Reading Dirk Bogarde's recently published 'Letters', I was glad to be reminded of his work on Alain Resnais's English-language debut film, 'Providence' (1977).   John Gielgud also appeared and I checked his book of 'Letters' for cross-reference. 

Bogarde was already a highly qualified screen actor as well as practiced in indentifying a dud screenplay on sight.   David Mercer's screenplay left him in an uncertain vein, was it a work of genius or highly pretentious?   He also sensed that John Gielgud's acceptance of the plum role of his father was also likely to dominate the film.   In turn, Gielgud went straight for the essence of his role and wittily summarised his experience in a letter to Bogarde; a stifling studio in Paris and an exquisite location in cold weather at Limoges.

    "But what fun it was - even with the vileness of the weather, hot and cold in all the
    wrong taps, but I shall always feel proud to have worked with you so happily and to have
    got away with a character which I frankly feared was too butch for me to make convincing.
    I know I could never have done it on the stage, but somehow, the location and strange speeches
    gave me a sort of courage to let myself go in a new way - for me - in trying to act for the screen."

The film was voted film of the seventies by an international panel of film-makers and critics and is now ignored.   I don't even know whether it was ever released on video, or DVD, but my off-air video was recorded on 13 July 1997 when it was transmitted on BBC 2 ar 00.25 hrs.

Of course, the format is very Alain Resnais as he plays intricate games with time and memory; you are never quite sure whether the action is a flashback to a real event, or a figment of the imagination of a dying novelist (John Gielgud).   I'd opt for the latter but David Mercer's script is a delicious pastiche of disturbed and poisonous family relationships and has the florid dialogue only found in purple fiction.  The performances are well pitched in a style required for the playing of a comedy of manners; it's only in the closing scenes that the style segues from a baroque extravagance into normality.   This brings an unexpected poignancy to the last scene which still brings tears to my eyes.

Highly skilled performances from John Gielgud, Dirk Bogarde (with a few reservations), Ellen Burstyn, David Warner and Elaine Stritch as the warring factions.

An extraordinary coincidence in the recording which accompanies 'Providence'.   The OMNIBUS series:  'Michael Redgrave: My Father', a fortuitous documentary, presented by Corin Redgrave, a year or two after his memoir was published.  An affectionate portrait of the Redgrave family but it is also a forthright portrait of a deeply troubled man, his emotionally distant nature as a father, his sexuality and politics.   Much taken by the portrait of Michael Redgrave as Hamlet - at Stratford on Avon - as it has a strong likeness to the features of Dirk Bogarde who was also invited by Peter Hall to play the role at Stratford.    But, really, Redgrave and Bogarde should have a thread to themselves.   As I head towards my 1000th posting, I have a cunning plan!

Providence did make it to video at least briefly, Stanley, but I've never come across a DVD. As you say, for a film which had a high reputation at the time it is odd that it has now vanished almost without trace. I wonder why. Too 'literary' perhaps?   

Has it? I'd never heard of Providence, but Hiroshima mon Amour crops up pretty regularly in arts cinemas and on modern languages/cinema courses, I thought. It was certainly a regular screening at the Cambridge arts cinema as part of their Modern European Cinema course when I was a student.

My, Ted, but you do dine at High Table.     Can't ever imagine watching "The Big Knife" over a telly dinner!   I'm really heartened to know that anyone remembers those glorious Clifford Odets overheated dramas.   They work well - or did - in the theatre when Sam Wannamaker played Charlie but Jack Palance's intensity did send it off-the-rails.   A fine performer nevertheless - terrifying in "Shane".   Years later, I met him strolling in Holland Park and we had a most affable conversation.   Must start a thread on meetings in Holland Park suitably expurgated.     

You certainly put me to the test with "Phaedra" when I smugly retorted that it was Ingrid Bergman, not Melina Mercouri, opposite Anthony Perkins.  It was the Goldberg Variations which wiped the smile off my face as I distinctly remembered Brahms Sym No 3 in my mind.    Doh!   I was thinking of "Goodbye, Again" - within a year of "Phaedra" with Perkins and Bergman.   Two highly popular black & white melodramas.    Such pleasant memories.

I've just been reading Dirk Bogarde's Letters as I've always enjoyed his work and, particularly, his writing.   I'd usually place him in the anally retentive school of acting but, at his best, his craftsmanship and refinement were of the highest quality.   I certainly wouldn't ever want to see The Night Porter again but often give his other films a spin quite regularly.   I only had a brief correspondence with him and, having attended his hilarious John Player Lecture at the NFT - he stopped the show talking about the Hollywood biopic of Liszt, "Song Without End" - I tried to draw him out on why his rich sense of humour was excluded from his work.   He always pointed to the restrictions in the scripts but I suspect that other facets inhibited him in this respect.

The Silver Chalice - I think it's only fair to say 'pass' on a rather dull film.   I DVD recorded 'The Colour of Money' from BBC 1, on Monday night.    I don't think it is quite in the same league as "The Hustler" (1961) when Paul Newman memorably played the same natural loser, "Fast" Eddie Felson but, in both films, what a star performer and an actor.   Rather good to watch his developing career over 50 years.