"Hiroshima, Mon Amour," Time, and Proust

Author(s): Wolfgang A. Luchting

Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Spring, 1963), pp. 299313
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics
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WOLFGANG A. LUCHTING

"Hiroshima, Mon Amour,"

Time, and Proust

I BELIEVE that chefs d'oeuvre of cinema-

pact, if between them sufficient time has

elapsed. However, as a rule, for a film's
tography have, nowadays, come to possess
optimal
the same importance that, some decades
ago, overall effect its first impression is
aesthetically most complete one. Thus,
was conceded only to the conventionalthe
arts.
when analyzing a film in all the aspects that
A direct consequence of this artistic coming
art-critics
feel called upon to investigate, the
of age of films is-perhaps still to an
un-

film-critic
works rather like a music-critic:
warranted degree seeing that only very
few
he,detoo, usually hears the concert or opera,
films in very large spans of time really
etc., he is to report on, only once. Notwithserve it-that these outstanding examples
the music-critic is free to hear the
become subject to investigation by thestanding,
same
same work-not the same performanceelaborate apparatus of critique that before
was reserved for, say, literature. A case
again
inand again, thus deepening his under-

of the composition, though not

point is the French review Cahiersstanding
du

Cinema. The difference-and it is a most

necessarily of the work of the executants.

Thatof
I mention these differences at all is
decisive one-between the application
due to the fact that they tend to be disart-critical canons to films and that brought
regarded
to bear on other products of art resides
in by the public when it reads so-

called
authoritative reviews of great works
the manner in which their objects are
at the
of cinematography.
Thus the fallibilities
disposal of the critic: films are rarely
seen
more than once. In fact, their impact
inherent
(one in such film-critiques are over-

of their aesthetic elements) depends

to a
looked-fallibilities
caused by a slip of

memory
very high degree on their being seen
only in the critic's recollection of the
once. Few films, even the best, live film
up to
or by the post-factum-discovery of pattheir original effect when seen a second
ternsor
whose validity tempts him so much
third time. Of course, for the study that
of cerhe is sure, absolutely certain, of having
tain individual elements in a film, repeated
perceived them in the picture, while in realsittings may be invaluable. Repeatedity,
viewit is he who imposes on it the illuminatings may also cause almost the initial
ingimZusammenhdnge he so glowingly describes in his review. In short, the critic's

opinion
WOLFGANG A. LUCHTING is assistant professor
oftends to be taken as necessarily the
last word on a film which may not even reGerman literature at Antioch College, Yellow
Springs, Ohio. Before accepting that position he motely contain the patterns he, in his anallived six years in Lima, Peru, teaching at the
ysis, forces upon it.
Universidad San Marcos and the Universidad

I myself, in the following comments on

Mon Amour (HMA), may have

Catolica. His article "Profound Banality in the

Hiroshima,
Film" appeared in the December 1958 issue of
this Journal.

fallen victim to this very temptation. Never-

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300

WOLFGANG

A.

LUCHTING

theless, I did see

film
twice.
(T
posedthe
upon us. We
have to accept
it if we
time I went to want
see
it,
o
to see
a film,the
a play, or theater
if we want to
hear
a
concert.
The
exterior
time
is
the
withdrawn it in exchange for The
Dolores.)
conditio sine qua the art forms mentioned
cannot exist, i.e., of film, theater, and music.
I am convinced the HMA belongs to the
Not of literature; for, in literature, the exvery best pictures ever made. Its importance
in the history of cinematography is similar
terior time, although it exists, is not a condition of literature's existence: We can
to, if not greater than, that of the films of
Jacques Tati on the contemporary scene or
begin a book, read some pages, leave it, re-

of Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky, Viva

Mexico, or Ivan the Great. HMA is of the

turn to it later or make a gift of it to a

friend.

same significance to modern film-aesthetics2. Next, there is what may be termed the

interior time, the modified Aristotelian

as Griffith's use of the close-up was for silent

pictures. L'annee derniere a Marienbadtime: the time of the central action we see,
whose development the film follows and

shows in which direction Alain Resnais'

breakthrough will lead.

presents to us. I call it "modified" AristoBefore looking into the aspects that
make
telian,
because-neither in HMA specifiHMA such an epochal work, I should
like
cally, nor
in films generally (excepting, for

to resume in a few words what, to my

mind, Rope by Hitchcock)-is there a
example,

constitutes a great work of film-art-or

any
unity of
time, just as there is none of place,
one of
great work of art: It is given whennor
what
is action. This interior time in
seen on the screen demonstrates that the
HMA has as its collateral "space" two prinintellect has formed a matter in a way
thatsettings in which the psychological accipal

opens the final product to the existential

tion and the physical actions take place:
or essential problems of la condition
Nevers,
hu- the girl's hometown, and Hiroshima
maine and gives man an opportunity where
to see the love story takes place.
3. Both the exterior and the interior
these problems in a new light' and thus

are, if seen as wholes and, as it were,

with a new hope for their solution. Atime
great
at a in
distance, dramatic continua. But while
work of contemporary art is, and not only

the cinema, that which shows us the same

the interior is dependent on the exterior

old reality under a new aspect, possibly

time, the latter is not dependent on the
former: In the ninety minutes the film
from a contemporary understanding lasts
of the
its producers might just as well-and

under one that receives its illumination

world. Thus, Jacques Tati, especially probably

in his with greater commerical success-

Les Vacances de M. Hulot, and also in his

show Donald Duck or Eddie Constantine

Mon Oncle, has, by discovering new comic

"en parlant trop avec ses mains." The in
terior time, on the other hand, must needs
elements in our everyday ambiance (i.e., our
be dependent on the exterior one, because
immediate reality), given us a new insight
the ninety minutes are the limits within
into the very structure of reality. In passing

be it mentioned that one of the elements of

which the drama of the film finds its mean-

this structure is, in Tati's films, time. Time,ing, the framework within which a series of

or its manifestations in and consequencesdramatic entities have been devised whose

for human beings, is also the essence of meaning is contingent on exactly the seResnais' film.
quence in which they are presented. No
single entity could (in this film; and in
good films in general should not be able
I. THE STRUCTURE OF TIME
to) express its meaning without being in the
place it has been assigned, without the com1. To begin with the least important,
plementary function of the other-foregothere is what may be termed the exterior
ing or subsequent-entities of the same
dramatic series. In short: each part of the
time: the ninety minutes or so the film lasts.
This time the film has in common with the
continuum is valid only in function of all
theater, with music. It is one which is im- others.2 The ensemble of all the parts conWhat kinds of time are there in HMA?

