The Trip to Italy

A film in which two actors tour Italy for a food column. Steve and Rob are to visit six restaurants and write about them for a newspaper. A car is hired, a route is set, and off they go: Liguria, Tuscany, Rome, Capri. Most of the film consists of conversation at the table. The two keep doing impressions, outdoing each other and taking nothing seriously. Those passages are largely improvised. But there is something else underneath. The route follows the Italian journeys of the English poets, and both men are in their forties; the talk keeps turning to ageing, where a career is going and what will be left behind. In this film Rob's side comes forward, reversing the balance of the first one. The performers use their own names and play exaggerated versions of themselves. It was in fact shot as a television series and cut down for cinema; the series continued in several countries. Michael Winterbottom directed. An enjoyable choice for anyone who likes improvised comedy and road films. For a viewer expecting a plot, the film is almost entirely conversation and its structure is identical to the first one.