Mabel and Fatty's Married Life (USA, 1915)

Comedians Mabel Normand and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle are paired again, this time as a married couple and the plot of this film deals with another commonplace in silent films (both comedies and dramas): A wife -within the typical damsel in distress stereotype – has to face a burglar all by herself while her husband is away to work. Sometimes the danger was genuine, but it could also be a false alarm.

In the beginning of the film it is shown the intertitle “She reads exciting books” and Mabel was sitting on a park bench while she was reading books and Roscoe was her company. They were likely discussing the book and then Roscoe spotted an organ grinder and a short time later the monkey ended up jumping on Mabel, who was really scared. Roscoe got the monkey, threw it away and the organ grinder was furious when he saw it. Both Roscoe and the organ grinder started to fight and Roscoe beat up the guy. Feeling deeply insulted and humiliated by this defeat, the organ grinder takes “an oath of vengeance”, as one of intertitles stated. Roscoe did not feel intimidated and beat up the organ grinder even more.

The couple left the park shortly afterwards, but it was only the beginning of problems. Roscoe left Mabel at home and then went out, but he soon realized that he had forgotten his papers at home and returned home to get them. Roscoe was followed by his driver, who Roscoe asked to wait for him in the livingroom. Meanwhile, Mabel was apparently a little bit uneasy for being alone at home and started reading the newspaper in order to distract herself. She read a headline saying that there were bands of thieves operating in the residence district and needless to say that it only made Mabel more nervous.

Roscoe opened the drawers, looking for his papers, Mabel heard the noise and took a revolver to defend herself as she thought the house was being burglarized. Roscoe ended up being shot on the butt and locked himself in the closet in sheer horror. Mabel kept on shooting and the driver entered the house to check what was going on, but he was also scared with Mabel’s shootings. After a while, Roscoe left the closet and Mabel fainted in his arms. When she woke up, Roscoe asked Mabel to calm down. They said good bye, Roscoe left home and met the driver (who at this point was hiding himself in the car after all that mess inside the house).

Roscoe finally left to work and Mabel was not completely calm yet. Meanwhile, the organ grinder and another man arrived to Roscoe’s house and they wanted revenge due to the previous incident in the park. Mabel saw them through the window and engaged in sewing to relax, which did not work. She made a brief phone call and a woman picked up the telephone. Some minutes later, Mabel went to the door and bumped into the organ grinder, who was trying to force his entrance into the house. He eventually got it and Mabel threw all sorts of things on the organ grinder to defend herself but it was not enough to keep the organ grinder at bay. Mabel ran away and locked herself in the bedroom.

The woman Mabel had previously called ended up calling the police and the incompetent Keystone Cops were employed to solve the problem. When the policemen arrived, it looked like the neighbors saw that Mabel was in trouble and there were many people gathered on the porch, which created a huge confusion. The policemen went upstairs while the organ grinder was by the bedroom’s door, trying to enter. Mabel opened the door and guided one of the policemen to the window, as she thought that the burglar was there. In the middle of all this chaos Roscoe and the driver arrived back home. It turned out that the noise that came from the window was made by the monkey, who the organ grinder brought with him. Roscoe thought that all the chaos had happened because Mabel called the police without any reason and got angry with her at first, but after a while he managed to laugh at the situation.

Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Mabel Normand were very popular on their era and we can see why. Even though this plot was not new not even in the 1910s, the tenderness of the couple, the innocent confusion and witness of a lifestyle that has been already over for a long time remains of interest to modern-day audiences. Without mentioning the physical gags and the stunts, which are challenging in any era. It is not likely that actors would do their own stunts virtually all the time nowadays like actors did in most slapstick comedies.

Mabel, Fatty and the Law (USA, 1915)

Again we can see the successful pairing of Mabel Normand and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. They made films together in the 1910s that were very popular among audiences and this is one of them. The theme portrayed in this short film is a classic in slapstick comedies: misunderstanding.

We cannot stop love, can we? Fatty and Mabel are a married couple and both of them are bored in their marriage. In the beginning of the film we can see Fatty playing the piano at home livingroom while innocently flirting with the housemaid. Mabel saw it, got furious and expelled the maid out of the livingroom immediately. Fatty kissed Mabel to apologize, but she slapped and physically assaulted Fatty as she was really angry with his flirty behavior. After some minutes Mabel calmed down, regreted her impulsive atitude and apologized with Fatty. Then, she dressed up to go outside with Fatty.