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Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Time, and Proust 301

might
be called
the cathartic
effect of
stitutes the story of the This
film.
The
story,
in
the film,
which does of
not, inhowever, arise out
turn, not being Aristotelian,
consists
of any climax,
out of the total, the acdividual actions, of sequences
ofbut
happenings. Where there are several
actions,
there
cumulative
impression
the film makes: it
must be several times-even
they
is an epicthough
film.
may be simultaneous-because
Here isin
onetheir
example subof how complicated
this interaction
can follow
become: Part of the
jective experience they must
needs
is the fact
that the heroine, a French
one another. These timesstory
in their
aggregate
actress, has Each
come to Hiroshima
in order to
make up the interior time.
one by

itself might also be called

do a
a picture
specific
about Hiroshima.
time, a
Resnais' film
circumstantial fraction of the interior one.
also is about Hiroshima. We see, at the be4. These specific times, the circumstantial
ginning, how a film-company shoots a piccomponents of the interior continuum, ture
are about Hiroshima (the historical fact)
in HMA subdivided into two categories:in which the heroine acts. The people
(a) One is le temps reel, the time in which
caught in the act of filming are Resnais'

the action in the city of Hiroshima takes

own people: Resnais thus films himself
place. Le temps reel is, then, the time
in
filming
a film about Hiroshima. This is not

which the love story between the Japanese

so gratuitous as it may seem, for this procedure reminds one of Proust who also
architect and the French actress develops.

wrote seven volumes about how Marcel

(b) The other category is le temps psycame to write seven volumes about how he
chologique-or even le temps proustien,
came to write seven volumes. In both cases,
for obvious reasons. This temps psychowith Resnais and with Proust, we find the
logique comprises the memories of and

their effect within the temps reel on both

creator describing how he created or came

hero and heroine. For him the memories

to create (often a topic of modern art). With

are, primarily, concentric, that is to Resnais

say: the cause of the creation and the
revolve around the complex of what Hirocreation itself are the psychological complex
Hiroshima and what it represents in the
shima as a historical fact means today,of
what
the city's moment of destruction washistory
like. of mankind. In describing this, he
Secondarily, his memories are excentric,
in
describes
how both are being described. This
so far as they participate in her memories.
interaction of time is, of course, nothing
For her, the memories of le temps psychonew: we have it in Shakespeare (Hamlogique are, primarily, concentric around
let: play within play), in Gide (Les Fauxher experience in Nevers. Secondarily,monnayeurs),
they
in the German author Friedare excentric in so far as they participate
richinSchlegel's novel Lucinde (1799), in
his memories of Hiroshima.
Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, to
Two things have to be mentioned here.
name only a few. Nor is the inclusion of the
First, that le temps reel and le temps psycreative process in its product new: Brecht.
chologique interact. In fact, HMA would
The difference between them and Resnais
not be possible without this interaction.
is that he uses this jeu de temps to underThe interaction is the film's substanceline the all-pervading presence the fact of
though not its theme, which, instead, Hiroshima
deals
has (or ought to have) in man's
with the attitude hero and heroine and,
in
preoccupations.
At the same time, the herextenso, man in general, take towardsoine
thisof HMA comes to Hiroshima and thus
interaction between memories and both the
to the locale of her love-and-time-dilemma
events that cause them to arise at a given because of the film-within-the-film's topic,
moment and those that created them. In
which, again, is Hiroshima.
other words, the substance of the film, the
The second thing to be mentioned in

matter Alain Resnais set out to mold into

a work of art, is the interaction between

connection with les temps reel et psychologique is that there exists a kind of diamet-

past and present. The spiritual effect of his

rically opposed movement within the herwork is to make us aware of the importance
oine and the hero from the above mentioned
this interaction has on human behavior.
concentric to excentric memories. The mo-

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302

tors

WOLFGANG

of

A.

LUCHTING

this

movement
are
this it can be adduced that,
while empat
she gets
Remarkable
is
the memories
revers
a very close look at
his primary
tion of the movement in him and her: She
through the Hiroshima museum, through
takes part, empathetically and sympathetthe film in which she acts, and through her
ically, as if in a secondary memory, in his
very presence in the city of Hiroshima, he
primary memories of Hiroshima and its imnever has seen nor ever gets to see Nevers
or her first lover, the German soldier. In
plications for him publicly and privately.
This, her participation, comes before his
other words, the reality and poetic vraisemparticipation, empathetically and sympablance of the circumstances used by Alain
thetically, as though in a secondary memResnais and Marguerite Duras in construing
ory, in her primary memories of Nevers and
their film did not permit them to strucits implications for her publicly and priture it integrally in mathematical orderlivately. Expressing it differently, one might
ness. This notwithstanding, there is evisay: au fur et a mesure the lovers' story dedence that they were dangerously tempted
to "commit" such a structural sin: I mean
velops-on the plane of le temps reel-there
sympathy.

takes place an almost symmetrical interthe scene in which he slaps her, partly from

change of the intensity of their respective

jealousy, partly to shock her out of the
primary and secondary memories. While
perilously intense memory of her suffering
his memories are strongest at the beginning
during the war. It may be remembered

of the film, they become weaker in the same

that, before it comes to the slap, there creeps

degree that her primary memories come into

to the lovers' conversation a somewhat
the surface and influence their relationship
maudlin aspect of insanity. She, while reand the love between them. Since it was a
counting her love affair with the German
woman who wrote the script, Mlle. Duras,
it speaks to her Japanese lover as if he
soldier,
cannot surprise us that the heroine's were
reac- the German. She says, at first: "We
used to meet at the river" and, then: "You
tion to this love is far more complicated

than the hero's. Seeing the process the used

other
to wait for me," etc., projecting into
her in
new lover an identity with her old one.
way round, it can be said that while she
the beginning of the film accompanies
This
his
highly poetic "gimmick" shows, to my
mind,
primary memories with her sympathy
and that Resnais and Duras were trying

tosechave the Japanese "catch up" on the

empathy for him, thus developing a

formation of his secondary memory, because

ondary, love-induced, participative memory,
he, in the second part of the film, accomher secondary memory is way ahead since
sheher
knows more about Hiroshima than he
panies, out of sympathy and empathy,
about
more and more active primary memories, the German lover.
thus developing his secondary memory.Still
In another warning: The film is not a
her, the formation of a secondary memory
separation of the time elements so far inIts substance, I repeat, is their
gives place to a submersion into hervestigated.
priinteraction, the way past and present affect
mary memories. In him, the submersion
eachto
other, make each other possible. The
into his primary memories gives place
the formation of his secondary memory.
latter by memories being caused through
events
From these opposed movements arises
one in the past. Events in the present, in
of the decisive scenes of the film: they meet
turn, are being influenced, modified, and
head-on when, in the famous restaurant
defined by memories of events in the past.
All this is, of course, the terrain of Marcel
scene, he slaps her. The meaning of this
Proust.
climactic moment might be described thus:

5. Turning now from particular details

intense experience - the progressively
in HMA's temps reel et psychologique to a
stronger love between hero and heroine-

more general survey of interior time, atcan either further forgetfulness of earlier
tention must be drawn to one of its highly
interesting dramaturgical aspects: the acHere a warning must be made: the film

suffering, or repress it.

