Hiroshima Mon Amour

Hiroshima Mon Amour starts off as an expository documentary by narrating through the tragedy at Hiroshima and the suffering and hardache suffered by its people. Within moments the voice over narration ends and the story about the tragedy of Hiroshima intersects with the fictional story of two consenting adults who have deep rooted feelings for each other after spending the night with each other. Lui can not seem to overcome his desire of love for Elle and acts on it while Elle, having the same feelings, resists and represses her feelings. The directors intention of combining these two stories about Hiroshima and love is a way for one story to reflect the other. The story about love seemed almost unecessary as it proceeded after the story of the tragedy at Hiroshima. However, the story of love was a reflection of the actions of the people who live in Hiroshima and how they dealt with the tregedy of the nuclear tragedy. Elle repressing her true feelings of love is an indication that the people of Hiroshima have repressed their feelings of anxiety, fear, and pain since that tragedy. The technique of taking a fictional story and relating it to a past event takes precedent in the documentary world because it becomes an experimental way of approaching documentary filmmaking. The director did things outside of the norm of documentary filmmaking and the end results, if not liked, than has to at least be appreciated for its effort.