hiroshima mon amour, the last time I watched this film? Can I remember?

I've seen this film several times. I think this viewing was my fourth. The first time I saw I didn't know what was going on. And it is such a short film if you don't know whats going on, it will go right over your head. This time around I read the screenplay. The script is about 80 pages with a short introduction. The end is abrupt and it leaves the viewer wondering if Emmanuelle Riva stays in Hiroshima or goes back to Paris or Nevers? I think it is one of the best cinematic endings in film history. Throughout the entire film the two characters are only referred to as He and She. They have no names. Finally at the end of the film they give each other names associated with their experiences of war time atrocity. Nevers in France where She had taken up with a Nazi soldier and Hiroshima where the Americans had dropped one of two atomic bombs.

Right away when I began thinking about what the film meant, I thought about war time atrocities. The dropping of the bomb on Japan was a controversial decision by Harry S. Truman. Did the Americans really need to drop the bomb and kill all those innocent civilians? Couldn't something else have been done? I'm familiar with most of the arguments that justify the decision to drop the bomb, but after seeing the footage at the beginning of this film I hesitate to agree with proponents of using the bomb as an alternative to a different outcome.

The other atrocity which is harder to follow in the film is when Riva's younger self falls in love with a Nazi soldier. After liberation she is treated very badly. The townsfolk shave her hair off and throw her into a cellar and don't let her out. She has screaming fits. She licks the saltpeter walls and her own blood. Finally she is released and sent to Paris.

By the time the film's action takes place. Both of the characters have married and are leading lives of contentment. Yet their affair brings up past memories, especially for Riva, that they have forgotten. The ravages of the A- bomb seem like a distant memory for He. While She has totally forgotten about Nevers. Yet it is part of their identity. It is part of their past that they have forgotten. It is their way of coping with past memories that if they didn't forget them, they would probably go nuts. How does one continue to live after the atrocities of war? Especially when you return to normal life?

This might be the best film of the French New Wave. It might be the best post-War European film.