is not a mathematical equation of one tion

as- of the film becomes progressively

slower. The scenes change less in their

pect of la condition humaine. As proof of

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Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Time, and Proust 303

thematic contents. The locations tend to

Urschopfung, some cosmic creative process:

heaving of crude, raw, unformed masses,
remain more and more the same. Thethe
rhyconvulsions,
it seems, of matter in the procthm of individual sequences softens. At
the
ess of evolution. As the images become
same time, in order to give depth of associclearer
ation to what he wishes to say, Resnais
re- and refine themselves, as words
sorts more and more to flashbacks. Also, on
spoken by human beings become audible,

the plane of le temps reel, the more de- we

realize that those Urmassen in move-

tailed, lengthier scenes gain in poetic qual- ment are nothing but the bodies of a man
ity, aiming less and less at impact (as did and a woman engaged in the sexual act.

the scenes beginning the film) and more Resnais

creates this association with some-

and more at a serenity of understanding on thing Ur- by photographing in close-up the

the part of the spectator. Likening this planes of two human bodies. What he eviformal phenomenon of HMA to music, one dently wishes to express by the gradual
might say that the Leitmotive of the film transformation of convulsing masses into
are diluted, not repeated as, for instance, recognizable human forms is that the sexual
they are in Richard Wagner where they be- act, the physical symbol of human love, is
come clearer and more concrete from one
something "eternal" and perhaps redemptive. The clearer the images become, the
repetition to the next.
more the situation is revealed for what it
6. I just wrote that the flashbacks served
is and the more Resnais adds the romantic,
to give depth of association to what Resnais

sentimental d6cor and the intellectual

expresses in his scenes, to his Leitmotive
superstructure mankind and time hav

and their variations. This endeavor to cause

associations in the viewer is, of course,

elaborated around the same physical fact.

again channelled by Alain Resnais and

The perspective we are meant to glimp
that of man and woman in love across
Marguerite Duras into the expanses is
and
and inexhaustible possibilities of time.
mankind's, possibly life's, existence-in

They use what I should like to label timespite and because of Hiroshima.

perspectives. By that I mean all those "times"A more circumstantial and less general

employed in HMA that are not dramatinterpretation of these opening images of

the film-which after all, has as its center

ically necessary for the story as such. In fact,

most spectators never really seem tothe

be-historical

fact of Hiroshima in all its

ethical
ramifications-is
to see them as a
come aware of them. These time-perspec-

tives are like aids for placing the storysymbol

in,
of life's renascence out of the nothas it were, sudden temporal dimensions, ing
for left after a destruction such as Hiro-

shima's.
heightening some element of the story, mak-

ing us fathom the invisible depths of the

There are still more interpretations posimages visible on the screen. As a rule,sible,
the as there always must be when we have
elements thus heightened are meant to show
to do with symbols in art, for it is its manyto the perceptive spectator, from various
layered implications that differentiate a
points of view, the essence of human
symbol in art from that in mathematics.
ephemerity as the succeeding stages of the (b) One of them is a perspective which,
story on the screen demonstrate it. While this time, is intended to arise out of associthese perspectives, each per se, have no, orating some results of the inductive reasoning
only a very far-fetched, bearing on the "mes- of the spectator: the convulsing masses seen
sage" of the film, their ensemble is em- at the beginning also lead him to think of a
ployed by Resnais and Duras to underlinehuman body suffering from the effects of
this message, which in turn is composed of an atomic explosion. Some of the expanses
a series of Leitmotive.
of human flesh shown in the first passages
seem to bear resemblance to burnt flesh. In
What then are some of these perspectives
of time? According to their emphasis, view
the of the title of the film we have come
following are worth mentioning:
to see, what is more likely than that we
(a) The film opens with images that imassociate immediately the burnt flesh, the

mediately call to mind some sort of

bubbles of shrinking skin, with all the

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304

WOLFGANG

photos

we

victims?

A.

LUCHTING

have
ever
seenin- of
periences that
seem unforgettable-is

evitable for man.

Directing

thus

th

associations through
the
memo
But this facet of Resnais'
"message,"
this
universalium, is also meant
to contain an
shima and Nagasaki
towards
t
application ad hoc.
By giving
us to underate consequences
in
human
stand that man is the creation of forces that
visible here and now, before us, Resnais
states another of the Leitmotive of his film: have been at work since "the beginning of

namely, that hearing of H-bombs and A- time" and by using the same images that
bombs and similar products of humanconvey this information to associate in us
genius, of their destructive power, and of the realization of man's vulnerability (the
all the horror that legend has accumulated burnt flesh) as well as his disregard for this
since 1945 around the mere mention of
vulnerability in his fellow-men, Resnais
them, is and has become so much of an
projects into the initial sequence a prophecy
everyday experience for us that we of
noman's destiny: for anybody who approaches man without prejudices, not even
longer associate it with its real conseones, it comes as no surprise that
quences, of which burnt, shrinking, pragmatic
and
man should be himself but a particle in a
stinking human flesh is one infinitesimally
greater process entirely indifferent to him.
small part.
However, normally, and, I suppose, justiThat the initial sequence, which reveals
fiedly so, in art this is never said, for it is,
the present in its aspect of eternity by asafter all, created in a way as a monument
sociating Urmassen in movement with the
sexual act, is not an accidental time-perspective, can now clearly be seen. For, placing

present events (love-making) in the per-

spective of the past (Urmassen) is as much

a Leitmotiv in this film as bringing the

viewer face to face with the atomic age in

to the glory of Man. That celebrating man,

making him the proper study of mankind,
goes perfectly well hand in hand with reminding him of his transitoriness, both as
an individual and as a species, is in effect
another of the Leitmotive that underlie

HMA. Indeed, this idea must necessarily

underlie any artistic creation, for why
should man need to be glorified, be made
the proper study of mankind, if he were
The perspectives mentioned so far and
everlasting?
those yet to be mentioned as well as the

terms that he can understand and shudder

at-in terms of what it can do to him.

references made to Leitmotive, require someBut what other perspectives are there?
comments: Knowing that life is not a hand-(c) There is, of course, always the perspective of the atomic explosion in Hiroshima
ful of clearly and cleverly separate, separin 1945. It serves as a sort of middleground
able, definable, or defined strands of Leitbefore which both hero and heroine enact
motive, it can be assumed that those

their story; Marguerite Duras and Alain

mentioned up till now will sooner or later be

fused or recur in other constellations, conResnais endow it with universal meaning,

respectively.
stantly forming new patterns. Indeed, they
(d) Another, extremely "Proustian" timedo, revealing always other facets of Resnais'
perspective is the projection of art into life:
and Duras' "messages." One of the facetsto participate in the creation of a work of
and it is interesting to note its proximity to
art-the film about Hiroshima-the heroProust's preocupations in A la Recherche
ine of HMA came to Hiroshima, where
du temps perdu (RTP)-is: No matter how

now, as we see throughout the film, she exintense a human experience is, it is always
situated in time and therefore subject to
periences all the intensity of her existence
as a human being, put into relief by the
oblivion, both by man as a historical conproof of the very opposite of existencetinuum and by the individual as its manideath-which surrounds her and which
festation in the present. In fact, this is one
of Resnais' universalia. It teaches that forlurks for her, as for any human being, in
the very name of Hiroshima. In this congetting is as necessary as living-which,
text, the title of Resnais' film gains a new
among other things, consists precisely of ex-

