Hiroshima Mon Amour , made in 1959, is considered today as a cult film where an unusual love story
is told using the backdrop of a war-ridden city through some unique and first-of-its-kind techniques. The film was the brain-child of French director
Alain Resnais who is notable in the world of cinema for introducing French New Wave Films which put
flashbacks to extensive use.
Hiroshima Mon Amour is also not different from this genre of film-making, being the first original film of the New Wave which was also highly praised by legendary French film-maker Jean-Luc Godard. Ever since, the film with passing years has been gaining more significance as a war film. The film is noted for using innovations like flashbacks which are used to slowly delve into the emotional depths of the characters and also into the plot. The technique was hugely praised and considered very bold then.
Every feature of the film, be it theme, structure or style of image is highly indebted to Resnais. The film focuses on a French woman who has had a torrid love life with a German soldier in the past and is now battling with those memories which she considers will be diluted with time. When in Hiroshima she is hit by a bullet and it is here that she meets a lover in a Japanese man. The film focuses on the progression of love in the present day while intermittently delving back into the past using flashbacks. Both the lovers have faced a horrible experience during the second World War years.
The film was a joint production by Japanese and French producers and featured French actress Emmanuelle Riva and Japanese actor Eiji Okada in the lead roles. The film had won screenwriter Marguerite Duras an Oscar nomination and it had also won a special award at Cannes but was not allowed entry into the official category, since, the subject matter was considered sensitive.
