Released just before commercial cinema began its descent into adolescent sensationalism, Resnais’ masterpiece of meaning, time and truth garnered numerous awards and recognition throughout Europe, but is summarily ignored by modern film theorists and practitioners. By presenting the narrative process as egotistical and damaging, Resnais and screenwriter David Mercer offer an alternative process for cinematic storytelling – the film constantly rewrites itself, forcing the audience to decipher fact from fiction – but modern media education foolishly insists that this style of first person narrative is impossible on film and television, preferring to force the prejudicial, restrictive processes of the self-contained narrative onto their unwitting students.

Here, an old man lies in bed, only half-awake on the eve of his birthday. Tomorrow his family, content and successful, will visit him with their heartfelt wishes, but tonight, full of booze and bitter vile, he will re-imagine their personal histories and relationships, to the point that they start to resemble him more than themselves. This basic set-up allows Resnais and Mercer to explore the lies and hypocrisy behind conventional storytelling, and the manipulative nature of narrative form in cinema. Their success at this, and the refreshingly brilliant performance from John Gielgud that holds the film together, should ensure Providence as an essential component of any modern media education course, rather than the marginalised, art-house oddity it is undoubtedly perceived as by many tutors and lecturers.

Providence at the IMDb