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Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Time, and Proust 305

Le temps
dont nous
disposons
chaque jour est
depth-Hiroshima, on one
side,
the
very
les passions
nous ressentons le
memory of death; Mon elastique;
Amour,
on que
the

dilatent, celles que nous inspirons le retrecissent,

other, an expression of the etaffirmative

forces
l'habitude le remplit.5

of life, those that perpetuate it. The actress,

But love not
changes
time, it also
in other words, is led through
theonly
fact
that
people-apparently.
somebody wishes to createchanges
a work
of art (the Here is what
Andre Maurois says
about this same phefilm within the film) to simultaneous
sufferin Proust:
ing and enjoyment, to nomenon
death-for
part of

her dies when she begins ces

tonouveaux
loveMOI
the
sont Japanparfois si differents qu'ils
ese; and to life-for something
new
is born
devraient porter
un autre
nom. On verra, dans le
Odette,
Gilberte,
Bloch, Rachel,
in her while she forgets roman,
herSwann,
past,
the
part

that dies.

This brings us to a rather interesting as-

Saint-Loup, passant successivement sous les projecteurs... des sentiments, en prendre les couleurs
comme des danseuses dont la robe est blanche,
mais qui paraissent tour A tour jaunes, vertes ou
bleues. (Op. cit., p. 169.)

pect of the film: the strangely neglected

ethical problem that one would expect to
arise immediately out of its love-story,and

namely that both protagonists are married.

Their married life belongs to le temps psy- "En v6rit6, [dit Proust] la d6sagr6gation du moi
est une mort continue" et "la stabilit6 de nature

chologique, to the plane of memories. Its

que nous pretons
implications hardly ever manifest them- n6tre." (Ibid.)

A autrui est aussi fictive que la

selves in le temps reel. In fact, only once are

they touched upon-when the Japanese andAll these experiences are present and shown
she find themselves in his apartment. Al- us by Resnais in hero and heroine of
most brutally Resnais dismisses it and HMA. To name only the most striking exmakes the two adulterers dedicate themample: at the end of the film, when they
selves to adultery. This harsh suppression say
of good-bye to each other, he calls her
"Nevers," she calls him "Hiroshima"an ethically highly explosive fact and its

both, then, do get other names. Love has

strange absence in the rest of the film are, of
transformed them and made them die a
course, not due to any absented-mindedness
little.
Their love affair is carried on in their
of Mlle. Duras or M. Alain Resnais. They
extra-ordinary life, outside of routine, even
are intended.3 They are meant to reveal

hors la loi. It is an extreme situation, un

(e) I have said that both protagonists' instant privilegie. And it is in extreme situetat civil belongs to their memories. But soations that the doors are pushed open to

another Leitmotiv of the film:

does the heroine's love affair with the Ger- the dusty attic full of experiences in our
man. Why then should the German lover bepast, that time becomes alive, past becomes
so intensely present in the temps-reel action, present, and the fear of the future is lost.
and the French husband, who waits for theFor both-but more for her-love is what

heroine in Paris, so very little?4 I believeopens these doors as the mirrors open for
the answer is the following: their etat civilCocteau's poets. In other words, events in

is an integral part of their ordinary life. Not le temps reel break through to le temps psy-

so their present love affair which is part ofchologique. Proust has similar thoughts and
convictions:
an extra-ordinary life. They are both different people. This change in their charac- ... il a eu, en certains instants privilegi6s, "l'intuiter is a highly Proustian element, for in his tion de lui-meme comme etre absolu." (Andr6

work, too,

Maurois, op. cit., p. 169.)

Notre MOI amoureux ne peut meme pas imaginer and, giving us time, art, and love in their

ce que sera notre MOI non amoureux. (Andre

Maurois, A la Recherche de Marcel Proust
[Hachette, 1949], p. 170.)

perishable and their eternal meaning for

man,

I1 y a autonomie entre son angoisse a sentir que

What an effect being in love has with refer-

tout s'6croule... et sa certitude intime qu'il y a en

ence to time, has been described by Proust
lui quelque chose de permanent et meme d'eternel.

himself:

Cette certitude, Proust l'a eprouvee en des instants

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306

WOLFGANG

A.

LUCHTING

tres courts ou, on

soudain,
un
man's preoccupation
with momen
time, if we
devenait reel et ou il decouvrait... q
remember
that,
to
mention
only
literature,
capables de r6apparaitre. (Ibid, p. 179
most novels that deal with time have as

The same conviction

heroes "outsiders" (certitude
(until some years ago, at
the same fear any
that
everything
rate; of late,
this dedication to time has i
are the impulses
that
motivated
spread to
comprehend
even what before
make the film
here
analyzed;
th
were not considered "outsiders"): Proust

material of HMA. The difference between

him and Proust is that the latter accentu-

himself, Hans Kastorp in Thomas Mann's

Der Zauberberg, and Darley and Purseates in his novel the ephemeralness warden
(alin Durrell's books; Ulrich in Muthough the writing of the novels is proof sil's
of Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, etc.

his "secret conviction" that there is some-

That Alain Resnais should have worked

thing eternal), whereas the former, Resnais,

for this "time"-effect in this film is of
puts rather more emphasis on the very neccourse not surprising: he must make his
essity of this ephemeralness in order that
protagonists' love "timeless," untroubled by

there be a continuity. The juxtaposition,

the mediocrity of their married life, because

then, is that of routine as over against exhe wants to achieve an effect that permits
ception, the ordinary as over against the
him to progress on to another of his Leitmotive:
extra-ordinary situation. The question may
be asked why, if this juxtaposition exists,(f) Time asserting its rights: If we observe
the married life of hero and heroine-i.e.,

closely the "timelessness" of his protagonists,

the routine, the ordinary situation-receives

we notice that there is one way in which
so little emphasis. The answer is that Restheir past and their future (i.e., routine)
nais is less concerned with particular manimay be permitted to intrude on it: para-

festations of routine-as would be the etat

doxically enough, through intensity, i.e.,

civil of both protagonists-than withwhere
the earlier intense experiences equal or

general expression of routine, such as

getting. The juxtaposition, therefore,

forsurpass
their present intensity in le temps
is
to her first love affair; his experience of
reel:
be found in what has already been menthe atomic explosion. This intrusion of intioned as the substance of the film: the
tensities from the realm of le temps psyLeitmotive "love" and "oblivion." In these
chologique into that of le temps reel serves
two elements, Resnais brings together awhat
very definite purpose. Resnais wishes to
demonstrate that there exists a sort of coultimately are the basic factors of history:
hesion
progressivism and conservatism. Resnais
has of situations extremes across ordimade the bodies and the spirits of hisnary
pro- time. Again we enter the terrain of
tagonists the receptacles of time; the bodies,
Proust, who also, in his novel, meant to save
because through them love is experienced;
certain intensely experienced moments from
the spirit, because through it the implicathe corrosion caused by the flux of time. In
tions of this love are revealed and created:

his Carnets he writes

the memories. Love is history, memory also.

