Product: Hiroshima mon amour [VHS] (1960)
Rating: 5.0
When memory and reality get all mixed up
All about memory and forgetting and first-hand vs. second-hand knowledge. A French actress (played by Emmanuelle Riva) comes to Hiroshima to participate in a "peace" film; while there she meets a French-speaking Japanese man (Eiji Okada) and has a brief (one night) affair with him. She tells him the story of her life in France during the war, her love affair with a German soldier, his death, and her insane grief over him. Memory and reality get mixed up as she begins referring to Okada as her lost German lover.Technically the movie employs a number of flashbacks as Riva, while in bed making love to Okada, tells him what she has seen and felt (about the A-bombing) during her visit to Hiroshima; Okada keeps telling her it's not the same as actually witnessing it. The movie drags a bit toward the end, as if the themes are all worked out and there's nowhere else to go - so it flounders. But it's a memorable movie experience all the same, even profound at times. Definitely worth a watch.