French actress falls in love with Japanese architect. Both have war traumas.
Director: Alain Resnais (l'Année dernière à Marienbad) - Actors: Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas, among others
Length: 90 minutes - Language: Japanese, English, French
- Subtitles: Dutch
VPRO Cinema: "...this milestone in film innovation loses none of its original effect."
Postwar classic from 1959, with which French director Alain Resnais made an impressive film debut. The screenplay was written by Marguerite Duras. Innovative was to mix present and past without using the usual flashbacks.
A French actress(Emmanuelle Riva) falls in love with a Japanese architect(Eiji Okada) in Hiroshima, The actress and the architect share a traumatic war past. The woman had an affair with a German soldier during the war and was arrested as a traitor to the country. The young architect saw the horrors of the atomic bomb. It severely affected their emotional lives.
The equally gripping and elegant film in black and white has been beautifully restored by Filmmuseum Eye.