Dalbert Pringle 1959's Hiroshima Mon Amour (HMA, for short) was kind of like watching 3 quite different movies all seemingly rolled up into one. (And, as it turned out, that wasn't necessarily a good thing) HMA certainly started off quite promising. It began as something of a pseudo-documentary that screened vintage, newsreel footage showcasing the devastating aftermath effects of the A-bomb once it had been dropped on the city of Hiroshima in 1945.I was actually quite shocked by these horrific images of burn-victims (and such) who managed to survive this monstrous blast of mass destruction.Following this startling and impressive opening sequence, HMA abruptly shifted gears as it morphed into a weepy, little Chick Flick, where (through flashbacks) Elle retold (in the minutest detail) the tragedy of her lost virginity and public humiliation at 18.You can be sure that after being witness to the visual horrors of Hiroshima, the recycled memories of Elle's deflowering seemed quite pathetic and almost laughable by comparison.Following this dragged-out episode (which took Elle a whole half hour to get it out of her system), HMA then "mutated" (literally) into a major "WTF!?" soap opera which highlighted Elle & Lui's puzzling, dime-store romance that was quickly coming to an end.This whole business had me wishing, and hoping, and praying that the ground would suddenly open up, swallow these 2, and, with that, promptly put this movie out of its pain and misery for good.Unless HMA was deliberately meant as some sort of weird audience-torture, I honestly don't see the point that French film-maker, Alain Resnais was trying to get across with this 3-in-1 cinematic montage. But, whatever it was, I'd say that he clearly missed the mark.

gavin6942 A French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) as they share their differing perspectives on war.This film started out as a documentary, which seems evident from all the footage of Hiroshima following World War II. But then Marguerite Duras was brought in to add a fictionalized element. I think that was an interesting choice. Although Duras was a known writer and director in France, to Americans she is probably only known for her novel "The Lover", about an affair between a French woman and a Chinese man, not a far removal from this romance.The film was a major catalyst for the Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave), making highly innovative use of miniature flashbacks to create a uniquely nonlinear storyline. While (in my opinion) not nearly as accomplished as the director's "Last Year at Marienbad", the influence is striking, and it is a shame that Alain Resnais is not better known in America.

Deniz Ziya Toroslu Before starting to write about my thoughts on the film, I need to say that Akira Kurosawa's one of the masterpieces, Rhapsody in August and Wong Kar Wai's masterpiece In The Mood for Love are two of my all time favorite movies. Hiroshima Mon Amour is similar with those movies in terms of theme and style both, but it cannot be as touching and impressive as those movies. Resnais overly uses voice over technique in this movie and after a while it becomes almost unbearable, because poetic structure surpasses realism. It is like the movie is built on memoirs, so you feel like the characters aren't there really. The movie is not only a love story, but also it tries to be an elegy for the tragedy, Hiroshima Nagasaki, however, the movie can't handle all these themes including the woman's past as the third story. So what is the movie about? A forbidden love story? A woman's past tragedies? An elegy for Hiroshima Nagazaki? or all? The film could be poetic, romantic, but it is not that subtle or deep or beautiful in my opinion. On Hiroshima Nagazaki, Rhapsody was much better. On love, Fa Yeung Nin Wa was much better. As for the actor, the actress and overall acting, I didn't know the male lead, also I didn't know that the female lead is Amour's great Emmanuelle Riva at that time, however, unfortunately I have to say that Riva'a acting in this movie was weak and the man was not better than her. It is interesting that Riva reminded me Monica Vitti, the most beautiful European actress ever along with Claudia Cardinale for me, but the funny thing is that I don't adore Mrs. Vitti's acting either. By the way, I believe that this movie is mostly for women, women's favorite movie, it rather affects women like Jodie Foster's The Brave One (as I know, some female audiences cheered up in the finale of that movie) Also, I couldn't empathize with the woman, I couldn't feel her, I couldn't empathize with the man either, probably the dead pan story telling. I couldn't feel the passion in the love story, in fact I couldn't see love in this film, in contrast I found it uninspired. The ceremony scene in the middle of the movie was memorable, it reminded me Rhapsody again and other than this, the only scene I found interesting and memorable was two walk separately in empty streets, neon lights on the buildings... I would want to learn more about the relationship of the couple, I would want to get to know them more. This is not a relationship movie, my big disappointment was partially because of this, I had expected a different, touching and deep relationship movie, but it was not. The movie doesn't focus on a certain theme and I couldn't decide whether the woman'a past was necessary or not? Because it changes everything. The love story isn't pretentious may be as the hype claims, but it is vapid and dull for sure (not like Fa Yeung Nin Wa) I am not a cinema historian, I am not a professional critic who feels obliged to be objective or I am not an audience who only considers technical aspects and cinematic breakthroughs and personally I look for emotion in movies and despite this film is considered to be one of the most romantic and poetic movies of all time, I couldn't find it.

Sergeant_Tibbs This is the greatest cinematic experience I've had since I saw In Cold Blood back in 2009. It's a simply hypnotic and enthralling film, both technically - with perfect direction, acting, screenplay, cinematography, editing and score - and emotionally. Simply some of the most incredible and poetic filmmaking I have ever seen. It hit me hard. Real hard. It has everything. Stripped down and there. I want to let it sink in more before I give a proper examination and analysis. I intend to do a series of my 10/10 films after my 10/10 albums one, so I will do a review that does the film justice then, or maybe beforehand if I feel I can adequately and eloquently express what this film means to me beyond 2 paragraphs. In an extremely brief nutshell, it's about how heritage and memory defines you. And how that heritage and memory can be damaged. And how the human condition copes with this. And how it feels to be reborn. Hiroshima Mon Amour is a million things at once. It makes my top 10 of all-time.10/10