Love, because it must needs be progressive;ne pas oublier ... qu'il est un motif qui revient
dans ma vie, plus important que celui de l'amour
memory, because it must needs be resistantd'Albertine, et peut-etre assimilable au chant du
to love. From the struggle of the two re- coq du Quatuor de Vinteuil...Tasse de the,
sults the development of the love-story onarbres en promenade, clochers, etc.
the plane of the temps reel. Leaving out the

fact that both hero and heroine are married

causes us to become aware of the ramifica-

and, we might add-for it is, after all the

decisive remembrance-the sensation of the

uneven cobble-stone before the H6tel de

tions that are contained in the juxtaposition

between ordinary and extra-ordinary situa-Guermantes. Maurois sums up this cohesion of intense moments like this:
tions. The protagonists' love is both hors la
loi and hors du temps, or if one wishes: hors

la norme.

[a ces moments], le temps est retrouv6 et, du meme

coup, il est vaincu, puisque tout un morceau du

passe a pu devenir un morceau du present. Aussi
The latter fact opens an interesting vista

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Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Time, and Proust 307

de tels instants donnent-ils a l'artiste le sentiment

children with banners march through the

d'avoir conquis l'6ternit6. Cette nuance "nouvelle streets. The heroine, in this sequence of
de la joie, cet apel vers une joie supraterrestre," il
the film-within-the-film, has no function to
ne les oubliera jamais. (Op. cit., p. 173.)
fulfill. So she-and the hero-watch the

-they are never forgotten because they are procession and then, suddenly, run away
proof of the fact that art-even the art of from it. What this signifies is obvious: They
films-is justified, for its attempts to tran- run away from the cyclic structure of Res
scend ordinary life. Proust's thesis was that nais' film and, by doing so, flee from literahuman memory, through a cohesive tend- ture into life-their own life: the subject
ency, adds up all the experiences of beauty, of HMA. On the level of artistic probability
all "transcendental" moments which thus

the flight is motivated, seemingly, by the in-

accumulatively become the impulse compatibility

that
of their love with the mem

leads man to perpetuate himself in his works

ories of Hiroshima, of something intensely
of art, i.e., by another most intense formalive
of with something that recalls people in-

self-expression. In the canons of traditional

tensely dead.
philosophy, such intense forms of self-exII. by
THE
pression also are defined as partaking

PURPOSE OF TIME

their very nature of the absolute; in fact,

Before beginning this p
they achieve their value because, and to the
to answer a question tha
degree, of their participation in the absoof many who read
lute, the "timeless," the divine. Justminds
as

Proust's Marcel sees in the distance the

Resnais and Mlle. Duras

being
so profound, symb
church steeples jut forth like boulders
in

the inexorably passing river of time, and

so Res-transcendent when th

andtheir
made the film? I do not know. But I do
nais' couple in their love transcend
know
that their awareness of all I have
own lives and their quotidian norms. But

there is one decisive difference: the found

couple's
in their film is of very little importance, for, as anybody who has analyzed art
Marguerite Duras or to Alain Resnais-as
undoubtedly knows: artists do not have to

love is as timeless to them-and not to

the promenade below the trees and

wasusually
to
do not know all the implicaProust. In Proust, objective experiencestions of their work. They are, in body and

such as Marcel's were to Proust-and sub-

soul (or psychology, if one prefers), recepta-

jective experiences-such as the writing

clesof
of their time and its problems, whether
Marcel's story-are, for all practical
purthey
want to be or not. Besides, judging by
poses, the same. In fact, they must be
the
Resnais'
own words and explanations of
his most recent film-L'annee derniere a
same, because he uses the cyclic structure:
a circle whose circumference is joinedMarienbad,
where
it may very well be assumed

life joins literature-a movement, by

the
that
he and Mile. Duras had planned an

even more complex content for HMA than

way, that characterized French 19th-century

literature in general (Freres Goncourt).

is contained in this analysis.
theItone
7. Above, when writing about some of the
Proust makes his Marcel decide at the end
characteristics of the "interior time," I
of A la Recherche ... to write the very
book out that the film becomes progrespointed
that Proust has just finished. In Resnais'
sively slower. I called this a dramaturgical
film this juncture between life and literaaspect of the temps-reel component of the
ture becomes entirely literary; in "interior
other time" and emphasized its formal

no wonder, then, that, as was said before,

words, he and Mile. Duras, the author of

purpose, namely to dilute the Leitmotive

the libretto, were so aware of this cyclic
instead of repeating them. I should now like

structure that they treated it as a topic, to

at come back to this phenomenon and trace

the same time distancing themselves from it.

its parentage, so to say.
I refer, of course, to the film-within-the-film-One of the means that contribute to the
ralentissement of the film is the "flashsequence towards the beginning of HMA:

A manifestation is being filmed. Schoolbacks." Normally, flashbacks have as their

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308

WOLFGANG

primary

i.e.

of

A.

LUCHTING

function
that
of
being
which this effect
of a perceptual
present
is

explaining
to
us throu
achieved may best
be circumscribed
as a

into the past of

the
dramatis
p
"flattening"
of past and
future into an even
they act as they
in
given
ci
present. will
Undoubtedly,
this denotes
manits antennae, the artists'-conHowever, alsokind's-or
normally,
the ac
explanation through
stant endeavor to fight against
flashbac
its becoming
past and,
by implication, to hold
at a dis-this
pendent of one
another.
By
tance the approaching
future,
including,use
even if flashbacks
were
not
for them, that of Hiroshima's
the given behavior
of apast.
dramat

the latter could and would still behave in

I should like to touch briefly upon the

perpetual
a certain way. In fact, this is how things
are present's manifestations in other
worksdo
of art and their critique. Jean Franin daily life. We frequently see people

cois Revel
has recently published a book
things and we do not know why they
do

calledof
Sur Proust. In it he investigatesthem or why they do them this, instead
a rather novel point of view-Proust's
another, way. We even have come tofrom
judge
ALRfreand comes to conclusions which, in
the "realism" of a film by the very

the present
context, assume a new signifiquency of such "inexplicable" behaviors
on
cance:
the part of the personages, labelling
it
"truly human." In HMA, action (on...the
il n'y

a pas du tout de marche du re

temps-reel level) and flashbacks (ontomoindre

the
progression continue, jamais
petit sentiment du passage du temps. No
temps-psychologique plane) are not essentoujours
tially independent of each other. There

could be no action if there were no flash-

au prdsent. (p. 43)

and

backs, because the latter cause the former

and the former cause the latter.6 Past and

Proust... est le peintre de l'immobilite. (p. 44)

or
present are a sort of emulsion, little drops
of past time being suspended in the present,

and vice versa. We have to do here with a

Chez lui, les personnages ne changent jamais: ils

ont change. (Ibid.)

phenomenon in modern art, especially in

and
literature, that is highly elusive and which,
to my knowledge, has been dealt with quand
and il faut que des evenements nouveaux se
investigated only seldom. If I mention literproduisent, il les entassera en quelques lignes,

ature as a field in which it can be observed,

then because films as works of art tend to

pour pouvoir passer aussi vite que possible i la

seule chose qui l'interesse: un moment immobile.

