Recent Viewings, Part 2

[M.10rda]

PROVIDENCE (1977):
In the past I've mentioned my movie-loving friend David, who once played a thinly veiled version of director James Foley in one of my plays. Recently David turned 70 and when I asked him what kind of present he'd like, he told me he wanted a copy of this rather obscure feature from Alan Renais, director of LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD and NIGHT AND FOG. David last watched it in the early 80s and hadn't been able to find a copy since. His wish was my command, and David enjoyed revisiting PROVIDENCE so much he asked me to watch it w/ him again last week. Wow, it's a movie.

David Warner is on trial for murder and Dirk Bogarde is the prosecutor. Warner is acquitted (quickly, not a spoiler) and Bogarde is immediately non-plussed, then even moreso when he comes home (to his lovely mansion) and finds Warner hanging out w/ Mrs. Bogarde (Ellen Burstyn). For better or worse, Bogarde is also having an affair - with (of all people) Elaine Stritch, who (as other characters acknowledge) looks about 20 years too old for Dirk. (Bogarde and Stritch were both in their 50s and Bogarde was actually 4 years older than Stritch irl, but Bogarde looks great as usual and Stritch looks like Stritch.) Every now and then the action pauses and cuts to John Gielgud, soliloquizing as he suffers (maybe dies slowly) in bed. Oh yeah, there's also some sort of fascist regime rounding up the elderly, and a subplot involving lycanthropy, and a football (aka American soccer) player who runs through scenes intermittently for no apparent reason.

But wait! About 2/3rds of the way through (and after Bogarde begins to climactically brandish a revolver), there's a reveal of sorts........ not exactly a twist, but a change of setting that provides a new perspective on the characters and their relationships. What was a highly Pinteresque, nearly absurdist exercise in formalism becomes involving and even emotionally affecting, at least in an odd manner. Warner's performance is typically odd as well, and Burstyn (still a huge star after EXORCIST and ALICE DLHA) behaves in a mostly arch, artificial fashion, though by design I think. Weirdly enough, the legendarily acidic Stritch actually is grounded and relatable here.

PROVIDENCE succeeds though because of Bogarde and Gielgud, who eventually get to share the screen. Gielgud was a universal signifier of Quality Acting before I was born and in my youth I only knew him for his Academy Award-winning role in ARTHUR  and then a bit later in CALIGULA (which isn't, tbh, a good reflection of Gielgud's talent). In PROVIDENCE, he savors every elliptical crypticism as if it was Shakespearean gold and truly earns his rep. And Bogarde effortlessly delivers a parade of eloquent, caustic, heartfelt, and always compelling Oscar nom-reel clip contenders, unknowing or indifferent to the fact he's acting in a bizarre French artfilm that most US and British Academy voters will never bother to watch. Class act.

4.5/5    Great film, exactly what you'd expect and want from the author of MARIENBAD.