Editing Alain Resnais (section)

===1969–1980===
Resnais spent some time in America working on various unfulfilled projects, including one about the [[Marquis de Sade]]. He also published ''Repérages'', a volume of his photographs, taken between 1948 and 1971, of locations in London, Scotland, Paris, Nevers, Lyon, New York and Hiroshima; Jorge Semprun wrote the introductory text.<ref>''Repérages: photographies de Alain Resnais; texte de Jorge Semprun''. (Paris: Chêne, 1974.) For a study of the book, see the [http://www.bifi.fr/public/ap/article.php?id=215 article by Suzanne Liandrat-Guigues et Jean-Louis Leutrat] in the online Bibliothèque du film of the Cinémathèque Française [retrieved 1 December 2010].</ref> Some of the photographs relate to his unfulfilled Harry Dickson film.

After contributing an episode to ''L'An 01 (The Year 01)'' (1973), a collective film organised by [[Jacques Doillon]], Resnais made a second collaboration with Jorge Semprun for ''[[Stavisky]]'' (1974), based on the life of the notorious financier and embezzler whose death in 1934 provoked a political scandal. With glamorous costumes and sets, a musical score by [[Stephen Sondheim]], and [[Jean-Paul Belmondo]] in the title role, it was seen as Resnais's most commercial film to date, but its complex narrative structure showed clear links with the formal preoccupations of his earlier films.<ref>Robert Benayoun, ''Alain Resnais: arpenteur de l'imagination''. (Paris: Ramsay, 2008.) p.143, pp.150–151.</ref>

With ''[[Providence (1977 film)|Providence]]'' (1977), Resnais made his first film in English, with a screenplay written by [[David Mercer (playwright)|David Mercer]], and a cast that included [[John Gielgud]], [[Dirk Bogarde]] and [[Ellen Burstyn]]. The story shows an ageing, maybe dying, novelist grappling with alternative versions of his own past as he adapts them for his fiction. Resnais was eager that the dark subject should remain humorous, and he described it as "a macabre divertissement".<ref>Interview with Resnais (by Robert Benayoun) in ''Positif'', no.190, février 1977; reprinted in ''Alain Resnais'': anthologie établie par Stéphane Goudet. (Paris: Gallimard, 2002.) p.246: "...&nbsp;j'espère que ce film est drôle car je le vois comme un divertissement, macabre certes et noir, mais un divertissement tout de même."</ref> Formal innovation characterised ''[[Mon oncle d'Amérique]]'' (''My American Uncle'', 1980) in which the theories of the neurobiologist [[Henri Laborit]] about animal behaviour are juxtaposed with three interwoven fictional stories; and a further counterpoint to the fictional characters is provided by the inclusion of film extracts of the classic French film actors with whom they identify.<ref>David Robinson, "Resnais's imaginative parallels of human behaviour", in ''The Times'' (London), 12 Sept. 1980, p.8.</ref> The film won several international awards including the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, and it also proved to be one of Resnais's most successful with the public.<ref>Robert Benayoun, ''Alain Resnais: arpenteur de l'imagination''. (Paris: Ramsay, 2008.) p.252.</ref>