Two for the Road

Viewed through a contemporary prism, one might pithily describe 1967's Two for the Road as being like the entire Before trilogy compacted into one feature, as filtered through the style of the French New Wave. Arriving the same year as the similarly FNW-inspired Bonnie and Clyde, Stanley Donen's film feels just as potent a tearaway from the fading Hollywood studio system, and arguably a greater upheaval in that it came from someone who thrived in that system for two decades prior (Singin' in the Rain, Charade).

Cut together as non-linear fragments, Donen's film follows a couple (Hepburn and Finney) through four trips across the south of France, portraying the tale of the dissolution of their relationship, from first meetings to later marriage disputes, across different time frames. Hepburn, shedding her established persona with glee, is particularly great, while Frederic Raphael's acerbic screenplay has touches of material he'd explore decades later with Eyes Wide Shut. [Josh Slater-Williams]