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Hiroshima Mon Amour

May 3, 2024

Hiroshima Mon Amour

January 2, 2020

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Cast: Emmanuelle Riva (Elle), Eiji Okada (Lui), Stella Dassus (Mother), Pierre Barbaud (Father), Bernard Fresson (German Lover).
Directed by Alain Resnais.
Written by Marguerite Duras.

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Story

Set in the summer of 1957 in Hiroshima. A French actress comes from Paris to Japan to make an international movie about peace. The actress meets a Japanese architect and has a short but passionate affair with him. The actress is set to return to France the day after she meets the Japanese man. Although the couple quickly became romantically involved, We learn that they both are both married with children. The movies is basically a conversation between these two lovers who come from very different backgrounds and have to learn as much as they can about each other and about their different cultures. All that happens with the Hiroshima catastrophe in the background of the film.

A French New Wave Film

Hiroshima Mon Amour obviously belongs to French New Wave. It is directed by Alain Resnais who is a critic in the film magazine Cachier du Cinema, and produced at the time of the new wave. But also the film contains the essence of the new cinematic wave. I will not go over all the characteristics of the movement here, but it would be interesting to draw attention at some of these distinctive characteristics. (If you would like to know about the French New Wave read this post)

Structure: Multi-layered Time

Resnais’ revolutionary work of art in cinema is manifested in Hiroshima Mon Amour through the use of time. It can be described as multi-layered time. Since the beginning of the movie, we learn that the couple are running out of time as the woman is going back to paris. But more significantly, in the first few shots we can also notice that the film is jumping from current events into historical events (the bomb).

By that Resnais broke the classical narrative structure (three act structure: beginning, middle, and end). What is more interesting about this cross cutting between two different times is the director’s philosophy behind it. In an interview in 1999, Resnais said that he believes that “the past and present coexist, but the past shouldn’t be in flashback”. Hiroshima Mon Amour literally translates the saying. The characters were not present when the explosion happened, they were not even in Japan. So these images we see about the horrors of the bomb are, obviously, not seen by any of the characters. They are living in the shadow of past events, not remembering them.

This is a Movie

Another main characteristic of the French New Wave is reflexivity, or drawing the attention of the audience that they are watching a film. This is clear in Hiroshima Mon Amour through many instances. Such as the use of a mix between documentary footage and fiction scenes acted out by actors. And the fact that the main character is an actress filming a movie, this is present heavily in new wave films where characters in the movie are directors or actors to express the filmmaker’s love for cinema.

Casablanca

Hiroshima Mon Amour also references other movies. For example, the couple spent their last hours in a bar called Casablanca which can be seen as an homage to the 1942 movie Casablanca.

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French New Wave

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Film Studies

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December 30, 2019

French New Wave

History Background

The French New Wave can be considered as a reaction to the World War II. During the war, American films were banned in France by the Nazi occupation. This left the French cinema lovers hungry for films especially that the only available movie entertainment was the very few french produced films and German movies. After the war ended, the ban on American movies was lifted in 1946, and the French audience had the opportunity to watch American movies that were previously produced during the war. Not being able to produce movies themselves, French critics began studying the available movies and criticizing films that they considered of low artistic quality. In their search of the art in movies, the critics of the French film magazine “Cahiers du cinéma” started a new wave in cinema. They directed films that had a different style from what was being produced then. These films became the first building stones of a movement in cinema known as the French New Wave or Nouvelle Vague. The founders of this cinematic wave were directors Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol, François Truffaut, Alain Resnais, and Jean-Luc Godard.

French New Wave

This new wave in cinema formed a unique style that in many ways stood in opposition of Hollywood mainstream cinema. So, what are the characteristics of the French New Wave?

Characteristics of the French New Wave:

Themes about modern topics
Simple story
Innovative style
Break the rules of editing
Stylish cinematography techniques
Reflexivity
Manifestation of love for cinema
Improvisation in acting
Filming in real locations

Now, let’s take a look at these characteristics:

Theme: Events take place in the present day and the movies tackle topics relevant to modern issues (modern of the 1950s) and about modern young people.

Story: The stories of the New Wave films were fairly simple. The directors rejected the complicated plots and replaced it with character driven stories. Godard described the movies of the French New Wave as having a very well written dumb story.

Style: The style of the film is more important than the story. Meaning that HOW the story of the film is told became far more important than ever and even became more important that WHAT the story is. What is meant by the style or “how the movie is told” is that the narration of the films was unique. So the three act structure would not be present in chronological order. The visual language of the film is intended to communicate new ideas and meanings beside the dialogue: Show Don’t Tell

Editing: Films heavily used jump cuts (a cut in the editing the literally jumps from one point in time to another). The editing was used to break the spacial and temporal continuity that was a main foundation of Classic movies.

Stylish Techniques: Unfamiliar camera angles, and unconventional cinematography. Films also broke many filming rules so we can watch many scenes with no establishing shots (many start the scene with a close up), and a dialogue scene with no over-the-shoulder shots or the shot reverse shot technique.

French New Wave

Love of Cinema: New Wave films are known for manifesting the love for the cinema. So in almost all the movies belonging to this era we can find scenes where characters are going to the movies, or expressing their love for movies. Famous movie posters can be regularly seen in the background. Even, many films were about directors making movies.

Reflexivity: The directors of the New Wave made sure to always remind the audience that they are watching a movie. This was achieved through having actors breaking the forth wall (they spoke and looked directly to the camera). The films were filled with references to other movies where characters would talk about older movies, or re-act a scene from another film. The fact that many films were about a director making a movie also reminds the audience that they are watching a film.

Auteur: The directors of the new wave usually wrote and directed their films and expressed their ideologies and philosophies through their films. So they were the authors of their movies or what came to be known as “Camera Stylo” which means that the directors could use their camera the same way authors use their pens. Every director had her/his unique style.

Filming: Movies were shot on real locations, and often using natural light (when possible). The filming crew was minimal (due to low budget) and usually the same crew worked on different movies. The filming was basically independent and freed itself from the studio system.

Acting: The cast was encouraged to improvise.

If you are interested in the French New Wave, Here are some of the most influential films belonging to this wave: