Hiroshima mon amour

For me, the early work of Alain Resnais will always occupy a special place. The small-scale, physical, direct nature of the early cinéma-vérité enabled my transition from photography (which I have seriously practised from when I was 14) to film. From then on, the camera was an extension of my eye, my hands, my arms, my legs, my whole body. But within that improvisatory attitude I needed FORM and Resnais provided all things required: description of space by editing of shooting angles in a strictly defined time; an understanding of the art of leaving things out (vérité was in its worst manifestation a vacuum cleaner that gobbled anything that looked like truth); a musical ear for language; recognition of the film as an artefact, an artificial creation, that remains aloof to the reality it tries to capture; also, a renewed recognition of the film as a work of art (thin ice!); finally, the connection between narrative space and psychological space. With all of this I could modestly get to work. This seems to be a terribly egocentric way to present HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR, as if Resnais only existed for me - but it is nothing more than an inadequate way to honour a maker who, in a handful of films, in his own way next to that of Godard, redefined cinema. Johan van der Keuken