Meanwhile, in another house it is shown a husband (played by actor Harry Gribbon) who was also flirting with the housemaid and his wife (played by actress Minta Durfee, who was real-life wife of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle at that time) saw it and got as furious with her husband as Mabel did in the previous scene. After an argument, it is shown that this couple had also gone out.

Fatty and Mabel sit down on the bench in a park and there was a sign besides the bench saying “No spooning allowed”. This can be an alert to the audience that it will not take long until a misunderstanding happen. Then the other couple arrive in the park and sits down on a similar bench, with a similar spooning sign. The husband starts smoking a cigar and there was lots of smoke, his wife stood up angrily and approached the bench where Fatty and Mabel were sitting down. After a while, she left and Fatty followed this other woman and started flirting with her.

At the same time, the other husband was alone on the bench and started at Mabel (who was also alone) while she was reading a newspaper and got immediately interested on her. Weirdly, he tried to catch Mabel’s attention by throwing some pieces of food towards her. After one of those pieces hit Mabel’s face he started flirting with her and she was enjoying the attention she was getting from that total stranger without realizing that Fatty was actually flirting with the wife of that unknown man.

Finally, the stranger sat on the bench besides Mabel, but he was caught in the act by a hiding policeman, who saw everything while he was sitting on the branch of a tree. Keep in mind that spooning was prohibited and who was called to restore order? The mega incompetent Keystone Cops, who chased Mabel and the other man out of the blue. They both ended up parting their ways after being chased.

However, it was not the end of the problems because that same policeman who was sitting on the branch of a tree saw Fatty flirting with the other woman and the Keystone Cops were called again but this time they got to arrest both Fatty and the woman and both of them ended up being taken to the police station. They would either pay thirty dollars of fine or would be jailed for thirty days. Everyone started to argue but Fatty and the woman could not avoid being thrown in jail.

Both Fatty and the woman called home to ask their respective spouses to take them out of jail and both calls were answered by their maids. The spouses went to the police station, Mabel arrived first and started to argue with the other woman. Then the husband of the other woman arrived a short time later and Mabel realized he was the man who was flirting with her at the park earlier that day. Both couples had finally reunited and continued arguing on the sidewalk of the police station after they were released. A policeman showed up outside in order to stop with the confusion and this is how it ended what was supposed to be a relaxing walk on the park on a sunny day.

Although this film is no different than the average films of the era and is far from revolutionary, it remains an interesting film to simply watch, relaxing without taking things too seriously or analyzing every detail. It is also a nice historical witness of parks back to the 1910s and how people had fun out of home. The gags easy to be understood and the aura of innocence in the so-called marriage life remain appealing to this day.

When Love Took Wings (USA,1915)

In real life actress Mabel Normand was really ahead of her time. She was not only a beauty, but also a pioneer in many fields. She drove cars, airplanes, had her own financial independence and even directed her own films in her own studio for a while in the 1910s in the Keystone Studios (which was subsequently renamed as “Mack Sennett comedies” as of 1917). As of circa 1915 she was paired with another star of the studio, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and they made romantically-oriented comedies, some of them praised by cinema critics to this day.

As usual, Mabel’s character was admired by the guys and had more than one suitor, to the displeasure of her father. One of suitors was Fatty, who was not approved by Mabel’s father either. One day it showed up another suitor, a neighbor (played by actor Al St. John) who was finally accepted by Mabel’s father. Unfortunately, Mabel did not like him and, to make things worse, Fatty was visiting Mabel at the time and felt insulted when he realized there would be another competitor for Mabel’s affections and then it started an argument between Fatty and Mabel’s father and things soon got physically violent. Meanwhile, Mabel herself literally kicked the neighbor suitor out of the living room.

As if things were not messy enough, it resurfaced another Mabel’s suitor (the one who was firstly seen visiting her in the beginning of the film). Mabel’s father tried to force her to accept the affections of her neighbor, but she refused vehemently. Fatty watched it and decided to take matters into own hands by removing Mabel from home and her other suitor tried to do the same thing while Fatty left a note to her father, but fortunately Mabel got to run away. Fatty realized what was going on upon his return outdoors but it was just the beginning of the chaos because Mabel’s father had just called the police.

