Hiroshima is at the heart of this deceptively simple story. Hiroshima not only as the city which received the fatal bomb on the morning of August 9, 1945, at 9:15 AM, but Hiroshima as the city of Nevers which the woman tries to escape from (but ultimately can't), and Hiroshima as the Japanese man with whom she is having a clandestine affair. The tragedy of the past dresses and undresses them like the ashes seen at the beginning of the film, superimposed on the glistening sweat from the protagonists' lovemaking... an act that will not be repeated after, or throughout the movie. Theirs is an affair that will remain devoid of a fulfilling consummation.
We don't know much about these two people in the beginning: She (Emmanuelle Riva) is in Hiroshima filming scenes for an anti-war movie; he lost his family to the bombing and knows of the pain and the inconsolable loss. The Actress tells him (Eiji Okada) she knows of loss as well, and can identify. At first, we don't know what is under her skin, or why she calmly tells him there will be no more meetings, that he will go away. It is his staying, faithful, by her side, that causes her to slowly peel away at the layers of pain that have lingered just under the surface for 14 years now, eating at her, wanting some form of exorcism.
Rarely has there been such naked intimacy told or filmed on screen in such unconventional manner, de-glamorizing the actors, almost depersonalizing their egos, for the sake of telling a story that took place years ago, but is still present in her mind and soul and is still happening, in an endless repetition, over and over again. Being in Hiroshima only intensifies her grief and overall isolation. Knowing the affair must eventually end and that they will go back to their lives practically turns her to stone in one scene, as morning arrives.
Here is the real tragedy of the story: that we have come to care for both of these people, that they have somehow formed a bond that has been able to rise, like Hiroshima, from the ashes of the past, but that the isolation and inner torment that still rages prevents there being any simple solution -- no Hollywood ending where She will carry out her impulsive decision (that she makes one, to stay, is here, but only in desire, not action), and from what little we still know of Him, no statement that He will leave his unseen, unnamed wife. They will part, and her exclamation near the end: "I am forgetting you already!" is an act, a defense mechanism. She hasn't forgotten the incident at Nevers (which becomes her symbolic name at the end), nor will she forget this man whom at the end has named himself Hiroshima, in remembrance.
We don't know much about these two people in the beginning: She (Emmanuelle Riva) is in Hiroshima filming scenes for an anti-war movie; he lost his family to the bombing and knows of the pain and the inconsolable loss. The Actress tells him (Eiji Okada) she knows of loss as well, and can identify. At first, we don't know what is under her skin, or why she calmly tells him there will be no more meetings, that he will go away. It is his staying, faithful, by her side, that causes her to slowly peel away at the layers of pain that have lingered just under the surface for 14 years now, eating at her, wanting some form of exorcism.
Rarely has there been such naked intimacy told or filmed on screen in such unconventional manner, de-glamorizing the actors, almost depersonalizing their egos, for the sake of telling a story that took place years ago, but is still present in her mind and soul and is still happening, in an endless repetition, over and over again. Being in Hiroshima only intensifies her grief and overall isolation. Knowing the affair must eventually end and that they will go back to their lives practically turns her to stone in one scene, as morning arrives.
Here is the real tragedy of the story: that we have come to care for both of these people, that they have somehow formed a bond that has been able to rise, like Hiroshima, from the ashes of the past, but that the isolation and inner torment that still rages prevents there being any simple solution -- no Hollywood ending where She will carry out her impulsive decision (that she makes one, to stay, is here, but only in desire, not action), and from what little we still know of Him, no statement that He will leave his unseen, unnamed wife. They will part, and her exclamation near the end: "I am forgetting you already!" is an act, a defense mechanism. She hasn't forgotten the incident at Nevers (which becomes her symbolic name at the end), nor will she forget this man whom at the end has named himself Hiroshima, in remembrance.