Hiroshima mon amour Hiroshima mon amour From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Hiroshima won amour EMNANUELE RIVA ALA RESNAIS MARGUERIE DURES. Original 1959 movie poster Directed by ‘Alain Resmis Produced by Samy Halfon Anatole Dauman Writtenby ‘Mguerite Duras Starring Enmanuelle Riva Eiji Okada Stella Dessas Piene Baibeud Music by Georges Delerue Giovanni FuscoCinematography Edited by Distributed by Release dates, ‘Running time Country ‘Language ‘Michio Takahashi Secha Viemy Jasmine Chamey Henri Colpi Anne Saraute Pathé Films 10 June 1959 90 mninutes France / Japan / Mexico French Japanese English Hiroshima mon amour (Freneh pronunciation: [igoima m5.n_amuy], Hiroshima My Love; Japanese: — + 2aB§T 8% Nijdyojikan'nojéji, Twenty-four-hour affair) is a 1959 drama film directed by French film director Alain Resnais, with a screenplay by Marguerite Duras. Itis ‘the documentation of an intensely personal conversation between a French-Japanese couple about memory and forgetfulness. It was a major catalyst for the Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave), making highly innovative use of miniature flashbacks to create a uniquely nonlinear storyline 4 Reception 5 Film references 6 Cultural errors 7 In popular culture ° 7.1 Music ° 72m 8 References 9 External links Contents (hide)Plotjeait} Hiroshima mon amour concerns a series of conversations (or one enormous conversation) over 2 36-hour long period between a French actress (Emmanuelle Riva), referred to as She and a Japanese architect (Eii Okada), referred to as He. They have had a brief relationship and are now separating. The two debate memory and forgetfulness as She prepares to depart, comparing failed relationships with the bombing of Hiroshima and the perspectives of people inside and outside the incidents. The early part of the film recounts, in the style of a documentary but narrated by the so far unidentified characters, the effects of the Hiroshima bomb on August 6, 1945, in particular the loss of hair and the complete anonymity of the remains of some victims. He had been conscripted into the Japanese army and his family was in Hiroshima on that day. The film uses highly structured repetitive dialogue, mostly consisting of Her narration, with Him interjecting to say she is wrong, lying or confused, or to deny and contradict her statements with the film's famous line "You are not endowed with memory.” Although He disagrees and rejects many of the things She says, he pursues her constantly. The film is peppered with dozens of brief flashbacks to Her life; in her youth in the French town Nevers, she was shamed and had her head shaved as punishment for having a love affair with a German soldier, which she juxtaposes with the loss of the hair "which the women of Hiroshima will find has fallen out in the morning.” Casttedit . Emmanuelle Riva as Elle © Eiji Okada as Lui + Berard Fresson as L’Allemand + Stella Dassas as La Mére + Pierre Barbaud as Le Pére Production(ecit) According to James Monaco, Resnais was originally commissioned to make a short documentary about the atomic bomb, but spent several months confused about how to proceed because he did not want to recreate his 1955 Holocaust documentary Night and Fog He later want to his producer and joked that the film could not be done unless Marguerite Duras was involved in writing the screenplay The film was a co-production by companies from both Japan and France. The producers stipulated that one main character must be French and the other Japanese, and also required that the film be shot in both countries employing film crews comprising technicians from each. Receptionfecit] Hiroshima mon amour earned an Oscar nomination for screenwriter Marguerite Duras as well as the Fipresci Intemational Critics’ Prize at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival where the film was excluded from the official selection because of its sensitive subject matter of nuclear bombs as well as to avoid upsetting the U.S. government. It won the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association in 1960. In 2002, it was voted by the internationalcontributors of the French film magazine Positif to be one of the top 10 films since 1952, the first issue of the magazine Hiroshima mon amour has been described as "The Birth of a Nation of the French New Wave by American critic Leonard Mattin.8 New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard described the film inventiveness as "Faulkner plus Stravinsky" and celebrated its originality, calling t "the first film without any cinematic references” 4Filmmaker Eric Rohmer said, "I think that in a few years, in ten, twenty, or thirty years, we will know whether Hiroshima mon amour was the most important film since the war, the first modern film of sound cinema”.& ‘Among the film's innovations is Resnais’ experiments with very brief flashback sequences intercut into scenes to suggest the idea of a brief flash of memory. Resnais later used similar effects in The War [s Over and Last Vear at Marienbad. Itwas shown as part of the Cannes Classics section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival as well as 9 screenings at the Harvard Film Archive between November 28th-December 13th, 20142 Film referencesjedit In his book on Resnais, James Monaco ends his chapter on Hiroshima mon amour by claiming that the film contains a reference to the classic 1942 flmasablanca Here is en'impossible’ love story between two people struggling with the imagery of @ distant wer. At the end of this romantic, poignent movie about leave takings and responsibilities, the two fateful lovers meet in a cafe. Resneis gives us a rere establishing shot of the location. 