Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)

4/5

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/

Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

3/5

I loved Alain Resnais's Night and Fog, so I was hoping for a lot coming into Last Year at Marienbad. I was terribly disappointed. I confess the majority of my disappointment was due to a difference in expectations. I assumed that the movie would tell a rather untraditional story in a traditional way and I would come out the theater having experienced extraordinary beauty and insight. Not so. The story followed a man trying to convince a woman that they met and had an affair a year before, perhaps at Marienbad. But the way the story was told was far from conventional. Through repetition, Resnais shows how easily memory can be distorted. His control over lighting and mood is spectacular. The cinematography and camera movements are reserved yet purposeful, creating a breathtaking and arresting visual style. There was one absolutely incredible part that I loved about an hour in (which I won't reveal) that dealt with repressed memories in the narrator as well as the listener. But the movie folds back in on itself, denying that idea almost as quickly as it introduces it. A hysterical, over-the-top organ dirge relentlessly backgrounds the piece, serving as a stark contrast to the slow, soothing, soporific visuals. I can't hate on it too much though, as its aggressively violent wails and screeches regularly woke me up after I had dozed off.

Much of the movie is simply too confusing and abstract to understand. Yes, it is technically competent and seductive, but so are perfume commercials. A good movie requires more; it requires a dialogue between the film and the audience. Unfortunately, I found very little that this movie could contribute. Yes, it is easy to dismiss something you don't understand, but it is equally easy and just as misguided to accept something obtuse and incomprehensible because you will appear smart and trendy. Most people who tout it are pretentious film snobs separated from reality. Only a few actually come away from the film with something meaningful. I am not one of them ... yet. I think with more viewings, I could appreciate what the film has to offer. And I really would like to see the movie a few more times, but as of an initial viewing, I cannot justifiably rate it higher than a 3.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054632/

On connaît la chanson (1997)

4/5

This film is a bit of a different turn from director Alain Resnais, who did Night and Fog, Hiroshima Mon Amour, and Last Year at Marienbad. It's a delightful romance/musical comedy about interlocking relationships and human connections. Classic French songs are lip-synched by characters to express their feelings, which can at times get a bit overbearing, but is usually a very welcome bit of excitement in what would be an otherwise talk-heavy movie. There is no action to speak of, as is typical of many French movies; there is just a bunch of people talking about love and life and human frailty. The music adds spice and humor. The writing and acting was well-done. The cinematography felt a bit video-esque (was it not shot on film?) but the editing was excellent. Odile was by far my favorite character; nearly every thing she said and the way she reacted to different situations made me laugh out loud. All in all, recommended if you like French movies, but not recommended if you're looking for a summer blockbuster or a more typical American movie.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0119828/

Night and Fog (1955)

5/5

This 31-minute documentary on the Nazi concentration camps is the only Holocaust movie I have seen that is a piece of art first and a Holocaust movie second. With images that pierce the heart and silence the tongue, Resnais has managed to make this film last much longer than the 31 minutes it takes to watch it.

There is one scene that goes ignored by critics and reviewers, but which I found to be the most haunting. In it, the music stops even though the camera continues moving down a hallway with bunks lining the wall. This is the moment when I felt the movie become real, when I felt like I was the one walking down this hallway, unable to take my eyes off of the bunks until I had reached the end of the hallway, when I could finally look away, at anything, the ground, even.

By mixing color footage taken from the abandoned camps ten years after the end of WWII with archival footage and still photos, we get a sense of the timelessness of these horrors. And that is where the film gets its power: this movie is not about the holocaust, but about the darkness in man. It merely uses the holocaust as an example and urges us not to be one of "those who pretend to believe that all of this happened in a given time and place, those who don't look around and hear the never-ending cries."
IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0048434/