Hiroshima Mon Amour

I would imagine that since Riva's stunning performance in Amour this film has had a renaissance. It is challenging throughout but contains some amazing scenes and continually delivers a beautiful screenplay. For a film thats over 50 years old it stands up well and tackles issues that are still particularly pertinent in the world we live in today.

I feel an initial sense of confusion about Hiroshima Mon Amour; sometimes the idea of it appeals more than others. The subject matter of war and what constitutes an “enemy” is worthwhile, but I found its execution at times disappointing. The dialogue is laughingly stilted on occasions, and the romantic melodrama is tremblingly over the top. It is a visually striking film, from its opening fragmented close-ups of two entangled bodies to the shocking images of the victims of Hiroshima. This myriad of projections are mysteriously soundtracked with dialogue between a man and a woman - she is reminiscing about the things she has seen - but the man insists she hasn’t seen them at all. From this sequence it moves on to what feels like the “film proper”. The actors are very cool and stylish to watch – simply called He (Lui) and She (Elle), the lovers are played by Ekji Okada and Emmanuelle Riva respectively. There are flashbacks to the woman’s youth in the French town of Nevers, where we learn something of her past – both time and memory are examined. There is also the element of a film within a film – she is an actress making a movie in Japan and he is an architect; the lovers only have a short time together. This mediation on war, memory, love and loss also has visual and aural displacements in which time itself is confused – these temporal shifts are intriguing and add a greater mystery to the story. It is an important anti-war film, but its visual and aural experimentation - whilst notable - didn’t always work for me, despite this the work of Alain Resnais is always of interest even if there are elements that do not personally appeal.

Movie maker's film such as Le Mepris, Day for Night, Nickelodeon or even Man Bites Dog. It reflects on WW2 by showing brief encounter of French actress filming in Hiroshima in 1959 and Japanese architect both of whom are in their mid thirties. War and peace is what frames proceedings as its protagonists grapple with what it means to try recapture their youth having been born in mid 1920s and now in grip of Cold War's atomic age. It is old New Wave, you might like Sympathy for the Devil, which is also old New Wave by now.

French actress filming in Hiroshima has a one night stand with a Japanese architect. Early documentary footage gradually feeds into a contemporary love story featuring an attractive, natural and initially upbeat couple. Then she tells him of her wartime love affair with a German soldier, which ended with his death and her disgrace. The rest of the film is slow and rather tiresome as she wanders the streets wallowing in self pity followed by the poor lovesick man, whose own sad story is hinted at but ignored. I'm afraid what must once have seemed poetic and startling now appears pretentious and muddled.

I like the treatment of her emotional backstory. Otherwise, he’s a bit shadowy, and the whole thing is far too pretentious.