Let's continue the cinematic thread that started yesterday with a brief post on British comedy drama Two for the Road (1967).
Directed by Stanley Donen and written by Frederic Raphael (who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing for this movie), the film (with a soundtrack by Henry Mancini, more famous for penning "Moon River" for Breakfast at Tiffany's) follows the relationship between successful architect Mark Wallace (Albert Finney) and his wife Joanna (Audrey Hepburn), from its early days, through marriage, infidelity, quarrels and projects for wealthy and generous yet demanding client Maurice.
The most interesting thing about this film is the way the plot unravels on cars, rather than in a proper house. Home is indeed never portrayed, but the main characters are always shown on the move, travelling in cars, ferries and planes, hitch-hiking, running, walking and swimming. The car in this film replaces the house, providing mobility and a set where the couple can keep on arguing while showing their financial progress and geographic change of scene.
The other peculiar aspect of this film is the non-linear narration: through clever editing we see the couple going backward and forward in time, something that allows the director to juxtapose different frames to comic effect while introducing the viewers to new cars and fashion trends.
Several cars feature in the film (a Mercedes-Benz 230SL roadster, an MG TD, a Triumph Herald, a VW Microbus, and a Ford Country Squire among the others), but also several designer clothes.
While Finney wears Hardy Amies, Hepburn's wardrobe includes several different designers – Ken Scott, Paco Rabanne, Michèle Rosier, Mary Quant and Foale and Tuffin (and a Louis Vuitton bag appears at the very beginning of the film). The hairstyles in the film also evolve and change with the clothes: they were designed by Italian hairdresser Grazia De Rossi who created quite a few styles for Hepburn throughout her career and even followed the actress in 1957 to New York when she starred in the TV version of "Mayerling".
Cars, dynamism and fashion are tackled also in a display dedicated to Two for the Road at the Zaha Hadid-designed Riverside Museum in Glasgow.
The display includes Op Art painting "Arrest III" (1965) by Bridget Riley, and a red Morris Mini-Minor from 1959 (though the film was shot in 1967 and features a Convertible/Cabrio model) that reminds visitors how Austin marketed its Mini as "Wizardry in Wheels" since it could comfortably fit a family of four.
The Riverside Museum display also features a compact portable red radio from the early '60s and the 1966 chain mail dress by Paco Rabanne that Hepburn wears towards the end of the film.
Fashion-wise Rabanne's mini-dresses broke with convention and signalled the arrival of something radically new on the scene; in the same way Hepburn wears this design in the film when the Wallaces end their long-term relationship with Maurice, find a new client in Rome and analyse the tensions and faults in their marriage. Later on, once again in their car and wearing different yet equally modern looks, they cross the border from France to Italy, moving into a more mature future.
Rabanne's rhodoid plastic and metal evening dress assumes therefore in the film a new symbolism, hinting at dynamism, change and a future not only for fashion but for the troubled couple as well.
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