Hiroshima mon amour (1959)

Meet Acute

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Hiroshima Mon Amour on DVD

Alain Resnais' feature debut was praised almost unanimously upon its release and became known as an all-time classic just a few years later. Barely anyone has bothered to dispute it. It's a beautifully elegant film -- written by the French playwright Margeurite Duras -- and its plea against the atomic bomb is truly heartfelt, but it has an icy deliberateness to it, and a lack of spontaneity. A French actress making a film in Japan meets a Japanese architect and they share a brief fling. She tells her gruesome story; she fell in love with a German soldier at the end of WWII and he was killed just hours before the liberation. As a result, she was locked in a basement for years. After Resnais finishes his preaching, nothing remains but the painful final hours of the two lovers in late-night Hiroshima. These final scenes resonate with a touching beauty. The new Criterion disc comes in a gorgeous black-and-white fullscreen transfer, with lots of extras and a commentary track by critic Peter Cowie. Best of all is the music and effects track, which allows the viewer to dump the movie's heavy, heavy dialogue.

Starring: Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas, Pierre Barbaud, Bernard Fresson
Written by: Marguerite Duras
Directed by: Alain Resnais
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Language: French, English, Japanese with English subtitles
Running Time: 90 minutes
Date: November 28, 2003