Review of Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) by Tino B — 20 Nov 2009

Instead of going to see movies about the end of the world while we eat pop corn and drink coke, we probably be better off watching Alan Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour. A beautifully film in black & white, a film in light and shadows, full of poetry and astounding cinematography. The two main characters share a past full of painful memories and a present inundated with sensuality and pleasure. But is it not pleasure the opposite of pain? And here we are, in Hiroshima, a town where pain is revived, everywhere you look. And yet the ex-japanese soldier and the french actress are in a frantic search of salvation through sex and sensuality. Two unlikely souls seeking, without success, to leave the past behind.

The movie was filmed only 14 years after the atom bomb was released over Hiroshima and you can still feel the smell of the burning flesh while you watch this movie.

And, by the way, if you are learning french and you are interested in practicing your newly acquired language, this is a perfect film to watch: clear dialogues, easy words delivered in a slow, almost lethal way.