Hiroshima Mon Amour (Hiroshima, My Love) poster & wallpaper
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Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas, Bernard Fresson, Pierre Barbaud

Alain Resnais's multi-award-winning Hiroshima, Mon Amour is neither an easy film to watch nor to synopsize, but it remains one of the high-water marks of the French "new wave" movement. Resnais and sc... read more read more...enarist Marguerite Duras weave a complex story concerning a French actress's (Emmanuelle Riva) experiences in occupied France, juxtaposed with the horrendous ordeal of a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) coping psychologically with the bombing of Hiroshima. These stories are offered in quick flashback vignettes, which permeate the contemporary story of the woman's relationship with the architect in contemporary Hiroshima. The characters are of the Then and the Now simultaneously, much like the famous watch that was dug out of the ruins of Hiroshima, its hands permanently affixed at 9:15. Resnais refuses to honor the traditional "unities" of film: we are never certain at any time whether we're watching the events of 1959 or of 1945. In truth, Hiroshima Mon Amour is not quite as inscrutable as certain critics would have us believe (the central theme of the importance of coming to grips with one's past comes through loud and clear), but it confused many filmgoers upon its first release, some of whom gave up the picture as a bad job and steered clear of all future Resnais efforts. Viewers are strongly encouraged to stay with this one from beginning to end; it won't be a smooth ride, but it will be an immensely rewarding one. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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88% liked it

8,818 ratings

Critics

95% liked it

19 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 28 min.

Directed by: Alain Resnais

Release Date: May 16, 1959

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DVD Release Date: June 24, 2003

Stats: 661 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (661)

  • brooklynspo
    June 19, 2007
    brooklynspo
    arresting, beautiful and poetic incantation on memory, time and identity
  • axadntpron
    April 22, 2011
    axadntpron
    Alain Resnais' Hiroshima, Mon Amour is a captivating cogitation on the power of memory.
    From the opening shots of Hiroshima, Mon Amour, the long mesmeric tracking shots bring to mind Resnais's previous film, Night and Fog. Also shot on location, the first part of Hiroshima, Mon ... read moreAmour feels like a documentary as shots of the Hiroshima memorial are juxtaposed with newsreel footage of the actual victims of the disaster. Yet unlike Night and Fog, the documentary doesn't feel objective, but rather personal & distant. Here Resnais displays the inability to cope with a horror of this magnitude. He even shows clips of a Japanese reenactment as part of this woman's mental process in the mueseum, which serves to show how the woman will never know the extent of the tragedy and her thoughts of it are reduced to vapid and shallow conjecture.
    It is a film about memory and identity. The film revolves around two lovers who wish to escape the horrors of their past but still retain the beauty which they previously experienced. It is about the necessity of forgetfulness, but also the overwhelming fear that accompanies it.
    Resnais also focuses a lot on the skin of the lovers which highlights the frailty of man, which was a crucial idea during the filming of this in 1958 when the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union was ubiquitous.
    Although some scenes feel rather laborious to get through, it is a very important film and one that is bound to stir up many emotions in the viewer.
  • ebs90
    December 25, 2009
    ebs90
    A French actress shooting a film about peace in Hiroshima meets a Japanese man in a bar. They decide to go together. They fall in love. The woman describes to the man her past in France: her adolescence, her first love, her first loss, her madness.

    The backdrop of Hiroshima, Mon... read more Amour, is obviously the horrors left behind by the atomic bomb. The woman herself acknowledges the irony of falling in love in a place like that. The images of disease and misery, in contrast with the lovers', constitutes a great deal of the poetry the film involves.

    Throughout most of the story, both characters are shown in moments of intimacy: either having face-to-face conversations, or in bed, sharing their deepest secrets and most bizarre thoughts. In a way, their love is born out of interest, or need: both characters have survived tragedies (linked also to the war in one way or another), and that particular point in common is what brings them together. They find in each other a space of trust to let out their pain. They re-imagine the situations of their past including the other: their connection is so profound that it seems, as they often repeat, impossible to envision life without the other.

    Hiroshima Mon Amour is a very experimental, poetic film. Alain Resnais's masterpiece is the precursor of such beautiful films as Before Sunrise, or Lost in Translation, or A Man and a Woman, only that the waters here run deeper and darker. Resnais shapes his characters out of the cries and the loss of World War II, showing his audience just how much damage the conflict caused. Thousands of stories of abandonment behind the faces of 2 characters. At the same time, it's also a film that exemplifies with unbelievable beauty the possible randomness of empathy: The relationship between the leads is unforgettable, epic, transcending chemistry or compatibility. But why in Hiroshima? Why this man, or this woman? Why now? Resnais manipulates their memories, their perceptions, time, and space, to create one of the most intense love stories I've ever seen onscreen, even when the most evident expression of physical love he allows himself to show is but a kiss.