Who rescued them? The reckless, incompetent Keystone cops, of course. While the cops were on their way, Fatty and the other suitor were fighting, to Mabel’s horror – even though it would not take long until she started laughing at the situation. Fatty and Mabel soon reunited and it was when they saw an empty airplane, which was a relatively new invention at the time. As Mabel’s father and one of her suitors were approaching, their only option was leaving in the airplane. Although everybody else tried to reach them both by car and bicycle, they could not keep up with the plane for obvious reasons. Even the Keystone cops arrived late.

Fatty and Mabel were having fun while Fatty made some maneuvers with their airplane, which gave to the audiences a very interesting chase with multiple vehicles. When Fatty and Mabel finally landed they went to a house where there was a clergyman and Mabel had inadvertently lost her wig, which deeply shocked Fatty and made him have second thoughts about the upcoming marriage. After lots of confusion, Fatty and all other suitors run away and gave up Mabel for good.

All in all, this is a typical 1910s slapstick comedy short, with broad gestures, exaggerated physical gags and simple plots. Those comedies were very popular in their own era and their charm remain due to their easy understanding, ingenuous physical scenes and good acting. Behind the apparently simplicity there is lots of talent and bravery. In case you are interested to watch other Fatty and Mabel films of this type, it is recommended -among others - He Did and He Didn't (USA, 1916), Fatty and Mabel Adrift (USA, 1916), Fatty and Mabel at the San Diego Exposition (USA,1915), Mabel and Fatty's Wash Day (USA, 1915).

Love (USA, 1919)

Oh, love! That beautiful feeling even though sometimes it is not possible to make things come true. We can see once more the real-life uncle and nephew actors Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Al St. John with more mature humor compared with the films they made some years before in the Keystone Studios. They still engaged in physical comedies but with more elaborate plots and more realistic building up of characters.

Arbuckle is a good-natured, naive farm boy, deeply in love with Winifred, the daughter of a man he rescued when he fell into a well. Unfortunately, a rich neighbor offered the farmer large piece of land if he agreed to marry Winifred to his son (played by Al St. John) and her father promptly agree with the proposal and the girl ended up trapped in an arranged marriage with a man she did not like. To make matters worse, it was Arbuckle who Winifred really loved.

Realizing that no one else but themselves cared about their feelings, Arbuckle and Winifred decided to elope. It was all fun and games until Winifred had her neck stuck in a window while she was trying to leave her house and this situation gave room to some hilarious gags. Nevertheless, all this mess had only made Winifred’s father realizing she was running away and the girl was brought back home, to her despair.

After a while (and with a little help of Arbuckle, who added soap to the food that Winifred’s family was about to eat), her father decided to hire a new cook and it was Arbuckle himself – dressed in drag -who showed up in an attempt to get the job. It was not unusual Arbuckle to dress up as a woman in his films, usually as a disguise and a prompt for causing even more confusion in the plot. Anyway, although Arbuckle had problems to provide reliable references, he was hired as the new cook (the family thinking he was a woman).

On the day of the wedding there was a rehearsal, as it was the first time the clergyman was marrying anyone. The cook – who was actually Arbuckle -volunteered herself to play the groom’s role. The clergyman spoke the official words, Arbuckle put the ring on Winifred’s finger. When the real wedding was about to occur, Arbuckle announced in front of all guests that  Winifred was already married to him during the rehearsal and at the same time he disclosed his real identity. This gave lots of happiness to  Winifred and a great shock to her family.

This film was presumed lost for a long time until two prints of it were found and then it was made a compilation that enabled its recovery and restoration. Due to this initiative, modern-day audiences can watch this story in its entirety. Back to 1919, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle had already accomplished his professional maturity and the peak of his popularity, having even started his successful partnership with Buster Keaton (who did not participate in this film, though). The Arbuckle-Keaton duo was briefly paused when Keaton was in the army during World War 1 and he was replaced by Italian-born Monty Banks (who played the role of Farmhand in this film).

The Waiters' Ball (USA, 1916)

Something that brings lots of chaos in silent films is two gentlemen competing for the affection of the same sweetheart. This is what happened between the characters of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle (The Cook) and Al St. John (The Waiter). Al St. John was Roscoe’s nephew in real life and both of them made many silent films together and were skilled in physical gags. Needless to say that such gags were plentiful in this film, Arbuckle remade with St. John and Buster Keaton by the name The Cook (USA,1918).

The Cook is seen carrying out his tasks in the kitchen by cleaning the floor and cooking -both at the same time. At the same time, the waiter is trying to carry some plates without breaking them and he was not exactly successful. When it came to both workmen, clumsiness ruled. Something they also had in common was that they liked the same woman – the cashier of the restaurant where they worked.

