Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959)

Hiroshima, Mon Amour (Dir. Alain Resnais) is a story of couple’s romantic journey in Hiroshima. The main female protagonist meets a Japanese man in Hiroshima while filming a movie about peace, fifteen years after the end of the Second World War. The Japanese man she meets and falls in love with reminds her of her first love; a German soldier who was killed. The film displays the woman's troubling character as she remembers her past.

The film’s themes are the power of memory and love. Most of the film is shot in extreme close ups between the two main characters. The close ups not only show the isolation they have developed with their love but also the claustrophobia of the space in the world. The frame is constantly narrow with display of the characters’ skin/body. These shots evoke the love for each other because the bodies seen become almost one single part. In addition, it shows the viewer that the minimal space these characters have are shared with one another, enhancing their chemistry, both physically and emotionally.

The film provides a lot of voice over scene with the display of past images. In addition the shot always has a straight cut transition to and from these memory shots. This shows the power of memory in the film. It shows that the characters’ memory is strong enough to even be a part of their current lives. The memories of these characters are an essential element of the film because it shapes their behavior throughout the film. Essentially, the memory of the female's first love is so critical to her that Hiroshima becomes a metaphor that represents the loss of her first love.

The order that these memories are told also say a lot of the female protagonist. The memories she shares with her Japanese lover is not told chronologically, which shows the disorder of her character. The character is eventually portrayed as an unstable woman who is traumatized by the death of her husband. Likewise, the film itself has a disorderly composition, going from the past to the present, and then back to the past.