Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Hiroshima Mon Amour Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 3, 2016

Alain Resnais' "Hiroshima mon amour" (1959) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the disc include new filmed conversation with restoration specialist Davide Pozzi and cinematographer Renato Berta and video interview with actress Emmanuelle Riva. In French, with imposed English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The lovers

The majority of the events in Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima mon amour take place over the course of twenty four hours, but this isn’t immediately clear. At first it looks like one has been forced into a nightmare. There are corpses, people suffering, and a city that has been destroyed.

Later on, the graphic images are gradually replaced with images of new statues and buildings. Now there are people walking, cars and buses passing by. The city has been rebuilt and the sky has cleared.

Eventually, a man and a woman making love slowly emerge in front of the camera. They look like lovers, but after a while it becomes obvious that they don’t know much about each other. She (Emmanuelle Riva, Risky Business, Léon Morin, Priest) casually asks if the man is completely Japanese. He (Eiji Okada, Woman in the Dunes, The Face of Another) then asks if the woman’s eyes are green. They are in a hotel room somewhere in Hiroshima.

She and He have a long conversation -- both recall where they were when Hiroshima was destroyed. He was away, fighting the enemy, but his entire family was in Hiroshima. She was in her hometown of Nevers, where she had fallen in love with a handsome German soldier.

Before they leave the hotel room they arrange to see each other again, but both realize that their affair is coming to an end. In a few hours She will have to board a plane to Paris while He will greet his wife back home. They both have cheated, but for the first time since Hiroshima was destroyed they’ve felt alive, needed, and wanted.

Hiroshima mon amour was initially intended to be a documentary, but after Alain Resnais refused to complete it as such novelist and screenwriter Marguerite Duras’ transformed it into a romantic story.

The structure of the film is very unusual. Past and present frequently overlap and create a borderline surreal atmosphere with striking visual contrasts. For example, there are disturbing images of disfigured victims (taken from the Japanese reconstruction film Children of Hiroshima) that are inserted in elegantly lensed sequences with the naked bodies of the two lovers. The message behind these extreme contrasts is that as irremediable evil and self-destructive human beings may seem, if given a chance and encouraged they can always rediscover love and their passion for life.

Despite the powerful images, however, the film is completely devoid of political statements. A few slogans are seen during a sequence from the Japanese film Riva’s character was hired to do in Hiroshima, but there are no condemnations -- and rightfully so. After the graphic prologue, any attempt to comprehend the actions or question the morality of those responsible for the destruction of Hiroshima would have almost immediately collapsed the film.

The film features footage lensed by two cinematographers, Sacha Vierny and Takahashi Michio, whose management of light, shadow and space still feels strikingly modern.

The dark, quite melancholic soundtrack features beautiful piano pieces from two legendary composers: Georges Delerue (Contempt, The Conformist) and and Giovanni Fusco (L'Avventura, L'Eclisse).

Hiroshima Mon Amour Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Alain Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal.

The release uses as a foundation the recent excellent 4K restoration of the film, which was supervised by cinematographer Renato Berta (Rendez-vous, Merci pour le Chocolat) and completed by Argos Films, Technicolor and Groupama Gan Foundations, and Cineteca di Bologna in 2013. The restoration was initially released in France via Arte/Tamasa Distribution (see our listing here), and later on in the United States by Criterion (see listing here).

I viewed the film and did some direct comparisons with Criterion's release. The film looks brighter and occasionally flatter. There are some native fluctuations in terms of brightness and clarity, but it appears that this release was actually encoded with incorrect black levels. While this is a technical limitation that can be easily addressed by current payers, it is unfortunate that is exists on the disc. Generally speaking, detail is excellent. Obviously, during the documentary footage the rough spots and fluctuations remains, but the rest of the film looks very healthy. The discrepancies that have been produced by the elevation of the black levels are most noticeable during the darker/nighttime footage where depth isn't as impressive as it should be (compare screencapture #15 and screencapture #8 from our review of the U.S. release; also see screencaptures #12 and 13). There are a few daylight sequences where light is delicately captured by the camera where balance now also appears slightly off. The good news here is that the rest of the basics are intact. Grain is visible throughout the entire film and there are no compromising sharpening adjustments. Overall image stability is also excellent. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Hiroshima Mon Amour Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French LPCM 2.0. There are imposed English subtitles for the main feature. (They cannot be turned off from the main menu or via the remote control).

There are no technical issues to report in our review. The dialog and the narration are stable, clean, and easy to follow. Obviously, the overall dynamic intensity is quite modest, but such is the film's original sound design. There are no audio dropouts or distortions.

Hiroshima Mon Amour Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Restoration Featurette - in this filmed video conversation, restoration specialist Davide Pozzi (L'Immagine Ritrovata), who oversaw the scanning and restoration of Hiroshima mon amour, and cinematographer Renato Berta (Au Revoir Les Enfants, Every Man for Himself), who served as a special consultant on the project, discuss some of the unique challenges the 4K restoration of Alain Resnais' film presented, the film's very delicate visual style (with specific comments addressing the management and balance of shadow and light), the new options digital technology gives restorers and filmmakers and how easy it is to irreversibly damage important films while they are being restored, etc. In French, with imposed English subtitles. (11 min).

• Emmanuelle Riva Remembers Hiroshima - in this video interview, actress Emmanuelle Riva recalls how she began her acting career in Remiremont in the Vosges (in a theater troupe) and her first audition for director Alain Resnais, and discusses her involvement with Hiroshima mon amour. In French, with imposed English subtitles. (13 min).

Hiroshima Mon Amour Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

StudioCanal's release of Alain Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour is sourced from the excellent recent 4K restoration of the film. However, the technical presentation could have been better. Also, I think that the release should have had a much better selection of supplemental features. I still think that it is worth purchasing because it is superior to previous R2 DVD releases of the film, but more effort should have been put into it. RECOMMENDED (with some reservations).