(p. 53)

obey more and more the canons of litera-

ture-compare Lucho Visconti's Rocco and

and

His Brothers, which can only be Visconti's,

... son veritable sujet [est]-hors du temps. (p.
never anybody else's film-one man creates
54)
everything. The technical staff becomes his
Et cetera.
tools. They are no longer participants
in There are more passages like this
in Revel's book-cf. pp. 65 and 71 (where
the conception of the film.7 The phenomwe read the following significant references
enon mentioned above might be described
terminology: moi superficiel
as the prevalence in so much "time-art" toofBergsonian
a
and moi profond). France-Observateur of
perpetual present. We find it in Lawrence
Durrell, in Proust, in Robert Musil's Der
June 16th, 1960, describes Revel's thesis as

Mann ohne Eigenschaften, in the new follows:

French school of the antiroman (Nathalie [il] remarque

Sarraute, Michel Butor, Alain Robbe-Grillet-the latter Resnais' collaborator on

que tout son roman semble ecrit a

un present perpetuel. On y assiste (A la difference

de ce qui se passe dans le romans du XIXe siecle

de Tolstoi
L'annee derniere a Marienbad) and,
of i George Eliot et a Thomas Hardy)

a un veritable aplatissement du temps et... [A

course, in Alain Resnais himself who unune] coagulation des personnages.
doubtedly represents the most literary cinIn France-Observateur of May 12th, 1960,
ema that ever existed. The method by

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Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Time, and Proust 309

nais has relieved
us of this effort: He himself
an interview is printed between
Lawrence
hasit,
created
the liquid
solution. The film
Durrell and Edgar Morin. In
Durrell
reconsists
really of several
jects categorically any similarity
between
his stories, each one of

treatment of time and that of Proust. None-

which could have become a film (or a

novel) in its own right. We need only think

theless, keeping in mind the aplatissement
of the heroine's love affair with the German
and remembering how its effect is achieved
and her consequent madness; the story of
by a kind of convergence of lignes de temps
Hiroshima itself; the love affair between
into a constant present, it will be seen that
the heroine and the Japanese hero; the
Durrell also, consciously or not, is endeavorstory of society and its behavior towards
ing to gather in the past and to keep away
those that break its laws, etc. But how has
the future in order to perpetuate the present, as much as was Proust or as Resnais isResnais contrived to make the "superposition" of these different stories? Here again
endeavoring in his film.
we can let Lawrence Durrell give us the key:
Edgar Morin to Durrell:
Durrell to Edgar Morin: "Je superpose les
... votre opposition A Proust reside dans ce terme:
lignes de temps de faSon a obtenir une sorte
vous opposez le temps d6livr6 au temps retrouve.... Vous avez ecrit: "I1 ne s'agit pas de de 'ground,' comme je superpose les visions
faire un roman fleuve," efectivement votre roman

est un roman marin, avec remous, tourbillons....

ou images differentes pour obtenir une sorte

de stdrdoscopie. Regardez, par exemple,

On constate ... que vous proposez une conception

comment on fait maintenant le colordu roman qui s'appuie sur des notions einsteinienprinting dans les grands journaux ...; vou
nes: cette notion d'espace-temps... et ce mot "continuum" romanesque.
imprimez le jaune; sur le jaune, vous super

posez le rouge, puis encore une troisieme

Here part of the philosophic and scientific
quatritme couleur, et vous avez un 'ground
parentage of the notion of a perpetual presavec les trois ou quatre mElanges."
ent is given. Note also how almost autoThe result of this process is what Resna
matically all these expressions can be apgives us: he mixes past and present, temp
plied to Resnais' HMA. The following
reel and temps psychologique, causes one t
words will make the resemblance clearer
change and color the other. The similarit
yet (Durrell is speaking to Edgar Morin):
between the effect Durrell wishes to achieve
and the
J'ai ete beaucoup critique sur ces points-lI.
En one Resnais achieves is so obvious
g6n6ral, on pense aux notions de relativite au
that it needs no further exemplification.8
point de vue geometrique et mathematique. (a n'a
rien voir avec moi. Je pense du c6te philosophique.

Related evidence to support my statement

C'est la superposition des quatre romans, si elle about the perpetual present could be cited
vous donne stereoscopie de la narration, qui est from R. Musil's Mann ohne Eigenschaften:
originale...il y a quarante ans qu'6tait lance la one need only think of the famous garden

notion du continuum.... Mon continuum ro-

scene between Ulrich and his sister-salva-

manesque resemble i un kaleidoscope d'enfant; les

tion
is envisaged in the "moment immolecteurs eux-memes doivent prendre les
quatre
bile."9
volumes et faire une sorte de "solution
liquide"
dans leur esprit, et l-dedans, ils trouveront
leur
8. Applying
the conclusions that can be
propre continuum.... Entre l'art et la science, les
drawn from the foregoing to HMA, we see
correspondances sont multiples.... Au moment

ou Rutherford etait en train de casser l'atome a

Cambridge, Picasso etait en train de faire son

propre continuum avec le cubisme, A Paris. Les
id6es ne sont pas loin les unes des autres. C'est la
cosmologie de l'epoque. C'est la religion de notre
age.

Durrell has written four books and demands

that the readers, in their own minds, form,

upon reading them, "la solution liquide,"

which is not the liquidity of a roman fleuve

but the more restless one of a roman marin,
"avec remous, tourbillons." In HMA, Res-

that Resnais' flashbacks are so organized

and interwoven with the narration in the

temps reel as to annul the normal time perspective and to create an effect of simultaneity. We are immediately reminded of
Cubism which also dismantles the object,

even destroys it, in order to permit us to see

it in a new perspective, from different points

of view at the same time, by recomposing it

according to a new law. Resnais dismantles
and mounts anew the traditional reality in
order to create a new concept of time which

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310

WOLFGANG

A.

