Alain Resnais's Hiroshima Mon Amour is a powerful, quasi-experimental meditation on eternal love, the memory of love, and the gradual disintegration of memory. The plot follows a torrid affair between two separately married people, a Japanese architect and a French actress, over a few days in Hiroshima. She reveals to him her past in Nevers, where she fell in love with a German soldier who was killed, and her fear that she would eventually forget the true depths of the love they shared. As most of the movie is spent dealing with the ephemeral nature of memory, often through repetition of words and scenes that are almost hypnotizing, one can see its similarities to his later film Last Year at Marienbad. However, Last Year at Marienbad was far more experimental with filmmaking techniques and simply did not have the same grounding in reality that this one did. In Hiroshima Mon Amour, we get at least a sense of what really happened and can appreciate how our memory may warp that past event.Much like Night and Fog, his earlier documentary on the Holocaust, Resnais shows us some unforgettable images of the nuclear aftermath. For the first thirty minutes of the film, we are entranced, engrossed, and disgusted by the still photos, archival footage, and simple verbal depictions of the horrors of that event. To describe the bombing of Hiroshima by saying that the entire city was lifted off the ground and drifted back down to earth as ashes is such absolutely perfect writing. And yet that beautiful, haunting line is just one of many lines that are equally insightful and piercing. With regards to cinematography and editing, the film is both proficient and experimental. When the experiment works, it works exquisitely well. And when it fails, it fails miserably. For me, most of it worked, but I can see it turning a lot of people off from the movie. If you're not in the mood to experience all the piece has to offer, the film can appear slow and plodding. It can be frustrating at times, thinking of the movie in a traditional narrative structure and trying to figure out what "actually" happened. But if you let go of that need, step outside of your comfort zone, you may find this movie to be a spectacular gem. I highly recommend you give it a shot.
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052893/