, 1996), 301. Raphael floated the idea to producer Joseph Janni, with whom he was working at the time on the picture '' Darling'', directed by John Schlesinger. Janni thought it was a good idea, but did not pursue it.

After ''Darling'', Raphael was asked by Norman Panama to do the script for ''Not with My Wife, You Don't!'' Raphael told his agent it was a "vulgar, banal story" and that he could not do it, but his agent persuaded him to take the project, which would pay £9,000. After a short time, Raphael decided he had to quit the film, even though reneging on the contract might cost him his reputation in the film industry. Raphael met in London with Panama, who agreed to let him go. During the meeting, Panama mentioned that at a recent dinner party Stanley Donen had expressed his praise for the writing in '' Nothing but the Best'' and said he wanted to work with Raphael. Panama offered to ask Donen to phone Raphael.

Stanley Donen and Frederic Raphael met in London in 1964. During the meeting, Raphael told Donen about the ''Two for the Road'' idea that he had pitched to Janni 18 months earlier and that had been sitting dormant since. Donen was intrigued by the concept and gave Raphael $40,000 to write the script. After the meeting, Donen telephoned Audrey Hepburn to see if she was interested in the project. Having just finished the unsuccessful '' Paris When It Sizzles'', which used some of the same non-linear storytelling Raphael intended for ''Two for the Road'', she did not want to participate. Nonetheless, Raphael and Donen decided to proceed with the script.

Raphael wrote the first draft of the script in the fall of 1964 while staying with his family in an apartment on the Via Francesco Ferrara in Rome. To compose the work, he wrote individual scenes on cards then rearranged them on the floor, creating a story with a mosaic effect. Raphael sent the typed script to Donen in England on Wednesday, 11 November. After reading the script, Donen telephoned on Friday, 13 November to say he thought it was the best script he had ever read. Donen then sent the scrip to Hepburn, who agreed to meet in Switzerland to discuss it. In January 1965, Donen and Raphael flew to Switzerland to meet Hepburn at her home in Bürgenstock and try a second time to convince her to work on the film. When they met, Hepburn told the men, "I don't want to say too much about how much I like the script of ''Two for the Road'', in case it embarrasses Frederico." However, Hepburn was concerned over the effect it would have on her modest image to play a part that included nudity, premarital sex, and adultery. Donen and Raphael allayed her fears and convinced her to accept the role. Hepburn signed for $750,000, her standard rate at the time.

Donen took the picture initially to Universal. His first choice for the leading man was Paul Newman, whom he sent the script. Newman declined the part on the grounds that it was a "director's picture" unsuited to a major star. After Newman's rejection, Universal dropped the project. Given he had signed a contract with Hepburn, Donen was forced to find another studio. He managed to secure backing from Twentieth Century-Fox. Donen's second choice for the leading male part was Albert Finney, who signed in early September 1965 for $300,000. In December 1965, Hepburn became pregnant, which would set the filming back at least a year. However, in January 1966 she miscarried, which allowed the movie to go ahead.

Finney and Hepburn had never met, and so Donen arranged a dinner in Paris for them to meet. At the dinner, Finney brought with him a male friend, and for the first half of the dinner pretended to be an effeminate homosexual. Donen said that "the entire lunch, Audrey's jaw kept dropping." Unable to contain himself anymore, Finney burst out laughing and quit the performance. The gag served to break the ice between the two leads.

Filming

The filming of ''Two for the Road'' began in July 1966. At the time, Hepburn's marriage to Mel Ferrer was breaking down. During the production Hepburn went to France alone, while Ferrer elected to remain in Tolochenaz with their son, Sean Ferrer, and negotiate the production of '' Wait until Dark''. Donen noted of Hepburn that "she was very strung up as we began filming. It was Albert who helped put her at ease." Finney, who had a northern working-class upbringing, was in many ways the antithesis of the aristocratic Hepburn, and was able to draw out a previously unseen side of her personality. As filming went on, the two became increasingly close and spent much of their time together outside of work, going out to eat and dance in the evenings. Hepburn's partner later in life, Robert Wolders, said that "Audrey cared for Finney a great deal. It was the beginning of a new period of her life." Finney later reflected on their relationship, explaining, "doing a scene with her, my mind knew I was acting but my heart didn't, and my body certainly didn't! Playing a love scene with someone as sexy as Audrey, you sometimes get to that edge where make-believe and reality are blurred. ..The time spent with Audrey is one of the closest I've ever had." Author Irwin Shaw, who visited the set, said of Hepburn, "she and Albie had this wonderful thing together, like a pair of kids with a perfect shorthand of jokes and references that closed out everybody else. It was like a brother and sister in their teens. When Mel was there, Audrey and Albie got rather formal and a little awkward, as if now they had to behave like grown ups." An unnamed source related, "if lbertand Audrey did make love, then they were discreet about it. But no one doubted the warmth between them."

Hepburn and Finney's closeness during the making of the film translated in their performances. Donen said later, "the Audrey I saw during the making of this film I didn't even know. She overwhelmed me. She was so free, so happy. I never saw her like that. So young! I guess it was Albie." Hepburn, who was 37 at the time of filming and insecure over her "dreadful thinness," was uncomfortable doing some of the beach scenes in which she was to wear a bathing suit. Finney, however, convinced her, saying "you're really an eyeful, Audrey." Donen also struggled to convince Hepburn to do the scene at the Dalbret villa where she is thrown in the pool. As a nine-year-old, Hepburn had tangled her feet in weeds in a pond and nearly drowned, and remained terrified of water her whole life. After three days of coaxing her and denying her request for a body double, Donen got her to do the scene, albeit with two assistants waiting to pull her out after the shot.

In the dialogue Joanna says that Mark was born in 1933, however, beyond that Raphael did not provide any background information about his characters. Donen invented several biographical details that are revealed on the passport the Wallaces use on their 1959 trip. The passport shows that Mark was born on 22 August 1933 in Chester, while Joanna was born on 11 July 1936 in Brentford. Joanna's occupation is listed as "housewife," which contradicts the script, when she later says "by the time I get home from work, it's pitch black." At the time, their residence is listed as Surrey.

Much of the dialogue had to be re-recorded due to the sound of outdoor generators on set. However, by the time of post-production, Jacqueline Bisset had left for the United States to make '' The Detective''. Donen hired another actress to read Bisset's parts and tried to get as close a match as he could. Consequently, Bisset's voice in the film is not her own.

Locations

Volkswagen trip

* Route D10 by Poste électrique du Plessis-Gassot, Val-d'Oise (bus crash)
* Aqueduc de Maintenon, Maintenon
* Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Senlis, Senlis
* Tour pigeonnier, Bussy-Saint-Georges
* Château de la Reine Blanche, Étangs de Commelles (hitchhiking)
* Hôtel de la Poste, unidentified town (first night together)
* Town square, Villeneuve-le-Comte (couple fighting in café)
* Route D27, Rayol-Canadel-sur-Mer (arrival at the Mediterranean)
* La Bouillabaisse Plage, Saint-Tropez
* Plage des Brouis, La Croix-Valmer (swimming at the beach)

Ford trip

* Château de Chantilly, Chantilly, Oise

MG trip

* Port de Nice (Port of Dieppe)
* Guernes–Rosny-sur-Seine ferry, Yvelines

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