HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR Movie Review

Alain Resnais had made a number of acclaimed documentaries (one of them—Night and Fog—was already considered a masterpiece) when he directed his first feature film, Hiroshima Mon Amour. The two stars are simply called he and she (Eiji Okada and Emmanuelle Riva); they are both married to others, and meet in modern Hiroshima. They become lovers, and during the night the woman, who is from Nevers, describes her past, which involved a now-dead German soldier she once loved. She tells the man, whose home is Hiroshima, that her heartbreak allows her to know everything about his city, but he tells her she knows nothing. Even a far more detailed plot description would not suffice, since the power of Hiroshima Mon Amour comes from Resnais's juxtaposition of images from past and present—including documentary footage—as a counterpoint to the feelings the couple express. Eventually, the film—which was written by Marguerite Duras—evokes the notion of the senselessness of war as well as the futility of love in a world of such transience, misery, and devastation. For better or worse, Hiroshima Mon Amour was one of the films that sprang to a generation's mind when the term “art film” came up. It obviously is a work of art, and indeed has moments of quiet passion and extreme beauty; it also, I'm afraid, has a preciousness and self-consciousness that seen today nudges it just a bit closer than ever to self-parody.

NEXT STOP … Night and Fog, Providence, Mon Oncle d'Amerique

1959 88m/B JP FR Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Bernard Fresson, Stella Dassas, Pierre Barbaud; D: Alain Resnais; W: Marguerite Duras; C: Sacha Vierny; M: Georges Delerue, Giovanni Fusco. New York Film Critics Awards ‘60: Best Foreign Film; Nominations: Academy Awards ‘60: Best Story & Screenplay. VHS HMV, MRV, HHT