In the next scene the cashier shows an ad to the waiter about the upcoming waiter’s ball. However, there was a problem because the attendees were supposed to wear formal party clothes. The waiter and the cashier started arguing while the cook was trying to sweep the floor without causing any confusion, which did not work. The cook feel on the dining room over the leg on cast of a client and it ended up leaving the poor gentleman in pain.

The waiter showed up in the dining room to sweep the floor into the kitchen much to the annoyance of the cook. They fought and after a while they started working again. The waiter told the clients’ requests to the cook, who brought to the waiter the dishes he was supposed to serve to the clients. This situation brought other physical gags which involved even animals and uncooperative foods and lots of chaos in the restaurant.

After a while it finally came the time of the ball. The cook had a tuxedo, but the waiter did not have proper clothes to attend it. But the waiter did not accept his defeat so easily and he stole the cook’s tuxedo. On the other hand, the cook did not let it preventing him from going to the party and he attended in women’s clothes.

The party was lively and everybody was having fun, at least until the cook caught the waiter wearing his tuxedo. Then, they both fought in the ballroom, which disrupted the fun of the guests. The female dishwasher of the restaurant, after realized that her clothes were stolen, ended up going to the party and when she caught the cook wearing her clothes there was another fight and the party was in deep chaos.

A policeman happened to be nearby and he arrested both the cook and the waiter who by this time had already lost half of the clothes they were wearing and had to cover themselves with a barrel whole the party’s guests laughed at their fate.

If slapstick comedies with frantic pace, “fast and furious” rhythm, overtly physical humor are your piece of cake, you will surely love this silent film. The gags are simple and it makes them extremely easy to be understood by audiences of all eras. Therefore, this film stood quite well the test of time. It is also a golden opportunity to see some high-profile silent actors in action displaying their skills and it is not difficult to understand why they were so popular with the audiences back to the silent era.

His Wife's Mistakes (USA,1916)

An important part of silent comedies was misunderstandings and all the confusion it caused among the characters, which included mistaken conclusions against the good morals of a couple. This is exactly what happened in this film.

The film started in what looked like a department store, both the place and people look sophisticated. Al St. John was smoking besides a well-dressed elderly man who is smoking a pipe, they both worked together in the same office. At that moment, a woman arrived.

Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle crossed the street, entered a place, had difficulties with a revolving door. Roscoe got to solve his problems with the door, a crook arrived at the store and stole the handbag of a lady. The thief bumped into the revolving door and fell and as Fatty was still nearby, the crowd thought he had caught the thief. The lady gave some money to Fatty out of gratitude.

Right afterwards Fatty applied for a job as a janitor. As one of intertitles said, a broker, Mr. I. Steele, has a client who “will arrive about noon with certified check for $ 10.000 to close a deal” and the option expires at three o’clock. The broker left the office and requested a note to be delivered for his wife, letting her know about the upcoming business deal.

Meanwhile, Fatty was carrying out his duties in the most clumsy way possible, even causing accidents involving other passerby people and flirting with beautiful women around him. This scene was an opportunity for a plenty of people falling on their butts in full splendor.

While Fatty was causing all that mess downstairs, a woman caught the elevator and entered the broker’s office. It was his wife. She was greeted by her husbands’ co-workers, received the note and read that he wanted her to entertain his client until he arrived. The husband also wrote in the note that his client was a rather eccentric man.

Fatty was asked by a couple to watch their beauty parlor until they arrived back. However, some seconds later a woman came and asked Fatty to keep his eyes on the candy shop. A short time after the woman left, it arrived a client to the barber and, for any weird reason, Fatty did the job on the poor man’s beard. To add insult to injury, Fatty left the gentleman alone in the barber while he was servicing a female client in the candy shop. Eventually, the barber’s client was “sore, but satisfied” despite the complete inability of Fatty to work as a barber.

Subsequently, Fatty caught the elevator and entered the broker’s office. Fatty noticed there was another guy in the elevator, but kept going. The broker’s wife had mistaken Fatty as her husband’s client and invited him to have lunch with her at the oriental café. Fatty gladly accepted the proposal, unaware of the chaos that would happen soon. The café was lavishly decorated and unfortunately Fatty lacked enough social skills to attend this type of sophisticated place.

