Review of Providence (1977) by Walter M — 05 May 2014

In "Providence," Ken Woodford(David Warner), a soldier, is on trial for murder. Ken claims that the man he killed wanted to be put out of his misery to spare him an excruciating death. Luckily, for him, the jury believes him. That does not make Claude Langham(Dirk Bogarde), the prosecutor, any happier in losing the case. At the same time, Claude's wife, Sonia(Ellen Burstyn) tries to befriend and then seduce Ken which fails. In response, Claude's elderly father Clive(John Gielgud), a writer, creates Helen(Elaine Stritch) for Claude, who also bears an uncanny resemblence to Clive's late wife.

First the obvious. "Providence" is a weird movie. That just goes to show you what happens when Alain Resnais makes a movie in English about somebody trying to create his own fantasy world like Clive does here, with unpredictable reality constantly intruding. At first, the military dictatorship depicted in the film may seem like science fiction but the mass arrests in the soccer stadium are meant to I think reflect the then current situation in Pinochet's Chile. Overall, the movie takes place nowhere and everywhere with the only clue being that everybody reads New York Magazine. In any case, the absurdist elements do not work anywhere near as well as the average episode of Monty Python in this movie that simply goes on too long.