    The image of the woman's hand on the man's back is an icon of French new wave, and one of the most significant representations of intimacy world cinema has ever produced.
  • pier007
    October 10, 2008
    pier007
    Haunting, intimate and ultimately anguishing cinematic poem that works in dichotomies such as documentary-fiction, japan-france, river-sea, man-woman, cinema-literature, past-present.
    Emmanuelle Riva is gorgeous, and Resnais narration is innovative, paused and wildly emotional.
  • jimbotender
    July 14, 2009
    jimbotender
    Time is a thief,a delinquent of impeccable proportions.Hiroshima is the counterpart of Casablanca for most critics,to be fair...I don't think this is something universal since both these films have met equal opponents and masterpieces ever since the dawn of romance films..
    But wi... read moreth Hiroshima...Duras dictated to Resnais that Amour isn't a possessive object,it's rather the location that causes it to be possessive between 2 lost souls.
    A kiss is all that remains...
  • smootysveen
    November 11, 2007
    smootysveen
    The images were affecting.
  • wang90
    December 11, 2009
    wang90
    the best movie i've seen this year! released in who knows what year (it escaped me), but it still managed to hook me! ordinary love story but beautifully told by the hands of alain resnais. this is his first work i've ever seen and already, i'm craving for more of his other works... read more! la belle et la actress! (i dont know if im writing this correctly or not, but her beauty just left me speechless, so i had to utter it in another more-romantic language other than english!!). the japanese actor is ok (thank god..). i googled him right after i googled the actress, and found him to be quite an interesting actor since he's also the lead in woman of the dunes (another critically acclaimed classic which i havent had the chance to see). emmanuelle riva sure takes the stage in this film. i watched this a couple of days after watching the dreadful new moon. so imagine how bad new moon even gets after seeing this film. it makes new moon looks like a movie just made in a day, barely survived the cut.
  • laney33
    June 29, 2008
    laney33
    I saw this in my French college class. It was very interesting. I wish I remembered more of it. It was stylistic, which usually throws me.
  • Jungian
    April 14, 2008
    Jungian
    I've seen this many, many times. One of my favorite films. a story about memory and how it affects our sense of identity.
  • annolav
    January 14, 2008
    annolav
    Coulda been so good. Flashbacks got rather tiresome though, and Riva's shrill wailing got old fast. I enjoyed seeing Hiroshima given a close look, with both Eastern and Western consideration.

View All Hiroshima Mon Amour (Hiroshima, My Love) Reviews

Critic Reviews

A.H. Weiler
May 20, 2003
A.H. Weiler, New York Times

Although it presents, on occasion, a baffling repetition of words and ideas, much like vaguely recurring dreams, it, nevertheless, leaves the impression of a careful coalescence of art and craftsmanship. Full Review

Don Druker
January 1, 2000
Don Druker, Chicago Reader

Integrating past and present, poetic images and documentary footage, music and Marguerite Duras' dialogue, the film achieved a structural balance of such emotional and intellectual power that audience... Full Review

Christopher Lloyd
January 3, 2011
Christopher Lloyd, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

I can't say I really enjoyed myself watching Hiroshima mon amour. Resnais' style is deliberately off-putting - the thought of entertaining an audience seems repugnant to him - but I respect the film f... Full Review

Jay Antani
August 17, 2010
Jay Antani, Cinema Writer

Though made in the late 50s, Hiroshima's imagery and music give it a feel at once modern and timeless, this is a beautiful piece of work. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
August 7, 2007
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

It's one of the landmark French New Wave films that featured innovative flashback techniques. Full Review

Emanuel Levy
March 2, 2007
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Resnais' audacious work in narrative and temporal structure, with screenplay from Duras, the film has endured due to its lyrical quality in depicting a love affair between a French actress and a Japan... Full Review

John A. Nesbit
February 23, 2007
John A. Nesbit, Old School Reviews

Landmark French New Wave film--a must for movie buffs

Cole Smithey
December 4, 2006
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com

Unforgettable.

Ken Hanke
March 22, 2006
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

As a milestone of film, Hiroshima, Mon Amour cannot be overestimated. Full Review

Dan Jardine
October 25, 2003
Dan Jardine, Apollo Guide

A somewhat stilted but still emotionally and intellectually engaging glimpse at profound and challenging questions of the role of memory in our sense of identity. Full Review

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