2001cal

The fact that you are reading a review for an Alain Resnais film means that you are not expecting Hiroshima mon amour to be the typical Hollywood blockbuster film. If you had such an expectation, you will not want to watch this film, because it is very artsy (whether that is good or bad is up to you personally). I have heard the film described as pretentious, irritating, and annoying. If these words don't dismay you, you are ready to watch Hiroshima, because Resnais does not disappoint. However, I think to watch this film and really enjoy it you have to pay less attention to the story, the acting, the actors, and more attention to the images themselves. The story is, after all, called during the film itself "une histoire de quatre sous"--and in fact it is a story that you have heard many times and which feels deeply moving and dramatic, but you would be doing a great disservice to Resnais' filmmaking if you just paid attention to the plot. After all, it's a film, not a book.

the author of the book, by the same title, should not have let her name be used for this movie. if you have read the book, this movie takes such a liberal interpretation of the actual events in the book and its spirit that the movie and book seem to have quite little in common except the title and some superficial details. the movie adds nothing, in terms of artistic merit, to the book's own literary achievement.

for those who have not read the book: you will also be disappointed. not only does the plot move at an incredibly slow pace, it doesn't offer anything more while it is moving slowly (like character development, for example). some viewers might be entertained by some of the graphic lesbian love scenes later on in the movie, but you might as well watch a showtime special for the stuff they show in therese and isabelle--its fairly tame and not imaginative at all.