Hiroshima Mon Amour

Resnais worked with Duras to create a truly beautiful film. The beginning of the film’s amazing photography and somewhat dark narration set the mood of the film. It depicted beauty, love and grief. If one was to read a generic plot description of this film, it would be generalized as a love story. However, the Hiroshima Mon Amour touches on issues that go beyond love.
The film deals with two characters that were greatly influenced by World War II. Elle and Lui were able to share their stories of agony. Lui’s entire family was killed in result of the bombing of Hiroshima and Elle’s first lover was killed in the war.

The similarities between Elle’s first lover and Lui were astonishing and somewhat eerie. Elle’s first lover was a Nazi soldier and an obvious enemy to France. Lui was a Japanese soldier during World War II, also making him an enemy of France. What made this eerie is the way Elle told her story. While telling the story to Lui she would often refer to the Nazi soldier as “you”. This not only kept the viewer guessing, but indirectly exposed the parallel between Lui and the Nazi soldier.

The scene of Elle’s past showed one example of negative effect from war. It was almost as if her grief , humiliation and confinement was her personal Hiroshima bombing.