The broker finally returned to his office and was told by Al St. John that his wife “went out with the janitor”. The broker was furious and immediately took a revolver that he kept in his drawer. He was determined to take revenge and while his wife and the janitor were having fun in the café watching a rather over the top show, the husband arrived to wash his honor with blood. He tried to shoot Fatty, but the janitor got to run away in fear.

In the middle of all this chaos, the real client arrived at the office and was received by the broker’s co-workers. The real client claimed that the papers must be signed by three o’clock otherwise the deal would expire. And he could not wait much longer because it was actually almost three’ o’clock.

It looked like the employees got to tell the broker about the misunderstanding and the documents were signed on time. Yes “it looked like” because it seems there are some scenes missing in the end and the last scene the audiences see is Al St. John and his colleagues running on the street and then the film abruptly ended. It is not clear if the end of this film is lost or if it is just some printings that don’t show the entire film, though.

In addition to being a funny comedy to this day, this film also has interesting historical value because it enables modern-day audiences to catch a glimpse of 1910s buildings, offices, elevators, typewriters, etc. and compare with how those items look like nowadays. It is like traveling in a time machine and a genuine one-of-a-kind experience.

A Strong Revenge (USA,1913)

This is one of one reelers (short films that lasted around 11 minutes) made in the beginning of Keystone studios (which had been opened on the previous year in California) with simple plots and straightforward gags, including overtly fake facial hair, exaggerated gestures, actors falling on their butts and even weird dancing (the latter being pretty much the case in this film). Mabel, so sweet and cute, had two suitors, who fought each other in order to have her affection. Mabel invited one of them (Schnitz, the grocer, a character played by Mack Sennett himself, who was the founder and director of Keystone Studios in real life) to her party. The problem is that Mabel also invited her other suitor (Meyer, the cobbler, a character played by Ford Sterling, one of the most popular comedians of the studio in its first years). Of course it would trigger the rivalry between both men even more.

A short time later we could see that Meyer bought some fresh cheese. The reason of it was not disclosed at first, but the audience would know it really soon. Unfortunately it turned out that the cheese did not really smell well (actually, it stink). Some time passed, both men got ready for the party and “dressed for the occasion” as one of the intertitles says. Meyer arrived at the party and gave some flowers to Mabel. People were dancing happily and Mabel and Meyer joined them in the ballroom. Then Schnitz arrived and he brought flowers to Mabel too. He gave them to her and started dancing with Mabel, pushing Meyer away from them. Meyer did not take this insult easily and would take a revenge in the first opportunity. Actually, “Schnitz scents trouble” as both men confronted each other, Mabel got upset and the environment of the party, which was happy until then, became tense.

The reason of the sudden change of vibe is that Schnitz started to stink all of a sudden, scaring off even the other guests. He tried to puff perfume on himself to disguise the problem but it seems the situation worsened because virtually everyone left the party altogether. Schnitz was insulted, tried to dance with Mabel again (to her despair) even though they were both literally alone in the ballroom now. An argument was started and Schnitz left the party in anger, carrying with him the flowers he gave to Mabel. Then Meyer was delighted because he could have Mabel all to himself and his rival was defeated. However, when Schnitz returned home he found out that the cheese on his shoe and he would not accept to be deceived his way and decided to fight back. He returned to the party, talked to a boy, who asked Meyer to go outside. While both of them talked, Schnitz discreetly put the cheese on Meyer’s pocket.

The party continued, the guests were dancing in the same ballroom, having fun while Schnitz was watching from a window the result of his plan to embarrass Meyer in front of everyone and the guests run away from the ballroom as soon as Meyer returned to the house. Mabel got angry, gave back to Meyer the ring he had previously given her while Schnitz laughed in joy. After a while, Meyer found out the cheese in his pocket. Meanwhile, Schnitz entered the party while the disgusted guests were packing the living room as no one wanted to return to that stinking ballroom. When Meyer saw Schnitz he threw the cheese on him and another argument took place, but it did not last long because both Mayer and Mabel fainted due to the strong smell while Schnitz watched it in shock. 

Although the plot might seem too simplistic for nowadays’ audiences, those short films stood well the test of time as they have gags that can be easily understood to this day, which might explain the success of those slapstick comedies in their own era. The charm of a film that simply entertains and relaxes is something hard to resist, regardless of era.

