Alan Resnais was sniffing glue when he had a tug of war with the Japanese producers in the 1950s. What became of the principal remained the fate of countless Japanese in the post-WWII era of detante. What’s the common thread here? Both the heroines Japanese BF and ex (a German during the war) were subjects of Facist dictatorships.
Perhaps a sordid reminder of the consequences of the coming-into-power of such regimes in recent history. Resnais (according to WikiPedia) originally intended a documentary - but instead broke the ground for the auteurs at Cahiers Du Cinema: which catered to the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Truffaut and others who cite HIRISHIMA MON AMOUR as a inspiration and catalyst for their own unorthodox styles.
Perhaps India was overinfluenced by these "artists" giving us less credible spin offs from the likes of Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani and extremists such as Mani Kaul.
They say Ritwick Ghatak would roam the hallways at the Pune Institute when he was chair in the early 1970s citing Blakes TIGER (and not the mise en scene of such Frenchmen). Hence the polygot of the 1970s Indian (NFDC produced) "art film" - used by the intellectually bent Indian cineaste as a basis for social snobbery at the cocktail parties with their friends living in Worli Seaface and Napean Sea Road (!)