Film Forum

France/Japan, 1959
Directed by Alain Resnais
Starring Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada
Screenplay by Marguerite Duras
DCP. Approx. 90 min. In French with English subtitles.

“You saw nothing in Hiroshima. Nothing.” “I saw everything. Everything.”  Entangled, unmoving limbs covered in ash, the bodies of two lovers:  French actress Emmanuelle Riva (2012 Oscar nominee for Amour), in Japan to make a “peace” film about Hiroshima, finds in the course of her brief affair with Japanese architect Eiji Okada (WOMAN IN THE DUNES, THE UGLY AMERICAN) compulsively returning to her traumatic post-war experiences, her love for a German soldier and her own shaming.  

Asked to do an anti-nuclear documentary in the wake of his powerful Holocaust doc NIGHT AND FOG, Resnais opted instead for a feature exploring mutual guilts and the power of memory via multitudes of sometimes tiny timeshifts intercut with the present day lovers’ marathon conversation – all by first-time scripter but already-distinguished novelist Marguerite Duras, whose screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award.

A pillar of the French New Wave, HIROSHIMA was awarded the International Critics’ prize at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. Due to its harrowing anti-nuclear stance, it was kept out of the main competition to avoid offending the U.S.
 

Reviews

“Among the many masterpieces of the French New Wave, Resnais’s 1959 memory drama is easily the most passionate: a cross-cultural romance tinged by shame and regret.”
– Time Out

“RESNAIS’ TESTAMENT! THE MOST IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO FILM AESTHETICS SINCE CITIZEN KANE! Duras’ script soars to new levels of narratage... Riva's portrayal provides that rare illusion of continuous existence beyond the ellipses of the cinema.”
– Andrew Sarris

“A RAPTUROUSLY GORGEOUS FILM!”
– Budd Wilkins, Slant

“ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL FILMS IN THE SHORT HISTORY OF THE MEDIUM! It's difficult to quantify the breadth of Hiroshima's impact.”
– Kent Jones

“BEDEVILINGLY STYLISH! A street riot of modernist cinema with innovative weapons – impressionistic editing, subjective time shifts, abstracted visuals, erotic shadowplay – and the first film to juxtapose disastrous erotic passion with the political disasters of the mid century.“
– Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

“BY FAR THE MOST IMPRESSIVE RESTORATION I'VE EVER SEEN!”
– Scout Tafoya, RogerEbert.com

“A TOUR DE FORCE!”
– The New York Times

“VISUALLY PERFECT LIKE FEW OTHERS! There's barely a frame you couldn't extract, expand and hang on the wall.”
– Tom Huddleston, Time Out

“THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FILM I’VE EVER SEEN!”
– Claude Chabrol

“OPENS NEW HORIZONS TO THE CINEMA!”
– Henri-Georges Clouzot