16 October 2006

Two for the Road and Pillow Talk

Stanley Donen directed the first film today:


Two for the Road. This is a film with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney as a couple who incidentally meet. She is a singer in a choir and he is a struggling architect.
They meet on the road when the bus with choirsingers crash and Finney's rôle character is trying to help them.

The film wanders back and forth in time and it begins when the two main characters, being married for a couple of years, are engaged in one of many quarrels, discussing divorce.

During the film we follow the history around their relationship from the first meeting, displaying why Finney chosed Hepburns character instead of one of her friends in the choir with whom he first started flirting; problems with unfaithfulness; discussions around relations; life in general; other people's marriages and so forth.

The idea is interesting but after a while you find that it's the same situation on the beach or at a party and it feels like a déja vu- experience.
It has its comic points but to repetitive and to long. The story is not sufficiently interesting.

Film number two is:

Pillow Talk by Michael Gordon with Rock Hudson and Doris Day in the two main rôles as Brad Allen ('Rex Stetson') and Jan Morrow.
They share the same telephone-connection and she can overhear his conversations with all the women he dates. He sings them a song with the same lyrics but changes the name in the song depending on who he is talking to.

Day's character - Jan - finds Brad intolerable and she contacts the Telephone company to see if she can get a connection of her own.

By chance at a restaurant Brad overhears a conversation between Jan and a man and he realises that this is the angry woman on the other end of the telephone.
He is immediately attracted by her but dare not approach her as himself. He pretends being a man from Texas and begin his moves to get her interested in him. He playes a double rôle.

It turns out that his best friend also is in love with Jan.

This makes it complicated and in the end Brad is revealed as an imposter.

In the end they become a couple of course. Predictable - yes - but somewhat entertaining.

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