Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) - Beauty and passion in the midst of devastation in Resnais' striking images

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A muscular man's back, a woman's red lips and a backdrop of stirring, passionate red indicates strong sexuality on this poster for Alain Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour

A beautiful French actress ventures into a heartfelt affair with a local man in Hiroshima, Japan, where she spends a short visit, and their relationship is reconnected later in the new city built up after the nuclear bomb.

 

Hiroshima Mon Amour is written by Marguerite Duras (Le Camion (1977)) and directed by Alain Resnais (Ouvert pour Cause d'Inventaire (1946)). The original French title translates to 'Hiroshima my love'.

A poetical narration and a visual side that packs several scenes that radiate clean beauty are linked to footage of the horrors of the nuclear bomb and its at times horrific consequences, - as life inevitably goes on, not undisturbed by these horrors, but nevertheless still, as here, in the guise of a beautiful, loving couple.

The plot side of the film becomes distant and unreal, but the strong camera work (by cinematographers Michio Takahashi (Itohan monogatari (1957)) and Sacha Vierny (Stavisky/Stavisky... (1974))) keeps one fixed on this remarkable, unique film.

 

 

Watch a 1-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain but likely a big hit

[Hiroshima Mon Amour premiered 8 May (Cannes Film Festival) and runs 90 minutes. Resnais was reportedly commissioned to make a documentary on the nuclear bomb attacks in Japan in the vein of his Holocaust documentary Night and Fog (1956). Shooting took place from September - December 1958 in France and Japan. The film was kept out of the main competition in Cannes out of a fear that it would offend the Americans with its representations of the devastation caused by their nuclear attacks. The film's box office performance at the time is regrettably not reported online, but it was likely highly successful, not least due to its erotic allure. It has also been re-released numerous times. It was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, lost to Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond for The Weekend. It also won 1/3 BAFTA nominations and a National Board of Review award, among other honors.  Together with The 400 Blows (1959) and Breathless (1960), Hiroshima Mon Amour was among the most important films in the French New Wave. Resnais returned with Last Year at Marienbad (1961). Emmanuelle Riva (For Sasha/Pour Sasha (1991)) returned in Le huitième jour (1960); Eiji Okada (Lady Snowblood/Shurayukihime (1973)) in Subarashiki musumetachi (1959). Hiroshima Mon Amour is certified fresh at 98 % with an 8.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Hiroshima Mon Amour? 

Amour (2012) - Tender love, unstoppable death in Haneke's pictures

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+ Best French Movie of the Year

An almost painfully intimate moment between the film's central aging couple is used on this poster for Michael Haneke's Amour

An old married, French couple. One day, the woman loses the ability to move in her one side. Her health rapidly deteriorates, while her husband cares for her until the last breath.

 
Amour is written and directed by great German filmmaker Michael Haneke (The Seventh Continent/Der Siebente Kontinent (1989)). Amour is French for 'love'.

Emmanuelle Riva's (Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) performance as the ailing old woman, who loses control of her faculties, is taboo-breaking and incredible, and the intimacy and realism of the loving tragedy and the couple's relation is infectious in a surreptitious manner, seeming to crawl under your skin without you noticing. - Or, more accurately, you notice its doing so by the intense unpleasantness that you experience from being put expertly in their shoes, a weight that is making some term the film unbearable.
The very intense journey towards inevitable death in Amour is long-winded and truly awful to be on, and the love between the two so beautiful that the film is very nearly unbearable, - which could be called a trademark for all of Haneke's films. This one ranks among his finest.

Related posts:

Michael Haneke: 2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
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2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

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Funny Games (2007) - Haneke recreates his strong critique of movie violence consumption for the American audience 

Top 10: Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Hidden/Caché (2005) - Haneke's slick, cold surveillance drama-thriller  

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 8.9 mil. $
Box office: 29.6 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 3.32 times its cost)

[Amour premiered 20 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 127 minutes. Haneke went through a writer's block during his making the screenplay, which he wrote specifically with Jean-Louis Trintignant (L'Été Prochain (1985)). Trintignant broke his prior 14 years of retirement to appear in the film. It was mostly inspired by the suicide of Haneke's own rheumatism-plagued 90 year-old aunt. Shooting took place from February - April 2011 in France, including Paris. The film opened #37 to a 68k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #19 and in 333 theaters (different weeks), grossing 6.7 mil. $ (22.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 4.2 mil. $ (14.2 %) and the Netherlands with 2.2 mil. $ (7.4 %). The film was nominated for 5 Oscars, winning 1, for Best Foreign Language Film. It lost Best Picture to Argo, Actress (Riva) to Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook, Director to Ang Lee for Life of Pi and Original Screenplay to Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained. It also won a Golden Globe, 2/4 BAFTA nominations, the Palme d'Or in Cannes, 5/10 César award nominations, a David di Donatello award, 4/6 European Film award nominations, an Independent Spirit award, a National Board of Review award and several other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Haneke returned with Così fan Tutte (2013, TV movie) and theatrically with Happy End (2017). Riva returned in A Greek Type of Problem/Tu Honoreras ta Mère et ta Mère (2012); Trintignant in Happy End (2017). Amour is certified fresh at 93 % with an 8.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 
What do you think of Amour?