--- product_id: 3723944 title: "Hiroshima Mon Amour (The Criterion Collection)" brand: "alain resnais" price: "€ 46.26" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 9 url: https://www.desertcart.be/products/3723944-hiroshima-mon-amour-the-criterion-collection store_origin: BE region: Belgium --- # Hiroshima Mon Amour (The Criterion Collection) **Brand:** alain resnais **Price:** € 46.26 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Hiroshima Mon Amour (The Criterion Collection) by alain resnais - **How much does it cost?** € 46.26 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.be](https://www.desertcart.be/products/3723944-hiroshima-mon-amour-the-criterion-collection) ## Best For - alain resnais enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted alain resnais brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description A French actress in Hiroshima to film a movie about peace falls in love with a Japanese architect who survived the Hiroshima bombing. One of the classic films of the French New Wave. ## Product Details - **Format:** Black & White, Multiple Formats, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled - **Contributor:** Alain Resnais - **Language:** French - **Runtime:** 1 hour and 31 minutes - **Color:** Black & White ## Images ![Hiroshima Mon Amour (The Criterion Collection) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41T8JFCPWHL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Slow, painful, moody AND amazing. *by N***A on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 10, 2023* The footage of the atomic bomb and the suffering it delivered is important to see. ### ⭐⭐ Don't say I didn't warn you *by D***A on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 7, 2013* If ever there was an argument for going with your first reaction, this is it. Around the half way mark of this slight, dull, overpraised film, I resolved to persist in case something of value declared itself. Instead, the few modest virtues of the first half were obliterated by what appeared to be a slow motion parody of mid-century art films, in which vacillating and tormented Emmanuelle Riva (this is one of those films in which the protagonists aren't named) walks the nocturnal streets of Hiroshima and shares her every thought with us in an unvarying hushed monotone, while her new lover Eiji Okada follows a few paces behind with a fixed expression of anguished longing.I watched this early French New Wave film because critic David Thomson, who doesn't like much, couldn't speak highly enough of it. In hindsight, it's pretty clear that his inflated opinion of HMA came about because he was eighteen and impressionable when he watched it, the two leads are good looking and at first glance worldly, and they spend a great deal of time in bed, in a way that would have seemed pretty bold back in the day. That quite convincing scenario of genuine passion and eroticism in a one night stand unfortunately follows and is intercut with actual and re-enacted footage of Hiroshima victims in a way that is so pointlessly arty as to be obscene. Apparently Resnais was commissioned to make a film about the atomic bomb being a bad thing, but somehow managed to spend the money on this story which is completely unrelated, except that it makes the offensive implication that Riva's guilt about not being able to hold onto the memory of her German lover at the end of the war in occupied France is a tragedy comparable with the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.I did what I could to prepare myself for this film, little realising that no preparation that didn't include the words DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU would be sufficient. I read (years after acquiring it) a chapter from compiled essays from Cahiers du Cinema which wasn't hugely informative about the film, but did discuss mise en scene, apparently a subject of spirited debate between Continental and English speaking critics in the early '60s, when people didn't have decades of lightweight pop culture to analyse and generally spend too much time talking about (if pressed, I'd say mise en scene is the look and the style of the film, as opposed to the story and the dialogue). Another book about '60s cinema made much of HMA's cutting between past and present, which was apparently innovative at the time and went on to influence Nicholas Roeg (famously the lovemaking scene in Don't Look Now) and others. That seemed good to me - I love cinematic genealogy, and it looked like there was an antecedent to Soderbergh's tricksy use of flashbacks - but what we see in the film seemed pretty routine, and was in any case robbed of ambiguity by Ms Riva explaining every little thing in voiceover. Maybe it's like author Geoff Dyer's observation about coming late to jazz pianist and acclaimed innovator Bud Powell, and finding he sounded familiar because he'd been so imitated.If this had been reduced to about thirty five minutes, with the lovers meeting, realising how deeply they felt for each other, but having to return to their spouses - a sort of consummated Franco-Japanese Brief Encounter - it would have been a good film. I could have dug the dated score, which goes for a Herbie Hancock-Eric Dolphy vibe, and the look, and Riva's terrific Monica Vitti-style bangs. Instead, the longer it went, the madder I got, clutching at straws like when Riva portentously says "They say there's a storm coming before nightfall" (which was much funnier when Jean-Hughes Anglade intones it mid-copulation at the start of Betty Blue), or the couple stop for some more silent staring at a cavernous bar named, for no earthly reason, Casablanca. At one stage Okada waits until Riva draws breath between tragic reminiscences and slaps her soundly, which stops her only for a few moments, which I think brings things into focus: this film is The Terminator of arty dullness. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Victims of War *by R***N on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 4, 2004* This is an excellent film that depicts the pain and suffering of war on the large and individual scale. By contrasting the two, the film is able to make its' message that much more profound.The film takes palce in Hiroshima circa 1959 and begins as we hear the voices of two quieted lovers. The woman talks about what she has learned from witnessing the bombing of Hiroshima. The man constantly reminds her that she was not there. As the voices (in French) become faces, we see a French woman and a Japanese man. The woman is clearly very happy and full of life. Their relationship is about to end (it apparrently had barely begun). The man does not want to lose his new-found lover and persists over the next 24 hours to try and talk her into staying. At one point, the woman recalls the emotional tragedy that she suffered at the end of WWII in France. As she painstakingly recalls the events of 14 years ago, we watch her gradually disintegrate into a depressed shell of her earlier self. This is the tragic beauty of this movie and an effective way to show the horrors of war. Part of the problem of comprehending the devastation of war is often the immensity of it. As we are shown some graphic pictures and statistics of the A bomb's effect on Hiroshima, it sometimes gets hard to put it in human context. By "superimposing" the story of a woman's emotional tragedy and its' self destruction of her, we see the human effects. Her point at the beginning of the movie; that she know's what happened in Hiroshima, becomes understandable in this context. Ironically, the Japanese man, whose family perished in the bomb while he was serving elsewhere in the army, seems to be the one who was less affected by the war.This movie is one of those whose meaning grows on you. I bought the DVD and, while I'm no techical expert, am quite satisfied with its' quality. I initially thought the price tag to be pretty steep. After viewing it once, I have come to look on it as a bargain. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.be/products/3723944-hiroshima-mon-amour-the-criterion-collection](https://www.desertcart.be/products/3723944-hiroshima-mon-amour-the-criterion-collection) --- *Product available on Desertcart Belgium* *Store origin: BE* *Last updated: 2026-04-23*