Providence

Screening on Film

Directed by Alain Resnais.
With John Gielgud, Dirk Bogarde, Ellen Burstyn.
France/Switzerland, 1977, 35mm, color, 107 min.

In his first English-language production, Resnais employs a script by the British playwright David Mercer, an outstanding ensemble cast, and an effective score by Miklos Rozsa in a reflection on the creative process that rivals Marienbad in its audacious structure. A renowned but aging writer (Gielgud), facing illness and writer’s block, works through one mad night on a new novel as he reflects on his past and his fears—rendered in a pastiche of vivid imagery and sounds. The setting is a beautiful country house, which provides a counterpoint of calm to the writer’s turbulent mental world and the assortment of family members and acquaintances who impinge upon it.