Word: conscious
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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PROVIDENCE is an inordinately self-conscious film. It is as though Resnais himself, aware of his failings, were trying in advance to counter expected criticisms. "Some say that in my work style replaces feeling," he has one of his characters pronounce. "I say that style is feeling, and its most elegant, economical expression." Style is certainly Resnais's forte. The whole film is an elaborate, often stunning attempt to find cinematic metaphors for states of mind, to link color and narrative mode to psychological perceptions...
...self-image from other people's imaginings. Her husband--"a sanctimonious sod," his father calls him--is a model of self-control, afraid of violence "because it reeks of spontaneity," of himself because his own urges to violence must be so vigorously suppressed. He is also the self-conscious seeker of "a moral language" to set against his father's passionate self-indulgence. Dissatisfied with his son's marriage to Sonia, Langham obliges her to pursue Kevin Woodford (David Warner), the defendant in the trial sequence, and couples his son with a mistress (Elaine Stritch) who bears a suspicious resemblance...
...these scenes are fictive. After an hour-and-a-half of stylized dialogue sandwiched between ominous images--of bands of refugees waiting to be dragged away, of a body being disemboweled, of a hand turning over a rock to reveal worms crawling underneath, the filter is removed, and reality--conscious reality--glints forth in images of pastoral purity. We are back in Providence, Gielgud's luxurious estate, framed by equally lush verdure and a glittering lake, and the context of the preceding segments is gradually clarified...
Similarly subtle features of Welcome distinguish it from its acclaimed forerunner. Rudolph's script is very conscious of the need to deal with its characters on their own terms, without any touch of caricature. A few of Tewksberry's characters bordered on becoming stereotypes; Chaplin's featherweight BBC journalist and Shelley Duvall's L.A. Joan are cases in point. Rudolph skirted this chronic problem by allowing his cast considerable freedom to exercise their improvisational skills. While he did bring a finished script to the filming phase of the production, Rudolph still placed a premium on preserving a certain force...
...Harvard readers. Segal's portrayal of Harvard is distorted, yet it is the one that millions of Americans apparently want to believe. The syndrome is a familiar one: Segal obviously fell head over heels in love with Harvard and all its money-encrusted trappings, heavy-handed traditions, and self-conscious style when he was here. He seems unable to break away from his seemingly idyllic undergraduate days. Hence the creation of the Barretts, with their wealth and generations of Harvardiana. Oliver is the consummate Harvard hero--hip, smooth, and above all rich, an amalgamation of everything Segal apparantly admires...