Diva (1982)

Brilliant and touching

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

This film has a dual plot line in which dirty cops are after the main character because they believe he has a cassette tape incriminating their boss in prostitution and drug trafficking. At the same time, Jules (Frédéric Andréi) has created his own tape of a famous operatic singer who refuses to have her own voice recorded as an affront by those who would profit from it. It's an interesting double bind Jules finds himself in, even though for a good portion of the story he's unaware that the tape he holds of a crooked chief inspector is in his possession; it was secretly dropped into his mail satchel by the mistress of Commissaire Saporta (Jacques Fabbri) while on the run from the thugs he set out after her. For whatever reason, even for all it's intrigue, I couldn't quite connect with this story. It's not hard to follow if one pays attention, and the opera star Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Fernandez) has the most beautiful voice, but the characters and situations ultimately didn't engage me in a meaningful way. The eventual confrontation between the corrupt Chief Inspector and Jules ends in the most ignominious way when the cop falls off of an elevated landing in a warehouse when the lights go out. That just seemed so lame to me. No doubt others will find much more intrigue and mystery to the film than this viewer did, so in keeping with a time honored phrase designed to keep you invested in the story until it's conclusion, I would simply state, it's not over until the black lady sings.

A fun French movie concerning an opera singer who never records her work and a young fan who manages to make a tape of her performing. Another tape, this one implicating a criminal boss, is mixed into the plot and a couple of nefarious types are sent to find it. It's a quirky thriller, a bit dated now (duh) but still quite fun and well done enough to keep your attention. Wilhelmenia Fernandez is/was an 'adequate' actor but she sings beautifully and the film opens with her performance of "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana" from the opera "La Wally". Even though I know it has to have been 'enhanced' somewhat for film purposes, it's not at all far from what she does when she sings it live. In any case, it still exists as one of the best versions.

The French cinematic phenomenon known as cinéma du look was kicked off with this debut film from director Jean-Jacques Beineix. These films were typified by a focus on stylish presentation over deep substance. Diva is a film that illustrates this type of movie very well.A young opera lover surreptitiously tapes the performance of a diva. The famous singer has never been recorded before believing that art should be experienced live not reproduced; unsurprisingly she is livid when she discovers there is a bootleg of her performance out there. Add to the mix two Taiwanese mafia hoods who want the tape and two French gangsters who are on the hunt for a different tape that gets mixed up in the chaos; their tape exposes corruption in high places, including the international trafficking of women into prostitution.For me this is not only the first cinéma du look film but also the best one. The reason for this is that I think its story engages more than the other entries in the cycle. The plot-line is quite complicated with various characters involved in their own agendas all linked to one and other. The combining of high art with pulp genre became something that these films would become associated with but it's here, with the combination of opera music interlinked with a thriller narrative that it's done the most effectively. The characters are varied and interesting too, from the bike courier, to the diva of the title, the roller-skating Vietnamese girl, her eccentric older lover, two East Asian criminals and two French thugs (one of whom is an iconic looking Dominique Pinon in his debut film appearance). It also has a bona fide excellent action set-piece where we witness a motorcycle chase through the Paris subway. To top this all off, it's photographed beautifully, with some very distinctive sets and interesting fusions of old with new and high art with commercial reproduction. With it's combination of Pop Art imagery, eccentric characters and beautiful Parisian locations, Diva has a lot going for it. All-in-all, this is stylish 80s French cinema at its best.

This film had a unique opening in England. A couple of young guys had bought a tatty cinema in Kings Cross, London, with the idea of turning it into an outlet for "art house" films. They renamed it "The Palace" and started up a video label with the same name. They would probably have gone broke within a year, had it not been for "Diva".A fabulous movie, but French. Death in England. No-one wanted it. Nevertheless, the Palace boys bought the full UK rights to it, had nice clear, literate subtitles placed on the film - then did something previously unheard-of.They opened it at their cinema and SIMULTANEOUSLY issued it on VIDEO. IDIOTS!And yet it proved to be a shrewd move. The thing was, being such a beautiful movie, those who were able to, STILL went to see it in the CINEMA - and then bought the video. Those who lived out of town settled for just the video. And EVERYONE bought the soundtrack album for Vladimir Cosma's haunting "Sentimental Promenade" and WWF's incredible rendition of the aria from "La Wally" (pronounced "valley").Palace cleaned up.Eventually, it found its way to wider release and after only a short time, Britain's then-trendy new TV network, Channel Four. It was the success-story of the Eighties - and deservedly so. I'm not even going to rave about it - plenty of others in this strain have already done the job FOR me.I'll just add that if you haven't seen this masterpiece, ignore the comments of the few who just didn't GET it - and ENJOY!