20 Favourite Films of the 20th Century #10

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Hiroshima, Mon Amour

(Directed by Alain Resnais; Written by Marguerite Duras; Starring Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada; 1959)
The line I most associate with this film: "All these years I've been looking for an impossible love."

 An actress filming an anti-war film in Hiroshima meets a Japanese architect and starts an affair with him. This is a reflective and touching love story which is also a reflection on war, all in the same film. Hiroshima, Mon Amour is one of the most beautiful movies of all time and Emmanuelle Riva is absolutely incredible in it, in one of the best and most vulnerable performances in the history of cinema. We witness these two human beings involved in love as they reflect on their different experiences of war - her, from what she experienced in Nevers, France, him, from what he experienced in Hiroshima, Japan. This is a moving masterpiece from the great Alain Resnais and one of the most important films out there. It's a perfect mirror for what the world was feeling like in the post-WW2 period. In a world on the verge of another world war, this film has never been more important for its depiction of the impacts and consequences of war, both physically and emotionally. This film should be seen by every set of eyes on this planet. Maybe then people would realize what they are supporting when they support warmongering, tyrannical leaders.

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Films watched this year

  • 1917 (2019) directed by Sam Mendes
  • 9 to 5 (1980) directed by Colin Higgins
  • A Place in the Sun (1951) directed by George Stevens
  • Adults in the Room (2019) directed by COsta~Gavras
  • Bacurau (2019) directed by Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho
  • Bait (2019) directed by Mark Jenkin
  • Bombshell (2019) directed by Jay Roach
  • By the Grace of God (2019) directed by François Ozon
  • Female Trouble (1974) directed by John Waters
  • Flames of Passion (1989) directed by Richard Kwietniowski
  • For Sama (2019) directed by Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts
  • Ford v Ferrari (2019) directed by James Mangold
  • From Here to Eternity (1953) directed by Fred Zinnemann
  • GUO4 (2019) directed by Peter Strickland
  • I Confess (1953) directed by Alfred Hitchcock
  • Invisible Life (2019) directed by Karim Aïnouz
  • Jojo Rabbit (2019) directed by Taika Waititi
  • Jubilee (1978) directed by Derek Jarman
  • Little Women (1933) directed by George Cukor
  • Little Women (1949) directed by Mervyn LeRoy
  • Little Women (1994) directed by Gillian Armstrong
  • Little Women (2019) directed by Greta Gerwig
  • Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018) directed by Bi Gan
  • Looking for Langston (1989) directed by Isaac Julien
  • Monos (2019) directed by Alejandro Landes
  • Mosquito (2020) directed by João Nuno Pinto
  • Network (1976) directed by Sidney Lumet
  • O Fantasma (2000) directed by João Pedro Rodrigues
  • Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) directed by Céline Sciamma
  • Red River (1948) directed by Howard Hawks
  • Richard Jewell (2019) directed by Clint Eastwood
  • Shadow (2018) Zhang Yimou
  • The Farewell (2019) directed by Lulu Wang
  • The Hunger (1983) directed by Tony Scott
  • The Leopard (1963) directed by Luchino Visconti
  • The Lighthouse (2019) directed by Robert Eggers
  • The Nightingale (2018) directed by Jennifer Kent
  • The Souvenir (2019) directed by Joanna Hogg
  • The Wild Goose Lake (2019) directed by Diao Yi'nan
  • Thelma & Louise (1991) directed by Ridley Scott
  • Un Chant D'Amour (1950) directed by Jean Genet
  • Uncut Gems (2019) directed by Benny and Josh Safdie