THE MEMORY OF A MOMENT
A woman, a man, both of them injured by the chaos of History. An instant of passion forever branded in them.
In the beginning, there is Marguerite Duras' scenario for Alain Resnais' film, in 1959, with Emmanuelle Riva: a brief and burning passion which forever leaves its mark on two people who should never have met. Today, Christine Letailleur brings Duras’ words to the stage as, she writes, the novelist tackles "one of the major themes in my artistic research, that is, the endless and crucial question of desire". And so, there in the half-light, there is the languid nudity of two bodies, standing, bound by the strength of a feeling that surpasses them. They barely touch each other, they are "together", for such a short time before both go back to their separate everyday life. A moment forever inscribed in their memory injured by History: she had her hair shorn after liberation for having loved an enemy; he survived the Hiroshima bombing, haunted its horror… They speak, their words and silences echo one another, composing a sort of strangely gentle epic poem. "A poetic,philosophical, and political work", Christine Letailleur further writes.
Colette Godard
A hand slowly strokes a body and it could last for hours. The beautiful couple (Valérie Lang and Hiroshi Ota) sometimes blends in with the projected pictures of the ruins of Hiroshima as filmed by Japanese film director Imamura. They disappear, often sent back to their solitude, and reappear,back into love’s precipitate. Theatrical haikus.
Emmanuelle Bouchez, Télérama
The radio version of Hiroshima mon amour directed by Christine Letailleur will be broadcasted on France Culture le Sunday the 29th of April at 21:00.
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