HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959) FILM ANALYSIS

 HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959)

The 1959 feature film "Hiroshima Mon Amour" directed by the French filmmaker Alain Resnais tells us the story of a woman, on a short stay in Hiroshima to shoot a film about peace. While there she had a 36-hour affair with a Japanese Architect. While the two were together, they discussed their past traumas of the war. Her ill-fated romance with a German soldier who was murdered and the whole thing resulted in shame and abuse by cutting her hair, punishing her, and locking her in the basement, by her French neighbors. The man also shared how badly he was affected by the loss of his family during the bombing of his hometown Hiroshima. 

As the film continues, flashbacks to the past intrude uninvited into the narrative, as memories often can, in our lives. So in a scene where the twitching hand of the Japanese Architecture reminds the woman of the dying moments of her lost lover. So you see that our past is constantly in dialogue with our present and the film has perfectly shown her psychological journey as in the film she goes through the princess of remembering the past. 

However, this claimed understanding is repeatedly negated by the Japanese man who tells her "You didn't see anything in Hiroshima.” Whenever the woman talked about her memory, the man repeated it over and over again. Although the Hiroshima attack marked the end of the French Ally's war, the attack marked the beginning of suffering in Hiroshima.

This film initially explores the notions of “Time and Memory" and it basically deals with the mystery of memory, separation, loss, and the passage of time, with a clear political perspective. Some of the content was filmed in Japan only 14 years after the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the wounds are like landscapes, they are still raw and barely scabbed. Although Hiroshima Love is not interested in discussing the decision to drop the atomic bomb, people are blatantly opposed to the casualties it caused. The documentary elements illustrate the lingering effects on the population: the long-term effects of radiation sickness and people's response to devastating damage. 

It's a moving film, with magnificent black and white photography, a contradictory soundtrack, and powerful close-ups of the couple's emotional pain. It is fascinating and hypnotic. There are beautiful levels here, but what attracts me the most is pure honesty. I understand and identify with the painful experiences of these people, they struggle with overwhelming emotions and painful pasts; these things are too big to be considered alone.

No other French New Wave film tells the main consequences of a devastating historical event like Hiroshima Mon Amour. A fierce romance is brewing between a French woman and a Japanese man. She knows the destruction caused by the explosion in Hiroshima. Hiroshima Mon Amour not only expresses the beauty and desire in the new relationship, but also the potential sadness of onlookers on the opposite side of the war, where the opponent is considered to be inherently evil.

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