Too much of everything

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

A Masterpiece!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

1959's Hiroshima Mon Amour (HMA, for short) was kind of like watching 3 quite different movies all seemingly rolled up into one. (And, as it turned out, that wasn't necessarily a good thing) HMA certainly started off quite promising. It began as something of a pseudo-documentary that screened vintage, newsreel footage showcasing the devastating aftermath effects of the A-bomb once it had been dropped on the city of Hiroshima in 1945.I was actually quite shocked by these horrific images of burn-victims (and such) who managed to survive this monstrous blast of mass destruction.Following this startling and impressive opening sequence, HMA abruptly shifted gears as it morphed into a weepy, little Chick Flick, where (through flashbacks) Elle retold (in the minutest detail) the tragedy of her lost virginity and public humiliation at 18.You can be sure that after being witness to the visual horrors of Hiroshima, the recycled memories of Elle's deflowering seemed quite pathetic and almost laughable by comparison.Following this dragged-out episode (which took Elle a whole half hour to get it out of her system), HMA then "mutated" (literally) into a major "WTF!?" soap opera which highlighted Elle & Lui's puzzling, dime-store romance that was quickly coming to an end.This whole business had me wishing, and hoping, and praying that the ground would suddenly open up, swallow these 2, and, with that, promptly put this movie out of its pain and misery for good.Unless HMA was deliberately meant as some sort of weird audience-torture, I honestly don't see the point that French film-maker, Alain Resnais was trying to get across with this 3-in-1 cinematic montage. But, whatever it was, I'd say that he clearly missed the mark.

Before starting to write about my thoughts on the film, I need to say that Akira Kurosawa's one of the masterpieces, Rhapsody in August and Wong Kar Wai's masterpiece In The Mood for Love are two of my all time favorite movies. Hiroshima Mon Amour is similar with those movies in terms of theme and style both, but it cannot be as touching and impressive as those movies. Resnais overly uses voice over technique in this movie and after a while it becomes almost unbearable, because poetic structure surpasses realism. It is like the movie is built on memoirs, so you feel like the characters aren't there really. The movie is not only a love story, but also it tries to be an elegy for the tragedy, Hiroshima Nagasaki, however, the movie can't handle all these themes including the woman's past as the third story. So what is the movie about? A forbidden love story? A woman's past tragedies? An elegy for Hiroshima Nagazaki? or all? The film could be poetic, romantic, but it is not that subtle or deep or beautiful in my opinion. On Hiroshima Nagazaki, Rhapsody was much better. On love, Fa Yeung Nin Wa was much better. As for the actor, the actress and overall acting, I didn't know the male lead, also I didn't know that the female lead is Amour's great Emmanuelle Riva at that time, however, unfortunately I have to say that Riva'a acting in this movie was weak and the man was not better than her. It is interesting that Riva reminded me Monica Vitti, the most beautiful European actress ever along with Claudia Cardinale for me, but the funny thing is that I don't adore Mrs. Vitti's acting either. By the way, I believe that this movie is mostly for women, women's favorite movie, it rather affects women like Jodie Foster's The Brave One (as I know, some female audiences cheered up in the finale of that movie) Also, I couldn't empathize with the woman, I couldn't feel her, I couldn't empathize with the man either, probably the dead pan story telling. I couldn't feel the passion in the love story, in fact I couldn't see love in this film, in contrast I found it uninspired. The ceremony scene in the middle of the movie was memorable, it reminded me Rhapsody again and other than this, the only scene I found interesting and memorable was two walk separately in empty streets, neon lights on the buildings... I would want to learn more about the relationship of the couple, I would want to get to know them more. This is not a relationship movie, my big disappointment was partially because of this, I had expected a different, touching and deep relationship movie, but it was not. The movie doesn't focus on a certain theme and I couldn't decide whether the woman'a past was necessary or not? Because it changes everything. The love story isn't pretentious may be as the hype claims, but it is vapid and dull for sure (not like Fa Yeung Nin Wa) I am not a cinema historian, I am not a professional critic who feels obliged to be objective or I am not an audience who only considers technical aspects and cinematic breakthroughs and personally I look for emotion in movies and despite this film is considered to be one of the most romantic and poetic movies of all time, I couldn't find it.

I have avoided seeing this for several decades, mainly because I had been afraid to see it. The very word "Hiroshima" calls to my mind the horrific events of August 6, 1945. Having once seen scenes of the aftermath of the bombing on the civilian population, one is not anxious to revisit those. My reaction resonates perfectly with the two main themes of this movie: the inability to forget, and how important life events can easily slip into the fog of memory. Two phrases from the movie underline this duality, "memory, I banish you," and "the horror of forgetting." It *is* a horror to forget what happened to Hiroshima at the end of WWII. One would think that that memory would prevent anyone but the most insane politician from even contemplating the use of a nuclear weapon, but it's astonishing that the standoff between Kruschev and Kennedy brought us to the edge of nuclear war in 1962. Only seventeen years after Hiroshima the memory had faded to where it was not unthinkable to unleash a more potent hell.The city of Hiroshima provides the central backdrop. At the time this was filmed we see that the city has risen from the ashes in the fourteen years since its destruction. There are some stomach turning images shown from exhibits in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and seen during a peace parade, but this movie is not a documentary about the bombing, but rather a story overlaid on that background. The two main characters are a man and a woman who remain nameless throughout the movie. The woman (Emmanuelle Riva) is a French film star who has come to Hiroshima to make a peace movie. While there she meets a Japanese man (Eiji Okada) and they engage in a brief, passionate affair. Obviously the man has been wounded by the war, but the war has left the woman with painful memories as well--memories of pleasure that cause pain.The presentation is abstract and symbolic rather than realistic. For example, there is a scene that has the man and woman walking along the street at a slow pace where the man gradually falls behind and ultimately fades into the background. This scene is effective due to its deliberate pacing and emotional restraint rather than its realism. However, the arty production does not prevent the story from being accessible. The black and white filming is appropriate for the subject matter and is also a good choice since there are so many close-ups. I never know who should get credit for impressive cinematography, but acknowledgment should be given for that here.Both the leads turn in noteworthy performances. Riva is good at expressing her painful remembrances and Okada is more reserved, but no less passionate.I am glad to have finally seen this. I can now scratch it off of my "should see" list.

One of the seminal films of the French New Wave, Alain Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour attempts both to recover the past and to bury it. Written by acclaimed French novelist Marguerite Duras, two nameless lovers, a French woman Elle (Emmanuelle Riva) in Japan to make an antiwar public service announcement has an affair with Lui, a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada).Weaving in and out of flashbacks blurring the distinctions between past and present, the intimate relationship allows them to confront the open wounds in their life and relive their suppressed and unspoken memories. It is a beautiful and haunting film that gets better with each viewing.