Elle (Emmanuelle Riva), a young French actress, visits Hiroshima to make a film about peace. She begins an affair with a Japanese architect, Lui (Eiji Okada), even though both are married. Through the course of their meetings Elle recalls her experiences during the Second World War and her first lover, a German soldier.

Hiroshima Mon Amour was a huge international success and won the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. However the film was never intended to be made. Resnais visited Hiroshima with a view to making a documentary but unsure how to proceed he brought in Marguerite Duras to write a script for him. The film’s innovative style - the use of flashbacks and the interweaving of documentary footage - would make it one of the greatest influences on the nouvelle vague.