SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

MartinHafer Alain Resnais made some nice films...and he also made some bizarre artsy films, such as "Last Night at Marienbad". This is one of the more artsy ones...and because of that, it has rather limited appeal. I just cannot imagine the casual viewer wanting to see a film like this...mostly only Resnais groupies and folks who like this sort of thing.The film is apparently all imagined from the viewpoint of a man dying in bed (John Gielgud) and he imagines all sorts of weird things. Considering it was made in 1977, I was a bit surprised by the language (it's very explicit at times) and the autopsy scene which looked a lot more real than I thought you could do at the time! Overall, a very confusing, strange and difficult film. So strange and difficult I must admit I didn't enjoy it very much.

SixtusXLIV Since so many good comments have been written here, mostly on the psychological side of the characters, and they are all excellent, I decided to comment upon a very present entity and that is WINE.Notice that, until the last scene, everybody drinks white, mostly CHABLIS, an acid one. But on that last scene Resnais shifts to RED. It is no accident, it has in my modest opinion, a way that illustrates a very fundamental change in the feelings that occurred in that lunch.Criticism and over-analysis, ever present till that event, give way to peaceful acceptance of the characters by the father, Without hypocrite sensibility, that he refuses, but with warmth and tolerance.Well, I do believe, by some 55 years of experience, that white wine (dry, European style) makes one restless and sometimes bitter.Red wine makes one more relaxed and happy.I do not know which kind of wine Resnais prefers, but since he is a Breton I would not be surprised, that it is WHITE. Maybe that is the reason why His movies are so difficult to decode. They are also some of the most magnificent works of cinematic art..

kris-oak Old, severely ill with with a piece of writers block and another piece of insomnia, John Gielgods protagonist one night, dreams up broken pieces of a story based in his own subconscious and emotional relationships to his family and friends.And this night, racked with the pains of his illness and his guilt over a life spent living, it all combines into a claustrophobical nightmare. Or is it the truth ? Resnais in this film presents us with with a very human condition; the possibility that we all construct the story of our lives to a larger extent, from pieces of the subconscious that we re not aware of or aren't just fit to handle objectively.Beautifully shot, with John Gielgod as a master actor, supported by Dirk Bogarde and others, this movie was, I think, my first Resnais movie; it sticks with me in the passionate way of straight emotions like love hate or whatever you desire, combined with the small faults that makes us all human; unable not to come back to again and again.It ends beautifully with a kind of a promise about the human soul.

Darroch Greer This film is a rare treat in which both the head and the heart are dazzled by a real work of art. Alain Renais' beautiful and brilliant "Providence" might play as intellectual absurdism at first glance, until one realizes the point of view from which the movie is being told. It's a pity we had to wade through decades of tedious, stilted performances from Geilgud, but it was worth the wait because in "Providence" he springs full flower with a stunning turn as a second-rate British novelist, who will never be as good as Graham Greene. Geilgud is ably supported by Bogarde, Burstyn, and Warner as his seeming calous children. Powerful stuff.