'He' is going to meet 'She' for the last time at a bar called'The Casablance’- sight here in the middle of Hisoshimal It's still the same old story. A fight for love end glory. A case of do or die. The world will shways welcome lovers. As time goes bys Cultural errorsjecit} In Japan Journals: 1947-2004, film historian Donald Richie tells in an entry for 25 January 1960 of seeing the film in Tokyo and remarks on various distracting (for the Japanese) cultural errors which Resnais made. He notes, for example, that the Japanese-language arrival and departure time announcements in the train scenes bear no relation to the time of day in which the scenes are set. Also, people pass through noren curtains into shops which are supposedly closed. The noren is a traditional sign that 2 shop is open for business and is invariably taken down at closing time.02 In popular culturefedit) Music{edit] + The film has inspired several songs. One called ‘Hiroshima mon amour’ was written by John Foxx and Billy Currie, and initially recorded and performed by their band Ultravox! in 1977. One recorded version of the song is a romantic electronic ballad, notable for showcasing an early use of the Roland drum machine in popular music. Ultravox! also recorded a different arrangement of the song, in an aggressive punk style This version was covered by the band The Church on their all-covers, garage-inspired album "ABox of Birds" (1999). Another version combining both approaches was recorded by Jan Linton on his King Records (Japan) released Japan-only album “Planet Japan” in2004. The song is still performed live by John Foxx with his current group John Foxx and the Maths: + In2003, the New York-based no wave band My Favorite released "Burning Hearts,” which draws upon the main characters in the film. © In.2002, Bryan Ferry released the album Frantic which includes the song "Hiroshima where the chorus includes the full sentence of "Hiroshima Mon Amour’ + In 1997, Karen Mok released an album which includes the song Love in Hiroshima (Chinese: i218) Film(edit] © In 2001, Japanese film director Nobuhiro Suwa directed a remake, titled H Story 2 © In.2003, Iranian film director Bahman Pour-Azar released Where Or When. The 85- minute film places Pour-Azar's characters in the same circumstances as Resnais’ nearly a half century earlier. However, the current global tension of today's world is the backdrop instead of post-war Hiroshima. When screening the film, Stuart Alson, who founded the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, said that the piece was "a parallel ine of work with the French masterpiece Hiroshima mon amour’ & Referencesjedit] 1 * Jump up to * Monaco, James (1979). Alain Resnais. New York: Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-5200: 2 Jump up* "Festival de Cannes: Hiroshima Mon Amour. festivabcannes.com, Retrieved2009-02- 3 Jump up* Lanzoni, Remi Fournier French Cinema: From its Beginnings to the Present, London’ Continuum Intemational Publishing Group Ltd, 2004, 229 4 Jump up’ "The Artist rego le grand prix de 'Union de Ia eritique de cinéma. be (in French). Retrieved 2012-07-22 6 Jump up’ Maltin, Leonard (1995). "Alain Resnais’. Leonard Mattn's Movie Encyclopedia Plume. p. 744. [SBN 978-0-452-27058-9. Resnais's first 35 mm. {feature Hiroshima mon amour (1959) — in 1946, he made a 16 mm feature Ouvert pour cause dirwentaire — dealt with the nature of history and memory, and deviated from traditional notions. of narrative time as it recounted a fleeting liaison between a French actress and Japanese architect. its sexual candor and provocative ideas, wedded to a dazzlinaly sophisticated visual ‘style, made Hiroshima, Mon Amour the New Wave's The Birth of a Nation and it deservedly won the Cannes Film Festival International Critics Prize. 6 Jump up4 in Michael S. Smith, "Hiroshima Mon Amour’, DVD release review in Popmatiers com 7. Jump up’ Kent Jones, "Time Indefinite", essay for the Criterion Collection DVD release, Accessed 23 May 2007 8 Jump up4 "Cannes Classies 2013 line-up unveiled". Screen Dally. Retrieved 2013-04 30.8 Jump up4 "Harvard Film Archive Detailed Calendar Page for"Hiroshima Mon Amour’ * Harvard Film archive, Retrieved 2015-01-28. 10. Jump up’ Richie, Donald Japan Journals: 1947-2004, Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2004, p126 " Jump up’ "Festival de Cannes: H Stow". festivat-cannes.com Rettieved 2009-10-19 12. Jump up4 "Best French Films Ever, 38. Hiroshima, Mon Amour“ wine toptrenchiiins info, Retrieved 2014-12-12. External linksjedit] ‘Wikimedia Commons bas (Qo Hawes © Hiroshima Mon Amour at the Internet Movie Database © Hiroshima Mon Amour at AllMovie © Hiroshima Mon Amour at Rotten Tomatoes Hiroshima Mon Amour at the TCM Movie Database + Kent Jones, "Time Indefinite", Criterion Collection essay. 1969 films 1950s romantic drama films French films French avant-garde and experimental films French-language films Japanese-language filmsFilms directed by Alain Resnais Black-and-white films Films about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Films set in Hiroshima Films shot in Hiroshima Films about interracial romance Films produced by Anatole Dauman