Hiroshima, Mon Amour

Hiroshima, mon Amour (1959) directed by Alain Resnais

I wanted to see this when I learned that Emmanuelle Riva starred in it.  She's the oldest woman to be nominated for best actress, for her role in the very excellent Amour (2012 dir Michel Haneke).  This was her first film, though she was involved in theatre for many years before.

I watched some of the supporting material on the Criterion disc I borrowed from the library.  I actually watched them at the library, since I had to return the disc and didn't have time for the final interview unfortunately.

It's not like any other film I've ever seen.  It started off as a documentary project, but evolved into a meta film with elements of docudrama condemning the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima with very graphic and powerful imagery.... but mostly it's a tragic romance.

In one of the interviews on the disc, Riva said she'd never been asked to play a grown woman before, (just girls), so she was pleased to play one and and an adulteress, and emancipated woman, no less.  That her character is also put in a loony bin because she loses her mind over lost love, is perhaps par for the course for women who dare to challenge the narrow confines of appropriate and constrained sexual behaviour.  Yeah, it's definitely a feminist flick, because she's autonomous in her sexual appetites - the man she takes as her lover, tries to own and dominate her to his will, but she ain't having none of it.

I wondered about the power imbalances between them, especially in terms of racist attitudes being more pronounced and accepted when it was made.  With her being white and him Japanese, I think the idea of miscegenation was fairly ingrained and considered rather shocking and improper, never mind the fact that they were both adulterers. We've come a long way since then, supposedly, but I couldn't help question that racial aspect of their romance and if it was an obstacle to their love.  Mostly though, it wasn't addressed and actually the taboo of them getting together was likely a turn on and created more interest in the film too.  In terms of story motivations though the real roadblock to further entanglements seemed more due to the fact that she was only visiting his country and even more important, in spite of their compatibility, that they already had life partners.

I really enjoyed this one, it's got a lot going on, and it's tres tragique with that doomed love the French know how to do so well.