Hiroshima Mon Amour Remembering Analysis

Remembering and forgetting are one of Alain Resnais themes along with troubled past and present, time, and personal and historical memory. Akira Kurosawa experiences disaster early at a young age. That catastrophe (the Great Kanto Earthquake) is horrible but, at the same time, important in his life, since recalling the emotions, experiences and memories of the calamity make Kurosawa’s works authentic. In Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour remembering can be seen on two levels: (1) the represented memories, experiences and perspectives of those who actually passed through the horrors of the atomic bomb; and (2) what people can experience; learn through museum exhibitions, films and documentaries that are not able to fully represent the destruction

He is an architect of a city (Hiroshima) that was razed to the ground. He is questioning the French woman about her past, about Nevers. He is curious about the different traumas of a person who is from a distinct culture. He wishes to get a different point of view of what happened at other parts of the world during World War II. He is curious about Nevers, the woman’s past in Nevers, what happened there has shaped her present self what the man likes. They share same emotions and tragedies are present in both of their lives. Her tragedy is on individual level: personal loss, personal pain and suffering. His calamity is collective: the whole Japanese nation shares his trauma. “[Collective memory] This refers to the joint memories held by a community about the past.” He seeks for the company of the woman, together they are a whole, and separately they are lost. For the Japanese man this Hiroshima affair is synonymous with Nevers, with “never.” He will “never” forget the woman. The construction of Hiroshima Mon Amour is non-linear, “full of flashbacks.” This method represents perfectly how past intervenes the present as remembrance is happening. This fragmented way is very effective to represent remembering and