LUCHTING

is to traditional
the
the reality
lessons drawn fromwhat
the experience
of
mankind, lessons whose usefulness
for the
in its intense moments
(Nevers
an
shima), is to the
traditional
love
in
present
has been forgotten. In short,
Restagonists' etat civil.
nais implies that it is wrong to say that hisAs

to

the

teresting

"flattening"
of
time,
its
tory teaches anything.
It never
does, it never

use

is
made
inThethe
has. History
only explains.
only "les-mu

quences of the film

and
the
way
son" we can draw
from in
this insight
is that
we developed
never heed the lessons we
have
of Hiroshima is
through
"learned." is, as it were, a
film. The museum
frozen into the present,
blasted
into
To exemplify this,
HMA has to interof time the same
that
weaveway
past and present,
mustcontour
show how the
man being were
found
past affects
the present and to
how thehave
present

graved into a wall

near
the can
cent
even affects
the past. Nowhere
this
better be seen than in the famous
restaurant yet,
explosion of Hiroshima.
And
heroine threatens to become pres
of Hiroshima, scene.
soTheforcefully
the minds andmad
the
emotions
of
again the
very moment when past
and
tators in the beginning,
recedes
m
present touch each other,
when her memmore as the action
of
thethat
film
pr
ories become
so strong
she confounds
both by becoming
and
more
past andmore
present. The
Japanese
architect
a pictorial element,
in
slaps her! Thissucceeded
is, theoretically, the mos
long shots of the
new
Hiroshim
important
moment of
the film, for here
Resnais
leaves Proust behind,
or at least
being overcome
more
and
more

pediment

to

the
couple's
love.
goes farther
than he. How much
farther

can be measured, as it were,

if we remember
fading of the primary
psychologi
ence of Hiroshima
course
no
the scene is
of theof
hand of
the Japanese on
the symbol of the
process
of recalls
forgett
the bed-cloth.
In it, this sight
a similar one:
the hand couple.
of the German soldier
time imposes on
the
It is a
who lies dead in the street
of Nevers.
This
symbol to the oblivion
the
heroine
on her first lover,
theallGerman
sold
is the madeleine
over again. In the restaurant
scene, however,
the evocation of an
9. But could all
this
preoccupatio
time not simply
be
overlooked?
N
impression
of the
past by events in the preswe do, we do not
the f
ent, is,understand
so to say, brusquely short-circuited:
and its manifestations
in
man,
fo
by slapping the heroine,
the Japanese
lover
are

to

the

be

very

again

becomes the
executor
of Resnais'
ultimate
theme
of
the
film,

as

in statement
L'annee
about time and
....
man. The
In
empiriHM

cal order
of things-i.e.,
pastthe
belongs to
the
investigates
above
all
phe
past and present to the present-is reestablished, must be reestablished, else we bearound this so essentially "timely" element
come unfit for life-mad.
of human life: forgetfulness-and its ethical
The order of things as we understand
implications. The film, it is true, does not
them asserts itself and its rights by all
have as its message "Thou shalt not forget!"
Nor does it dictate "Thou shalt forget!"
means:
It
either we accept it and thus become
capable of meeting life on our terms, or we
simply does research on the subject of time
nais

of oblivion. In scene after scene he circles

as it becomes petrified in oblivion. refuse

The it and become insane, as the heroine
diddu
after the death of her first lover. In passfilm, just as Proust, is a la recherche

temps qu'on a perdu..., and shows ing,

howmention may be made of one particu-

with this loss also the lessons are lost that

larly original symbol that Resnais uses to

drive this point home: up until the slap the

human experience has drawn and draws

flashbacks to Nevers always show the town

each day, incessantly, only to forget them.

Resnais' film, in this light, represents

as peopled
a
with human beings. After the

statement about man's attitude towards his

slap, Nevers is shown in the dimension of a

empty of human figures. The
history: history is the concrete record ofghost-town,
all

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Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Time, and Proust 311

heroine can return to her home-town now

all that unites against it and them. The ethiand find it empty of significance. She cal
hasimplications are never resolved, a characconquered her past. As Maurois says it: teristic that only very great works of art

Chekhov asked: "Am I not fooling

C'est en vain que nous retournons aux lieuxhave.
que
the people, if I don't know all the answers?"
nous avons aimes; nous ne les reverrons jamais

parce qu'ils etaient situes, non dans l'6space, mais

(c)

dans le temps.... (Ibid., p. 169)

But there is one aspect that is more

important yet: If the heroine loves the Japanese and resigns herself to relegating her
10. Forgetfulness, then, its necessity and
its tragedy, are what the story of the filmfirst
is lover to the gallery of inoperant memabout. In it Resnais and Mlle. Duras see an

ories, does she not also, implicitly and in the

aspect of la condition humaine. In future,

HMA, depreciate her present love? For, if

they decline the word "forgetfulness"ininface

theof her present love she comes to renounce aor to neutralize her earlier love,
forms of human grammar, exemplifying
universal quality in particular lives.
does
That
this not imply the ephemeralness of
is why their film is a great work of art.
love Let
in general, no matter how strongly it
us look at some of the implications of
may
their
be felt? Again we are reminded of
theme:
Proust: his hero's hopeless love for Gilberte.
(a) The actress, by giving in to her present

(d) But Resnais does not come to a halt

there. He draws the conclusion on a univerlove, fears that she is betraying her earlier

love. At the same time, she remembers that

sal level: if the heroine of the film can for-

the loss of her first lover drove her mad.

get her first lover and, by implication, one

May not the memory of that loss together
day will surely forget her second, is this not
with the degree of intensity her present proof
love that one day mankind, the Japanese
manifests drive her mad again?
nation, the people of the city of Hiroshima
(b) The architect and she live and itself,
love will forget the disaster that befell
each other in a place where one of the them?
most
horrible and most symbolic crimes of man(e) Applying this conclusion to the queskind against itself has taken place. It istion
like
of time, we come to the insight that, in
making love in a graveyard. One mustaccepting
not
the power of the present we admit
do it. Instinctively man shrinks away from
also the right of the future to become pressuch proximity of death to love. And ent.
yet,One might say: a sorrow (the heroine's
here they are, both, loving each other physiforgetting of her first lover) and a joy (her
cally and talking about what Hiroshimaacceptance
was
of the present one) make for the

like. Resnais underlines their inner state of

reestablishment of the universal order of

mind and their emotions skilfully by maktime and thus of history. This may be considered as Resnais' most memorable coming-while the sound-track gives us the

ment on modern time-consciousness.

lovers' conversation-the tour through the
Hiroshima museum, by showing sequences11. We can turn now to what was set out
of the film the French actress has a partabove
in, in connection with the "time-perby visiting the hospital, by stills of the vicspectives" and see how everything in this
tims, by the gruesome remnants of the film,
ca- in one way or another, complements
tastrophe: the ruins and the molten exeverything else and how from these complepanses of the city. This is the stage on which
mentary elements arise two important forthe hero and the heroine have come to love
mal principles of HMA.
each other. Parallel to this exposition, theFirst, on the active side, the atomic exprogress of their love is shown, its oscillaplosion is symbolically equalled with the
heroine's love for the German and the contions between shying away from it because
of the reasons mentioned, and forgetting
sequences of this love: insanity.
them in order to give the present its due, in Second, on the passive side, her first love
order to validate their love. Both can say
was a forbidden love, forbidden by the so"yes" only by saying "no": "yes," to themciety she lived in. As in Greek tragedy the
selves, to this moment, to their love; "no," gods,
to
so here, in Nevers, society reestab-

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312

WOLFGANG

A.

