Marguerite Duras was no stranger to tragedy and complexity. Born in Saigon (4/4/1914) as Marguerite Donnadieu just before the onset of the First World War, she lost both parents at a young age and subsequently became a writer; she changed her name to Duras while living in Nazi-dominated France during the Second World War. Her writing changed from a formulaic traditional style to more probing and deeper approaches, using flashback and memory sequences. Given that today is Hiroshima remembrance day, it's worth mentioning her screenwriting role in the 1959 black and white film, Hiroshima Mon Amour, directed by Alain Resnais.
Hiroshima Mon Amour has a haunting tone and look, and tells the complicated stories of two people who fall in love in Hiroshima (played well by Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada) after the Atomic attack; both have survived the atrocities of war, and much is revealed about their pasts and the universally sorrowful human plight.
Marguerite Duras wrote 34 books (mostly novels), directed or co-directed some fifteen independent films, and died on March 3, 1996.Today's Runes: Defense; Flow.
Au revoir. . . . .
5 comments:
Beautiful pictures, Erik! I can't believe you find all these treasures.
I watched a show today on the Discovery channel about 8-6-45 and it brought me to tears when they brought on some survivors who talked of their experiences and did a great re-enactment. Seriously, I cried while watching the Discovery Channel.
What I find most amusing is that Truman died on Mount St. Helens when it exploded, refusing to leave his cabin. Ironic, no?
A fantastic production, a history of love in a war scene. It defined a vital paradigm of the cinema contemporary "You does not check nothing in Hiroshima".
The difficulty to deal with the marks of the atomic bomb that lead to this paradoxical axiom: on the other hand, the intensity of the place and its memories displayed us it the irrecusável violence of all histories, collective and the individual ones; on the other hand, the conscience of such violence became any hesitante, pudico, conscientious speech of its drastic limitations. But it was important not to deviate the look. "You it does not check nothing" means, in last instance, that the look, humble and stubborn, did not give up.
Good week! Beijus
Hey Erik! I'm back from vacation! Caught up on your posts and they are brilliant. Love the pictures as well. where do you find them all? They are great. Take care!
Hey all, thanks a million for the comments ;) Hiroshima/Nagasaki were just so tragic, along with other horrors perpetrated among fellow human beings (well beyond "national" boundaries). And then there're the natural disasters. . . Cheers to all, and thanks Luma for the special critique of Hiroshima Mon Amour. Sheila, glad you're back -- (and for Gloria) I snoop around the internet a while to find those pix, which is fun in itself.
Ciao! ~E'
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