“Hiroshima Mon Amour” (1959) will be screened on Thursday, April 6, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Secret Movie Club, 1917 Bay St., Los Angeles.
Known in Japan as “Nijūyojikan no Jōji” (Twenty-four Hour Love Affair) and written by French author Marguerite Duras, the film stars Emmanuelle Riva as a French actress and Eiji Okada as a Japanese architect.
“‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ is a masterclass in a kind of stream-of-consciousness psychologically astute emotional editing that is almost unheard of today,” said Craig Hammill, Secret Movie Club founder/programmer.
“One of the absolute pinnacles of editing in cinema, ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ tells the fractured but emotionally powerful story of a love affair between a Japanese man and a French woman both ruminating over the relationship, their passion, and the palpable fear that hangs over the world with the threat of nuclear annihilation at any moment.
“Director Alain Resnais (‘Last Year at Marienbad,’ ‘Night and Fog’) is always French New Wave adjacent without being French New Wave. His style is at once even more avante garde while being somehow even stronger in its psychological power and insight.
“But don’t get it twisted, ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ is not some film school bucket list movie you have to see like you have to take a shot of wheat germ to feel healthy. It’s a fascinating, erotic, engaging, powerful, emotionally stirring movie that gets as close to the intensity and struggle of a fleeting love affair as any movie has ever gotten.
“The images, sequences, voice overs, and power of the movie have seared themselves into the mind of this programmer ever since he saw the movie first as a teenager.
“This is what cinema can be. Take a chance. Walk into the light. Discover techniques you never knew existed to make your movies incredible.”
For more information and to buy tickets, go to: https://www.secretmovieclub.com/calendar/hiroshima-mon-amour
Note: Entrance/parking is in the back of the building. Make a right on Wilson Street, then a right behind the building. SMC is the first set of black steps after the big gate.