Preceded by short: Permutations

In Hiroshima, a French actress (Emmanuèle Riva) working on an antiwar film meets a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada). They become lovers but their encounter only revives memories of the war, revealing that the woman is her past, the man, his. Their struggle to come to terms with the idea that life goes on is reflected in images from a collective memory–newsreel footage of Hiroshima's hospital, war museum, and the rebuilt city-in which the film's pacifist subtheme is skillfully developed. The seamless integration of past and present, the poetic fusion of music to text and of image to the clipped poetry of dialogue, were shared tropes of director Resnais and screenwriter Marguerite Duras. The tactile sensuality of the images is in profound counterpoint to the radical interiority of the protagonists: for Duras, especially, there is something irreducible about separateness which sex can transcend only fleetingly.Written by Marguerite Duras. Photographed by Sacha Vierny, Michio Takahashi. With Emmanuèle Riva, Eiji Okada, Bernard Fresson, Stella Dassas. (90 mins, In French with English subtitles, B&W, 35mm, Courtesy French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bureau of Cinema, permission Argos)Permutations (Theresa Cha, U.S., 1976). Beautiful and evocative, Permutations is a systematically scored film composed of shots of the face of Theresa Cha's sister, Bernadette. It was presented at the San Francisco Cinematheque in 1982. (10 mins, B&W, 16mm, From BAM Conceptual Study Center)