Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Clothes on Film -- Two for the Road

Joanna (Audrey Hepburn): [upset] You just want me to become a beautiful memory, the sooner the better!
Mark (Albert Finney): Who said anything about beautiful?

How nice of the programing folks at Turner Classic Movies to broadcast "Two for the Road" while I'm in the middle of mod madness. "Two for the Road" was one of the last movies Audrey Hepburn made before she left filmmaking for 9 years to raise her children. The movie wasn't a hit when it was first released: the story, of the romance and troubled marriage of a couple driving through France, is told in multiple flashbacks that audiences found confusing. It also portray's Americans unpleasantly, to say the least. I think the screenwriter, Frederic Raphael, an American living in England who also wrote the screenplay for "Darling," was getting revenge on an ex-girlfriend. The movie is worth watching for Audrey Hepburn's performance. She plays a bitch and does it wearing a haute 60s wardrobe by Paco Rabanne, Mary Quant, Hardy Amies, Foale and Tuffin, and others.

One commentator speculated that Audrey's wardrobe wasn't by her usual designer, Givenchy, because her character, Joanna Wallace, was a housewife. I can't remember too many 60's housewives wearing Paco Rabanne or vinyl pantsuits, either.

Unfortunately it's hard to find good still photos from the film, probably because it's not one of Audrey's most popular, so I can't show you my favorite looks from the film. But if you're interested in seeing a fashion show from the late 60's on one of the world's best models, check out "Two for the Road" the next time it's on TV.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

BTW, Frederic Raphael is British, not American.

Gidget Bananas said...

IMDB gives Raphael's place of birth as Chicago, Ill. (and we share a birthday -- the day, not the year, thank goodness.) And, good heavens, it also says he wrote the screenplay for "Eyes Wide Shut." Not his best moment, that.

Anonymous said...

I just saw this film on AMC and couldn't get over the incredible fashion! Audrey is gorgeous, and the clothes are amazing. I scoured the internet to find a picture of her in the black pvc pant suit and couldn't find it anywhere! But here you have it, so thank you, thank you, thank you. Next time this movie is on I'm taping it so I can copy all the outfits :)