Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney Are Two for the Road

This Should Be Way More Famous: Two for the Road

Director: Stanley Donen

Writer: Frederic Raphael

Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Albert Finney

Welcome to a brand new feature here as Schurmann Film, This Should Be Way More Famous. I don't really feel the need to explain it, largely because I think anybody who truly needs the concept explained to them almost certainly won't be able to follow the twisting, non-linear story of Mark and Joanna Wallace's (Finney and Hepburn) various trips through southern France that make up the 1967 classic, Two for the Road.

Two for the Road follows the relationship between Mark and Joanna from first meeting on a boat through to their dismal marital status a decade later. The story follows them as they embark on various road trips through the scenic French landscape. Hitchhiking together shortly after meeting, their first trip as a married couple in an unreliable MG TD, a road trip headed to Greece with another married couple, fighting while traveling to Mark's client's new house, and several other episodes in between. The story unfolds almost completely non-linearly, hopping between various trips and looping back-and-forth to show the highs and lows of the central relationship as locations are visited multiple times.

This framework allows for juxtaposition between events occurring many years apart and presents a full, rich, realistic portrait of these two people. The editing, done by Madeleine Gug and Richard Marden, manages to feel incredibly natural as it shifts through time, often in a showy manner. Mark and Joanna will drive by a location they previously hitchhiked at and the perspective will jump out of the car and onto the roadside in one motion. Stanley Donen's direction greatly aids in this, almost certainly coming from his experience directing musicals with Gene Kelly.

But the flourishes of this film need a strong foundation to work and Frederic Raphael's script is some of the best romantic drama writing ever committed to film. One part meet-cute romantic comedy, one part road trip film, several parts character portrait, and several more parts romantic drama this film is very modern feeling in its composition. Tonally it is very similar to Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy's masterful Before Trilogy. Everything, even the big directorial flourishes such as the stop at Chantilly, feel grounded and realistic by the treatment of the characters and events in Raphael's script.

I feel like I need to mention Henry Mancini's score somewhere but can't really find a place to put it in organically so I'm just going to heap mountains of praise upon it here. Mancini had scored a few Audrey Hepburn films before (most notably, Breakfast at Tiffany's) and his work on Two for the Road surpasses all his previous work. His work perfectly guides the emotions of the film from the screen right into the audience. Tugging at heartstrings, playfully flirty, distressingly tense: Mancini scores every aspect of the Wallace's relationship.

This is an incredible film. It is certainly Hepburn's best performance and while I haven't seen enough of Finney's work, I would be pleasantly surprised if I ever saw him top this. The real question is how much more famous should this film be? Well for starters, it should be up there with Audrey Hepburn's defining works: Breakfast at Tiffany's and Roman Holiday and probably even as famous as another 1967 romantic comedy-drama: The Graduate. Two for the Road is a modern feeling take on the relationship drama, sketching a full portrait of every aspect of the marriage. It's a masterful piece of art and it should be way more famous.