LUCHTING

lished its rights

and
its
order
by
in the
present,
he pushes
it back into
its k
German and thus
driving
the
youn
own realm.
Proust celebrates
the past,
insanity. Only time
heals
her,
i.e.and
fo
searches it,
makes it into
the present,
Hiroshima, i.e.
Japan
also
did
lives
in it: Le temps retrouve
is the
title of so
the society of his
countries
last book. Maurois says: she live
sidered forbidden: it waged a war
le temps est retrouvE et, du meme coup, il est
fore, Japan, too,
is
punished
by
vaincu,
puisque
tout un morceau du passe
a pu th
of other nations.
too,
devenirAnd
un morceau duJapan,
present.
ates through time, as the last sequ
although he knew of course as
the film clearly Proust,
indicate.
well as Resnais that the past cannot be revived except in memories, prefers the memIII. PROUST, RESNAIS, AND

ories and finds his redemption in them.

Resnais believes one can keep on living

TIME

In conclusion, it seems only

advisable
to point
by forgetting,
no matter how important is that which we have experienced and
nais in relation to their common subject,
are going to forget-sooner or later.

out the difference between Proust and Restime.

Proust puts the emphasis on the change

in people wrought by time. This change he
Compare Brecht's words: "The estrangement
records and saves from oblivion by rememeffect occurs when the thing to be understood, the

bering. Resnais cannot put the accent thing

on to which attention is to be drawn, is
the same elements-although he certainly
from an ordinary, well-known, immediately

shows his awareness of them-because he

changed
present
thing into a particular, striking, unexpected thing.

In a certain sense the self-evident is made incom-

portrays a love-story. Lovers cannot live or

prehensible, although this only happens in order to

love in the consciousness of forgetting.make

From
it all the more comprehensible" Versuche 11,

this arises the film's problem. Proust's

two
p. 102
(translation by R. Gray).
main themes are, first, the time that de2 stand corrected here by the French review
stroys; second, the memory that conserves. Esprit in whose June 1960 number I read: [Alain
Resnais in an interview] "Sur les recommandations
Resnais treats these themes, too, but the
des distributeurs, et en tenant en compte de toutes
other way round: first, for his protagonists, les remarques intelligentes qui m'avaient ete faites,

memory destroys; second, time restores.je me suis efforc6 de racourcir la version destinee
Proust is interested in memory. Resnais'aux salles de quartier et de province. Eh bien, le
resultat a ete catastrophique. Le film a paru beaustudies forgetting. In Proust, memoriescoup plus long qu'auparavant, presque incomprecause joy-the madeleine. In Resnais' film,hensible, bizarre, gratuit, en tout cas pas moins

memories cause sorrow and even terror (theennuyeux" (p. 935). This notwithstanding I behand). In both artists the raw material of lieve that my reference to the validity of each part
their works is the same: the tensions be-

of the film in function of all others may be main-

tained if we consider that Resnais himself has

tween past and present. But Resnais investinamed as his outstanding gift that of the "talent
gates two things: that which is beinguse
forof scissors": his films rely to a very great exte

on "montage."
gotten and why it is forgotten. Proust
8Some people have doubted this and prefer th
mainly studies that which has been for-

interpretation of the "absent-mindedness." Th

gotten. Besides, Resnais has a socio-political

base this attitude on that comprehensive study

dimension in his film. Proust concentrates

the nouvelle vague's amoral heroes and heroines

undertaken by Le Centre d'Etude des Communicaon the sociological dimension.

tions de Masse, of L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes. In a
Using a metaphor, the difference between
condensation of this study-"une etude comparative
the two artists can be described as the way
des heros des films nouvelle vague et des autres"-

in which they see the texture they have

Mile. Eve Sullerot, in France-Observateur of April

27, 1961, writes among other things, "les valeurs

woven: Resnais sees the back of the tapestry,
familiales,
Proust only the front. Proust's is a tapestry

l'amiti6, l'affection ... nos heroines NV

l'appr6cient beaucoup moins... huit sont mari6es:

with many motifs; Resnais' is one with
six sur les huit ont un amant, cinq connaissent des
many variations on the same motif.
serieux conflits conjugaux, trois divorcent ou
Resnais does not wish the past to reside
songent A divorcer. Voila pour le mariage."

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Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Time, and Proust 313

Cf. Esprit:
4As for the hero this question
need"Tres
notcurieusement,
be asked il semble que tout
du cinema contemporain vienne prendre
because it seems permissible un
toaspect
be psychologically
releveby
du roman,
tandis qu'au
less influenced by a wife than
an atomic
ex-contraire celui-ci
s'efforce d'emprunter au cinema sa technique..."
plosion.
(p. 966).
6Cf. Esprit, p. 962: "le temps est au centre des
films de Resnais, de Varda, de Tati, non pas le temps

8In an interview France-Observateur had with

qui passe et qui presse, mais au contraire celui qui

ne passe pas..." and p. 963: "il se dessout au contact du monde, il n'est plus qu'un espace, des rues,
des routes, un village ... oi tout semble s'6tirer et
s'arreter en de longs plans immobiles et silencieux..." and "leur rencontre ne trouve pas d'autre

Alain Robbe-Grillet and Alain Resnais-on L'annee

le temps s'etire sans pouvoir cependant cesser

the film deals with the interaction of persons. Mos

"dream of the heroine."

the future by insisting on the present. In Musil the

issue que l'incertitude finale des dernieres heures ofl

derniere...-the former mentions the highly in-

formative fact that Alain Resnais has plans to mak

a film in which the reels can be exchanged withou
making nonsense of the comprehensibility of the

"story." The decisive question here seems to be

whether such a procedure can be achieved when

likely this complete abandon of a logical and tem

It is interesting to note that Resnais, in poral
the sequence is possible only if the point of view
interview the above mentioned number of Esprit
of one person is taken, a sort of dream sequence,
cinematographic expression of the stream of con
printed, mentioned himself that in certain moments
his collaborators believed the whole story of sciousness.
HMA
9Again, the evidence would be different in its
to be only "a dream of the heroine." Later, when
L'annee derniere a Marienbad came out, Resnais
presentation and yet alike in its impulse: to deliver,
again stated that the film can be interpreted
as a as it were, incantations against the advent of

d'etre."

accent is more on ethics than in Proust or Durrell,

7 Of Truffaut it is said that, when he began

i.e. Musil paralyzes the flux of time in order to ban

Les 400 coups, he did not even know the difference
between the ocular and the objective of the camera.
man's stupidity from its consequences.

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