Diva

I can relate to the star (Frédéric Andréi as Jules) in this film, as i have had a love affair with an opera star. Ever since I heard and saw Julia Migenes in Carmen, I have loved her, but not to the extent that Jules loved Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Fernandez).

Jean-Jacques Beineix who won a César for this, his first job as director, really presented two stories. First, the obsession that Jules had for opera and for Cynthia; and a second story of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This is actually a police drama in the middle of a love story. It will be slow to those who do not like opera as it frames the story. The music is divine as Wilhelmenia Fernandez is truly an artist of note.

A superior French actor, Richard Bohringer, and an enchanting Vietnamese actress, Thuy An Luu, provide support to Jules as he evades capture by those who want a pirated tape of Cynthia's concert that he made, and another group that wants a tape that fell into his lap that revels the head of a prostitution ring between Africa and Paris.

He is just trying to spend time with Cynthis, but wherever he turns, someone is waiting.

All's well that ends well, and this ends well, but how it gets there is suspenseful and full of twists and turns.

I saw Diva for the first time as a college student in a film class art theater marathon. I'd just finished the most boring excuse for a movie ever made (no offense to fans of "My Dinner with Andre") and went in to see Diva.

I was floored. The most beautiful example of "disastre deluxe" I've ever seen - everything is so rundown it's gorgeous. The music perfectly matches the whole film. The performances are not "realistic", but they are not meant to be.

This is obviously not a piece of cinema verite and shouldn't be reviewed as such. "Diva" is a 2 hour tour de force of cinema as experience. One of the finest films I've ever seen.

I watched 'Diva' the other day for the first time in at least fifteen years and it really held up. Long regarded as a pivotal 1980s art film, it has influenced many subsequent film makers, in advertising, and music videos. I'd say Ridley Scott was aware of it when he shot 'Blade Runner' and that opens up a whole can of worms. One could argue that 'Diva', though by no means science fiction, was a strong influence on William Gibson and other cyberpunk writers. Director Beineix is probably best know for the erotic classic 'Betty Blue', but this is a much more original and interesting movie. Beineix uses every trick in the book to make this movie visually stunning, but the plot is also strong, concerning the confusion between tapes of an Opera singer who abhors recordings, and evidence which can nail a corrupt cop. A young messenger (Frederic Andrei) gets caught up in this mistake and his life is soon at risk. Along the way he also comes to have an odd relationship with the singer in question (Wilhelmenia Fernandez), as well as a strange art student cum shoplifter (Thuy An Luu). Nothing is straightforward in 'Diva' but it is consistently watchable. Keep an eye out for Jean-Pierre Jeunet regular Dominique Pinot as a cool looking punk thug, and also the outstanding motorcycle sequence. A very good movie. Recommended.

Diva is a movie that seems just as stunning and unique to me today as it did when I first saw it 20 years ago. One of those movies that you will remember forever.

On the surface, it's an exercise in pure style, combining exciting, "hip" visuals with great music (opera as well as some great atmospheric incidental music). But there are hundreds of movies like that. What makes Diva so memorable to me is the way it combines this stylish cinematic eye candy with a suspenseful plot, good acting, a touch of romance and sex, and even a smattering of philosophy (as the title character explains her reasons for not allowing her voice to be recorded, not to mention the immortal bread-buttering scene).

It sounds like a recipe for a boring, highly stylized "European" movie, but this is a film where the excitement never flags for a minute. One of the true gems of 80s cinema. As a friend said "If you wanted to be hip in the 80s, you had to have seen 'Liquid Sky', 'Repo Man' and 'Diva'". But even today, you should see it just because it's a great movie.

A wonderful combination of many genres - Action / Drama / Mystery / Romance / Thriller / Music/Art, this tale of two tapes may actually change the way you think about opera.

Wilhelmenia Fernandez as Cynthia Hawkins (Diva) who always refused to be recorded - is a revelation; her voice, a magic mixture of melted pure gold and crystal is a miracle.

There are so much more in this absolutely unique film - just to mention a certain shoplifting technique, or the coolest chase which started in the streets of Paris and ended in the subway's car.

The most fascinating thing for me is that Diva was released about twenty years ago in Moscow, I remember the title - but I never saw it back then. Better later than never.

Highly recommended - 9/10