"Hiroshima mon amour" DVD Review

Pros

• Landmark film that still looks fresh today
• Resonant, complex, and emotionally powerful
• Stunning imagery and literate dialogue

Cons

• Not for people who don’t like art-house movies
• Allegorical, not realistic (could be a pro)
• Some find movie pretentious

Description

• Criterion Collection DVD containing French-language movie "Hiroshima mon amour" (1959)
• Film directed by Alain Resnais
• Screenplay, written by novelist Marguerite Duras, received Academy Award nomination
• DVD provides English-language commentary track by film scholar Peter Cowie
• DVD has extras, including 2 interviews with director and 2 interviews with lead actress
• Good picture quality
• Good sound quality (Monaural)

Guide Review - "Hiroshima mon amour" DVD Review

Alain Resnais's influential, innovative "Hiroshima mon amour" is a deeply moving, compelling, lyrical masterwork. I hadn't seen it in years, and after watching it on DVD recently, I was amazed at its resonance and complexity. The central character is a French actress who comes to Hiroshima in 1958 to make a film and while there has a brief fling with a Japanese man. This causes her to reflect on the traumatic events arising from her first love, which was with a German soldier during World War II. I feel that more than anything else this movie is about the mutable nature of memory and of love. Much of the film's power derives from its theme of people having to partially forget the pain of their pasts to survive in the present.

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