Product: Hiroshima mon amour [VHS] (1960)
Rating: 3.0
WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION?
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (Criterion) is a love affair between a French actress and a Japanese architect that's set against memories of Hiroshima's atomic aftermath. But more than anything, Alan Resnais' first feature is a visual tone poem to life, love and death. Long acknowledged as a foundation stone of French cinema, this film continues to gather gravitas by scholars, critics and others who define and dwell within film culture. From the perspective of the 21st Century, this emotionally heavy story is sometimes pretentious -- mainly because we have become inured to the raw aftershock of Hiroshima and have little fresh experience of just how devastating a real weapon of mass destruction actually is. Underlying Resnais' film is our profound human need to understand the flow of history; that is, our true identity in time and space. Originally released in 1959, this painful love story still has the power stimulate reflection and emotion.