Robert Joyner
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Bea Swanson
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Benas Mcloughlin
Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
morrison-dylan-fan
Despite having won the Criterion DVD on Ebay a few years ago,I have somehow never got round to loading up my first ever "Left Bank" title.Taking a look at IMDbs Classic Film board,I spotted an excellent post about the film from a fellow IMDber,which led to me deciding that it was time I finally took a look at the Left Bank.The plot:Going to Hiroshima to star in a film in an anti-War title,French actress Elle finds the production to suffer long delays.As filming continues to be delayed,Elle begins an affair with an architect called Lui.As Elle shares her memories of the "victory" of the end of WWII,Lui reveals to Elle that she has no "real" memories of the Hiroshima bombing,as he begins to reveal everything that he witnessed in the aftermath of the attack. Gradually developing feelings of love & intimacy towards Lui,Elle begins to face the dark near-forgotten memories hidden in her past. View on the film:Opening with an extraordinary shot featuring the bodies of two people entwined having sex, Alain Resnais and cinematographers Michio Takahashi & Sacha Vierny take any shade of lust or sensuality out of the scene,as Resnais and the cinematographers focus on the side angles of the characters bodies dehumanises them,and gives the lovers the appearance of being part of the decaying nuclear wasteland that Hiroshima is left in.Originally planning to make the movie be a documentary about the Hiroshima bombing, Resnais and editors Jasmine Chasney/ Henri Colpi & Anne Sarraute give the title a horrifying atmosphere by precisely crossing the French New-Wave cool with a documentary grittiness.With clever use archive newsreel footage Resnais looks into the eyes of the victims/survivors of the nuclear attack.Joining the couple at (what might be) the final stage of their relationship,Resnais superbly expresses the feeling of an aching love that they have for each other,by subtly featuring a "gap" between the lovers in each of the shots they share.Taking the first step to humanise the entwined couple by splashing a huge grin across Lui's face,the exquisite screenplay by Marguerite Duras gives the exchanges between Lui and Elle an extraordinary feeling of intimacy,thanks to the conversations that the couple have in bed featuring a raw, naturalistic quality. Skilfully going into Elle's past with fragmented flashbacks,Duras gradually builds a delicate psychological depth for Lui & Elle,with the flashbacks opening up the remembrance to the pains of love and death that Lui and Elle have each been unable to approach from their pasts.Despite not knowing any French before filming. (he learnt it during production!) Eiji Okada gives an extraordinary performance as Lui,with Okada perfectly revealing Lui's uncomfortable feelings on Elle's "memories" of the Hiroshima attack.Along with opening Lui's wounds,Okada displays Lui's longing for Elle in a poetic manner,with Okada detailed body language making the "gap" between Elle & Lui feel like one of not of inches,but miles.Slowly facing her memories of the past,an elegant Emmanuelle Riva gives an excellent performance as Elle,whose first love's loss is buried deep within her eyes by Riva. Introduced in the title laying in bed with Lui,Riva gives Elle a rich,warm chemistry with Lui,as Riva makes each look that Elle shares with Lui make her question the memories of the past and the relationship that she finds herself in,as Lui expresses his amour to Elle.
Nicole C
Honestly, I really really really want to like this film. It's a historical story, about two people from different backgrounds, in a city I'd love to visit. Even the title itself is so inviting and I was really excited to watch it. My exact reaction after the movie ended was: "What? Did anyone understand what was going on?" I watched it for a Film studies class, so was asking my fellow classmates, who seemed to be just as confused as I was.The acting from the start is a little awkward and static. I don't feel the connection between the two who are supposed to be in a romantic relationship and it seems like Elle has a little bit of a mental problem. She would suddenly just burst out at times. Maybe I'm just not romantic enough to like this but I was seriously in a little pain while watching this.I read an article by Jennifer Barker, in which she talks of phenomenology and the way that touch is used in this film to help Elle remember her traumatic past which in turn helps her to connect more to the incident of Hiroshima. Reading that, it all makes sense, but I would still rather read it than watch the movie. The article, probably because it was explaining the movie was so much clearer. I guess in a way I can see what the movie is doing, and maybe I just don't have the eye for detail but it went by too slowly for me.However the cinematography was pretty great, there was some great panning and tracking shots which helped to set the mood. Also, the juxtaposition with scenes of the past and the present was pretty well done, and was not confusing at all. Though the script does make it confusing in the present when Elle suddenly refers to Lui as her former lover.Read more movie reviews at: championangels.wordpress.com
FrostyChud
This movie is boring. Marguerite Duras sucks. I've been in love and gotten freaky with lovers and it was not like this. It was a lot more interesting than this. Want to make a Hiroshima movie? Make a movie about the dude with the burned-off lips. Show a day in this guy's life. The woman played by Emmanuelle Riva is unbearable. The Japanese dude is happy he got a piece of Western tail. The whole thing feels like the fantasy of a hysterical, frigid woman. My life is sad. I have an incurable disease. I am depressed and when I go to the movies I want to see Life. I wanted to burn something after seeing this film. I am a man and when I see this kind of self-indulgent feminine sterility on screen it drives me crazy, just as I imagine it drives women crazy to see the male equivalent...stuff like Armageddon or whatever. There was a pretty girl in the theater and I would have liked for her to think I was poetic and sensitive but after an hour of "poetic" dialogue I walked out. The babe probably thought less of me. I don't need her anyway. Who am I kidding? Of course I need her.
Howard Schumann
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.
