My Favorite Alain Resnais Film

This is the post I've been putting off the longest, because I've had the worst time trying to pick a film for Alain Resnais. He is without question one of the greats, in fact the last director on my list of personal favorites who I believe deserves the title without question. However, after watching every Resnais feature I could get my hands on, I came to the realization that my favorite movie of his was one I'd already written a post on in 2012. However, unlike other existing posts that I've incorporated into the Great Directors list, I wasn't satisfied with this one - I have more to say about the film, especially now in the context of seeing so much of Alain Resnais' other work.

So, the only solution I can see is revisiting the film, "Providence," and rewriting my review as a Great Directors post officially.

So let's talk about Alain Resnais, the New Wave adjacent French filmmaker who was playing with non-linear narratives and meta elements decades before Christopher Nolan and Charlie Kaufman. There are several distinct phases to the director's career, and "Providence" came toward the end of his most formally inventive period, when he was moving away from politically-minded subject matter to more existential themes. Time and memory are the subjects he returned to over and over again throughout his entire career, and are central to "Providence," his only film that was totally in English. The French loved it, the Americans hated it, and the Brits were very mixed.

An old man named Clive Langham played by John Gielgud spends a wakeful night alone, drunken and perhaps dying. He imagines scenes for a new novel he's writing, about a trio of people engaged in a bitter love triangle. There are suggestions that his characters are based on real people from his past, a past that he can't escape no matter how he manipulates and replays the scenes we see unfold. As the night goes on, he internally battles over the fates of his creations, and the writer's own memories and regrets intrude. The stellar cast includes Dirk Bogarde, Ellen Burstyn, David Warner, and Elaine Strich.

Resnais was always described as a very cerebral, rather cold director. Many of his most famous films involve these deeply personal reveries exploring an individual's fragmentary thoughts and perceptions, but there's a coolness and deliberateness to the narratives that makes them feel emotionally detached, held at a distance. This could be beneficial, especially in his early work like "Night and Fog," which catalogued the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. However, it made his features like "Last Year in Marienbad" and "Hiroshima Mon Amour" more difficult for me to connect with.

"Providence," on the other hand, is full of roiling emotions. We see the rage and vindictiveness of Langham directly reflected in his creations - a cuckolded husband, a traitorous wife, and a soldier with a monstrous side. We see his regrets and fears manifest in the way their stories unfold, and the inconsistency of their construction. Some have interpreted the film's seemingly happy, pastoral ending to be Langham's true reality, but I'm not convinced it isn't just another fantasy reflecting Langham's wishful thinking. However, what's vital is that even though it's never made clear what is real and what is not in "Providence," Clive Langham undergoes a very well delineated spiritual and emotional journey. And I found it a very moving one.

What also appeals to me are the meta elements - in this case Langham's struggle to produce a compelling story and characters, and the fascinating relationship that develops between the artist and his work. As the god of this universe, Langham has the power to make scenes repeat, dialogue to adjust, and the fundamental nature of his creations to change. However, what he's unable to control is the aspects of his personal experience and his own ego that keep slipping through - the ironic asides, the deep-seated resentments. His bitter commentary on the action reveals his frustration with the creative process, and the ease with which he's sidetracked by other preoccupations. And it makes the awful Langham so terribly human and sympathetic.

Alain Resnais' work fascinates me because it's so subjective and so interior, yet marvelously visual and dynamic. The films he made with editor Albert Jurgenson in the '70s, including "Providence," are my favorites for the way they capture the inner lives and impressions of their protagonists. There are so many, many filmmakers who owe those films a debt. And I sincerely hope that they'll be rediscovered by more viewers over time.

What I've Seen - Alain Resnais

Hiroshima mon amour (1959)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
Muriel (1963)
The War Is Over (1966)
Je t'aime, Je t'aime (1968)
Stavisky (1974)
Providence (1977)
My American Uncle (1980)
Mélo (1986)
Private Fears in Public Places (2006)
Wild Grass (2009)
You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet! (2012)
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