I never fell asleep in a movie until we started studying the French New Wave cinema in my international film and television class, but this was a monstrosity. Alain Resnais has made some incredible films. Most notably the holocaust documentary Night and Fog. This is not up to par.
I never thought I would see a film that ran out of story when its only ninety minutes long. The opening sequence was beautifully shot but it just seemed to go on and on and wouldn't stop, not to mention it was irrelevant to the story. This film had two messages. One is, those damned American's going around bombing people. The other is a love story between a french woman with a dark past and a Japanese man.
This movie looses ground in several ways. One is the use of excessive voice over. Voice overs are okay if they are essential in letting people know the back story and you are unable to do that any other way. But these voice overs account for a large percentage of the film. They never stopped, they just kept going, and going , and going, and going, and going, and going. You get the idea.
Well, eventually the story takes us to yet another endless sequence of the couple eating dinner at a restaurant and the woman complaining about her life to a man who lost his family in the war, his story we here very little about. And, like most older french films the women gets a little riled up, the guy slaps her and back hands her, she smiles "thanks for snapping me out of it" and keeps on going. Of all of the french films I've seen this semester Jean-Luc Goddard's film "Contempt" is the only one that had a slap actually mean something and actually appear to cause some physical pain.
Believe it or not the story just dwindled from there. It goes into yet another voice over about Hiroshima's cruel fate and this is followed by a half an hour of the same scene repeated over and over and over and over and over again in different locations. The woman enters a location, the man follows her, he asks her to stay, she refuses and leaves; she enters another location, the man follows her, he asks her to stay, she refuses and leaves; she enters another location, the man follows her and asks her to stay, she refuses and leaves. Bored yet? I guarantee you they repeated that scene more than three times too.
Bottom line, just because its french and its old doesn't make it great art. Quality storytelling is essential in the making of any film and that is something that Hirshima Mon Amour does not offer.
I never thought I would see a film that ran out of story when its only ninety minutes long. The opening sequence was beautifully shot but it just seemed to go on and on and wouldn't stop, not to mention it was irrelevant to the story. This film had two messages. One is, those damned American's going around bombing people. The other is a love story between a french woman with a dark past and a Japanese man.
This movie looses ground in several ways. One is the use of excessive voice over. Voice overs are okay if they are essential in letting people know the back story and you are unable to do that any other way. But these voice overs account for a large percentage of the film. They never stopped, they just kept going, and going , and going, and going, and going, and going. You get the idea.
Well, eventually the story takes us to yet another endless sequence of the couple eating dinner at a restaurant and the woman complaining about her life to a man who lost his family in the war, his story we here very little about. And, like most older french films the women gets a little riled up, the guy slaps her and back hands her, she smiles "thanks for snapping me out of it" and keeps on going. Of all of the french films I've seen this semester Jean-Luc Goddard's film "Contempt" is the only one that had a slap actually mean something and actually appear to cause some physical pain.
Believe it or not the story just dwindled from there. It goes into yet another voice over about Hiroshima's cruel fate and this is followed by a half an hour of the same scene repeated over and over and over and over and over again in different locations. The woman enters a location, the man follows her, he asks her to stay, she refuses and leaves; she enters another location, the man follows her, he asks her to stay, she refuses and leaves; she enters another location, the man follows her and asks her to stay, she refuses and leaves. Bored yet? I guarantee you they repeated that scene more than three times too.
Bottom line, just because its french and its old doesn't make it great art. Quality storytelling is essential in the making of any film and that is something that Hirshima Mon Amour does not offer.