‘Two for the Road’ Is Back In All Its Wide-Screen Glory

Not too long ago, a video collector reportedly paid $300 for a videotape copy of the 1967 Stanley Donen film “Two for the Road.” Too bad. If he had waited just a little longer, for not too much more he could have gotten a laser-disc player and a vastly superior wide-screen version that presents the film the way the director intended it to be seen.

Comparing the laser videodisc with the videotape is like comparing the crown jewels with a rhinestone tiara.

CBS/Fox Video and Image Entertainment have just released the wide-screen version ($60, 111 minutes) of the classic film starring Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn on extended-play format with digital sound enhancing the original monaural. If your only acquaintance with this wonderfully witty, insightful look at love and marriage comes from seeing it on television or from the panned-and-scanned videotape version, you’re in for a whole new viewing experience. And along for the ride on analog Audio Track 2 is director Donen talking about the making of the film: its complexities, problems, innovations, satisfactions.

Donen, who earlier had co-directed “Singin’ in the Rain” and “On the Town” with Gene Kelly, then on his own directed a series of memorable musicals (“Royal Wedding,” “Funny Face,” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”) and romantic comedies/mysteries (“Charade,” “Indiscreet”), recruited writer Frederic Raphael to collaborate on a film with him. The two rejected a number of book adaptation possibilities, then hit upon an original idea--burrowing into the essence of marriage by following a couple on holiday, in and out of years, in and out of sequence.

“I thought maybe there was a story in . . . two people traveling down the road through different time periods, and this was the beginning of ‘Two for the Road,’ ” Donen says.

It was simple and brilliant at the same time, especially as the director and writer envisioned the intercut time periods and connective scenes and dialogue. Of course, it was too brilliant for most Hollywood honchos to understand. At the time, Donen had a deal with Universal, but even his having the popular Hepburn under contract for the film wasn’t persuasive enough. Just about every studio in town turned down the movie until it landed on Richard Zanuck and David Brown’s desk at 20th Century Fox. They understood it, loved it, and gave it a green light.

Anxious as he was to make the film, Donen insisted that no one “tamper with the editing,” that he have absolute authority over it, including final cut. “I was making a movie that was, in a way, different from other films.”

Indeed he was, and in looking at in on wide screen, it’s clear that when we see it panned and scanned we aren’t seeing the same film.

On videotape the environment of the film changes. Wide scenes with three or four people become close shots of one or two; scenes with a couple interacting become close-up talking head duels. Running the videotape version alongside the laser version lets you see just how claustrophobic the chopped-for-TV-size-screen version is. To make matters worse, the videotape loses enormous amounts of clarity and color as it sits on the shelf; it’s like looking at an out-of-focus Polaroid that’s been left out in the sun too long. The only fault to be found with the laser version is a tendency for some of the wide-screen scenes to flatten out around the edges, but that is a minor quibble.

Raphael’s clever dialogue, Henry Mancini’s film score with its ingratiating theme, cinematographer Christopher Challis’ sensitive photography and Donen’s innovative editing make this a film you have to pay attention to. The performances are superlative: Finney and Hepburn are unforgettable capturing each nuance of a couple’s life together, before and after marriage; Eleanor Bron and William Daniels are the definitive boorish couple.

Donen’s running commentary on the added audio track makes a second viewing of the film mandatory. Among the tidbits:

* The film was the most difficult he ever shot: “I remember my naivete thinking this would be a very easy picture to make. . . . It was a real struggle from beginning to end.”

* The film was made entirely on location, which meant lugging the five cars (and their doubles) that take Hepburn and Finney through France, wardrobes that cross time zones and the full technical crew all over the country. “We looked like an army moving through France.”

* Donen regrets the sound used for an MG that develops engine trouble. “I wish I had time to put in a different sound effect for the donk in the engine.”

* Donen rejected Henry Mancini’s first score for the film, done before he saw the completed movie. Donen suggested that Mancini come back and look at the film; he did and returned with another score. “He came back a week later to thank me,” Donen says.

* “Two for the Road” was the first picture Hepburn made in which she was not dressed by a couturier . “It was tough for her to give up Givenchy.” Also, for the first time, she allowed herself to be in a nude scene and to utter profanity.

* All the juxtaposed time sequences and audio and visual “connectives” linking the scenes were not thought up as filming went along or in the editing room. “The picture was really planned before the filming,” down to the last detail.

It’s that vision, down to the last detail, and what may be Hepburn’s and Finney’s finest performances, that have made people pay $300 for poor-quality videotape of the film. “Two for the Road” is a film that touches people on a personal level achieved by few others.

For some, says Donen, it’s the most romantic film they’ve ever seen, for others a painful reminder of betrayed love. “There seems to be something in this movie that touches a lot of people personally,” the director says. And it will touch many more, now that it can be seen the way it was shot.