Hiroshima, Mon Amour (France - Japan, 1959)

Directed by Alain Resnais and written by Marguerite Duras (the famous French novelist), this film is considered groundbreaking for many reasons and it is still studied in cinema universities around the world for its language, narration, lyricism. It is one of the most acclaimed films of the French new wave and for a good reason. Innovative, strong and emotional at the same time, complex and simple, silent and subtle, this film runs smoothly and gives a plenty of sensations to the audience.

How to talk about a tragedy without being too graphic? We are aware of the atomic bombs detonated in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively on August 6^th and 9^th , 1945 and the horrifying loss of lives and suffering that they caused. How to keep the memory of facts alive in a touching, respectful way? It was an even more relevant question back to the production time of this film considering that those matters were shown on screen only 14 years after the tragedy.

Alain Resnais intended to make this film as a documentary at first but after a while he decided to add some fictional elements to it. It started with an embraced couple covered with nuclear dust. The woman is a French actress who went to Hiroshima to make a film about peace. The man was a Japanese architect. They both had an adventure that lasted a little more than 24 hours. She is in the last day of her work and then will immediately return to France. He would like her to stay a little longer. They are foreigners and also married to other people and are well-aware that their romance cannot possibly last. They are not named.

They started to talk. She said she had seen a lot from Hiroshima and he disagreed saying that she had seen nothing. This is the opposition between being on the place where the facts actually happened versus being away from the facts but having heard of them later on. She claimed that she had seen it all because she visited the city, she was in a hospital, in the museum. He still disagreed although he was not actually in Hiroshima when the bombs exploded because he was in the army. But he had family there and he was born in Hiroshima. Here we see a dichotomy that will last throughout the film, which is forget x remember.

A fragmented narration, being led by the memory of the characters. She told him about her first love, a German soldier who she met in her home city of Nevers while it was occupied by the Nazi army. When the war was about to end and both were planning to elope, he ended up being killed. Her family and neighbors found out about her relationship and she was deeply ostracized by her family and community, to the point that her family disowning her and her father had to close his pharmacy because of the shame. After some time of intense suffering she left her home city and went to Paris and she arrived in Paris on the day of the Hiroshima bombing. It is interesting that the day of bombing meant a new beginning both in her life and in the life of her Japanese lover.

The actress had this big trauma about the death of her love when she was younger, she continued to live, but those experiences remained inside her and they resurfaced when she was in Hiroshima, as physical and historical distance do not prevent people from having their memories with them. Even when we are no longer consciously aware of the past, it is still there in our subconscious mind, only waiting for an opportunity to return in full force.

The film was very competent in portraying the eroticism of the couple in a touching and non graphic way, at the same time showing the intensity of the feelings and attraction they had for each other. It is very interesting to see that although their love affair was extremely brief, we can see both people looking tenderly to each other, treating each other in the most caring way, trying to enjoy every minute of a beautiful story. This almost poetic atmosphere was enabled by the excellent acting by both Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada. At the time of the production of his film Okada could not speak French and he learned his lines phonetically. The result was excellent and he spoke French very well with only a slight accent that gave his character an extra layer of charm. The audiences can easily empathize with her, but he was also so human so intense that we like him in the same extent.

We must also bear in mind that at the time it was still not very common to see an inter racial couple on screen, but there is no room to think about it because what we actually see is two human beings dealing with their feelings, memories, love.

On the other hand, the sequence where the French actress talked about her past in Nevers and the traumatic loss of her first love can be tiresome for nowadays’ audiences. Emmanuelle Riva engaged in a very long monologue while her lover carefully listened and even role played her old boyfriend in what looked like a therapy session at times. This scene could have been more balanced if they both have talked about their memories instead of only one person talking and the other one mostly listening. The film also often try to go really deep into the actress’ psychological character and at times she seems to act unreasonably or over stressed. The scenery is also noteworthy. We can often see the French woman walking in empty places, streets that were almost deserted, which highlight the emptiness she felt deep into her soul.

The end is really powerful when she tells him that she will forget about him, that she had actually already forgotten about him. Then she said to him that Hiroshima was his name in what looks like an attempt of her to have him on her mind as just a nameless man, just somebody she had casually met in Hiroshima without too much importance. Surprisingly, he agreed with her and said that it was actually his name and he told her that her name was Nevers, Nevers in France. This is how the film told the audiences that no matter where we go, what we do, how long it takes and we are all shaped by our past experiences, roots, culture. We may try to forget, we can deceive ourselves but in the end those experiences shaped our personality to such an extent that we would have been completely different people without them.