A French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) as they share their differing perspectives on war.
This film started out as a documentary, which seems evident from all the footage of Hiroshima following World War II. But then Marguerite Duras was brought in to add a fictionalized element. I think that was an interesting choice. Although Duras was a known writer and director in France, to Americans she is probably only known for her novel "The Lover", about an affair between a French woman and a Chinese man, not a far removal from this romance.
The film was a major catalyst for the Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave), making highly innovative use of miniature flashbacks to create a uniquely nonlinear storyline. While (in my opinion) not nearly as accomplished as the director's "Last Year at Marienbad", the influence is striking, and it is a shame that Alain Resnais is not better known in America.
This film started out as a documentary, which seems evident from all the footage of Hiroshima following World War II. But then Marguerite Duras was brought in to add a fictionalized element. I think that was an interesting choice. Although Duras was a known writer and director in France, to Americans she is probably only known for her novel "The Lover", about an affair between a French woman and a Chinese man, not a far removal from this romance.
The film was a major catalyst for the Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave), making highly innovative use of miniature flashbacks to create a uniquely nonlinear storyline. While (in my opinion) not nearly as accomplished as the director's "Last Year at Marienbad", the influence is striking, and it is a shame that Alain Resnais is not better known in America.