I haven’t updated this blog recently, so I thought I would share some of my academic writing. Since I’m still spending a lot of time at home due to COVID-19, I have been taking some classes at the University of Cincinnati. In the fall of 2021, I took a French studies class about French film and TV. I wrote a series of short response papers and the first paper is about the 1959 romantic drama Hiroshima Mon Amour which tells the story of a 36-hour love affair between a Japanese architect and a French actress.

I thought director Alain Resnais’ use of perspective to create a sense of intimacy or, conversely, emotional distance in Hiroshima Mon Amour was very effective. I noticed that Resnais used a lot of extreme close-ups in the first half of the film the first time I watched it; however, I didn’t notice that he had used wider shots in the second half, especially for “Her” memories of a wartime affair with a German soldier, until our class discussion. Although we discussed in class how the longer shots created a sense of voyeurism, I feel that using a longer lens also served other functions as well.

First, the two main characters, “Her”/”Nevers” (Emmanuelle Riva) and “Him”/”Hiroshima” (Eiji Okada), remain universal/anonymous throughout the film, and the long-distance shots also help to reinforce the anonymous and universal nature of “Her” love affair with the German soldier (who is also never named). The very wide shots do not provide the viewer with many details of the two lovers. The lack of specificity permits the viewer to fill in blanks themselves. Only 15 years had passed since the events in question occurred, and most viewers in 1959 had probably lived through the Liberation. Many viewers at the time had probably witnessed similar events in their towns, or at least heard about something similar, to what “She” experienced when her neighbors punished her (by shaving her head) for engaging in “horizontal collaboration” with the German soldier. Some viewers might have had friends or family members who had made similar transgressions or received similar punishments. The use of wider shots to obscure the details of “Her” memory made it easier for viewers to relate to the story.

Furthermore, the very wide shots used to recall “Her” memories of the German could also signify that “She” was actually starting to forget the exact details of the events herself. The events occurred 15 years ago, and, although they were traumatic, “She” likely cannot remember every detail of every rendezvous. As she says in the film, Nevers is already starting to remember things less clearly, such as the details of her German lover’s eyes and voice. The details of her flashbacks are also obscured through the use of very long shots where no distinguishing details can be discerned by the viewer.

References

Hiroshima Mon Amour. Directed by Alain Resnais, performances by Emmanuelle Riva, and Eiji Okada. Daiei, 1959.