Non-linear Montage

Hiroshima mon amour, (1959) Alain Resnais

Hiroshima mon amour (1959) is a famous movie directed by Alain Resnais. The original project, was to make a documentary film about the horrors of Hiroshima. Finding it difficult, Alain Resnais and his screenwriter, Marguerite Duras,  decided that they would create a love story set in the city of Hiroshima. It is a love story between two characters known by their native city, Nevers in France and Hiroshima. The lovers juxtapose their different experiences as survivors of the horrors of war. The opening scene shows footage of the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, while the lovers are trying to come to grips with that unfathomable reality: “Tu n’as rien vu a Hiroshima… Oui j’ai tout vu a Hiroshima…”. Their faces aren’t revealed until after the dialogue.

While the narrator speaks of love, the images that we see are those of war. This contrast is interesting because it breaks with the conventional cliches about love and war. The narration brings about new and interesting metaphors, both visual and spoken.

In terms of narrative timing, this idiosyncratic movie has a unique manner of treating time. For example, the characters in their dialogue are given to repeating entire sentences, which gives a strange effect of immediacy. These reiterations emphasize certain ideas that the narrator shares with the audience, and evoke different concepts that are less obvious than what is being shown on the screen. This effect creates a kind of resonance, which allows for a variety of interpretation on the subject of the tragedy of Hiroshima. It is an attempt to convey meaning, that is sometimes at times so deep/complex that the repetition provides breathing space for the audience to absorb what is happening. There is a recurrence of the same words yet, the allusions are never the same. In reality, the characters are desperately trying to ascertain the memory of tragic event. The interplay between flashback and repetitious dialogue leaves both characters and viewers questioning what and how we remember the past.

For all of its complexity, the film is well structured. There is great precision in the way the images are often synced with the dialogue, the dialogue with the music… When the narrator speaks about serene and calm subjects, the music follows the mood, the transition between shots is slower and gently fade out. When they evoke horrors and suffering, the music changes to something more dim and eerie and the transition between shots are like flashes, more rapid and abrupt.

The plot essentially relies on this non-linear format to expose the full complexity of this one-day love story. It is woven with war, pain, death, experiences where the past can become the present, which as a result, affects the structure of the conventional story telling.

The end result creates tremendous emotions for the audience, both in terms of love found in lost as well as the pain of having survived great atrocities.