Diva (1981 film)
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''Diva'' is a 1981 French
thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
directed by
Jean-Jacques Beineix Jean-Jacques Beineix (; 8 October 1946 – 13 January 2022) was a French film director best known for the films ''Diva'' and ''Betty Blue''. His work is regarded as a prime example of the ''cinéma du look'' film movement in France. Early life ...
, adapted from the novel ''
Diva Diva (; ) is the Latin word for a goddess. It has often been used to refer to a celebrated woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, theatre, cinema, fashion and popular music. If referring to an actress, the meaning of ''diva'' is cl ...
'' by
Daniel Odier Daniel Robert Odier (born 17 May 1945 in Geneva), is a Zen master, Chan master, writer, poet, screenwriter and essayist, specialist in Kashmir Shaivism. Praised by Anaïs Nin as "an outstanding writer and a dazzling poet," he is also a spiritual ...
. It eschewed the realist mood of 1970s French cinema and instead adopted a colourful, melodic style, later described as '' cinéma du look''. The film made a successful debut in France in 1981 with 2,281,569 admissions, and had success in the U.S. the next year, grossing $2,678,103. ''Diva'' became a
cult classic A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
and was internationally acclaimed.


Plot

A young Parisian postman, Jules, is obsessed with opera, and particularly with Cynthia Hawkins, a beautiful and celebrated American soprano who has never allowed her singing to be recorded. Jules attends a recital at the
Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord The Bouffes du Nord is a theatre at 37 bis, boulevard de la Chapelle, in the 10th arrondissement of Paris located near the Gare du Nord. It has been listed since 1993 as a ''monument historique'' by the French Ministry of Culture. History Founde ...
in Paris, where Hawkins sings the
aria In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...
"''Ebben? Ne andrò lontana'' from the opera '' La Wally''. He illicitly makes a high-quality bootleg recording of her performance using a
Nagra Nagra is a brand of portable audio recorders produced from 1951 in Switzerland. Beginning in 1997 a range of high-end equipment aimed at the audiophile community was introduced, and Nagra expanded the company’s product lines into new markets. ...
professional tape-recorder. Afterwards, he steals the gown she was wearing from her dressing room. Later, Jules accidentally comes into possession of an audio cassette with the recorded testimony of a prostitute, Nadia, which exposes a senior police officer, ''
Commissaire divisionnaire ''Commissaire de police'' is a rank or group of ranks in the French National Police. It should not be confused with the French appointment of "armed forces commissary" (''commissaire des armées'') which is an administrative military position. O ...
'' Jean Saporta, as being the boss of a drug trafficking and prostitution racket. Nadia drops the cassette in the bag of the postman's
moped A moped ( ) is a type of small motorcycle, generally having a less stringent licensing requirement than full motorcycles or automobiles. The term used to mean a similar vehicle except with both bicycle pedals and a motorcycle engine. Mopeds typ ...
moments before she is killed by Saporta's two henchmen—''L' Antillais'' and ''Le Curé'' ("The West Indian" and "The Priest"). Two police officers are now after Jules, seeking Nadia's cassette, although they only know that it incriminates a prominent gangster and not that the gangster is actually their superior. Jules is also being hunted by Saporta's two murderous henchmen. A third party seeking him is two Taiwanese men, who are after his unique and valuable recording of Cynthia Hawkins. Jules seeks refuge from all these pursuers with his new friends, the mysterious
bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...
Serge Gorodish and his young Vietnamese-French muse, Alba. Feeling guilty, Jules returns Cynthia Hawkins' dress. She is initially angry, but eventually forgives him. Cynthia is intrigued by the young Jules' adoration and a kind of romantic relationship develops, expressed by the background of the piano instrumental, ''Promenade Sentimentale'' by
Vladimir Cosma Vladimir Cosma (born 13 April 1940) is a Romanian composer, conductor and violinist. He was born into a family of musicians. His father, Teodor Cosma, was a pianist and conductor, his mother a writer-composer, his uncle, Edgar Cosma, composer and ...
, as they walk around Paris in the
Jardin des Tuileries The Tuileries Garden (french: Jardin des Tuileries, ) is a public garden located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. Created by Catherine de' Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in ...
early one morning. The Taiwanese try to blackmail Cynthia into signing a recording contract with them. Although they do not yet possess Jules' recording of her performance, they claim they do and threaten to release it as a
pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
record if she does not cooperate; she indignantly refuses. Jules is spotted and chased by the two police officers, but he escapes by riding his moped through the
Paris Métro The Paris Métro (french: Métro de Paris ; short for Métropolitain ) is a rapid transit system in the Paris metropolitan area, France. A symbol of the city, it is known for its density within the capital's territorial limits, uniform architec ...
system. He takes refuge in the apartment of a prostitute he knows, but flees when he realizes she is part of Saporta's criminal network—he leaves just before ''L' Antillais'' and ''Le Curé'' arrive. The enforcers chase him on foot and Jules is shot and wounded, but Gorodish rescues Jules just before ''Le Curé'' can kill him. Gorodish and Alba drive Jules to a
safe house A safe house (also spelled safehouse) is, in a generic sense, a secret place for sanctuary or suitable to hide people from the law, hostile actors or actions, or from retribution, threats or perceived danger. It may also be a metaphor. Histori ...
outside Paris, a remote lighthouse, in Gorodish's antique Citroën Traction Avant. Gorodish plans an elaborate scheme. Now in possession of the recording that incriminates Saporta, Gorodish uses it to blackmail him. Commissaire Saporta pays off Gorodish, but places a
remote control In electronics, a remote control (also known as a remote or clicker) is an electronic device used to operate another device from a distance, usually wirelessly. In consumer electronics, a remote control can be used to operate devices such a ...
bomb under his car. The Taiwanese blackmailers are also pursuing Gorodish and immediately steal the tape and his car. Saporta sets off the explosion, inadvertently killing the two Taiwanese, but not Gorodish. Gorodish drives away in a second Traction Avant that he had hidden in advance. Later, Jules returns to Paris to give Cynthia his bootleg recording and lift the threat of blackmail from her. But he is abducted from outside her hotel by ''L'Antillais'' and ''Le Curé'' who were lying in wait for him; they take him to his loft apartment with the intention of killing him there. Police officer Paula, who has been keeping Jules' apartment under surveillance, saves him by killing ''Le Curé'' and wounding ''L'Antillais''. Saporta then appears, kills his surviving henchman, and attempts to kill Jules and Paula, intending to make it look like his dead henchman shot them. Once again Gorodish saves the day by turning out the lights and making Saporta fall down an elevator shaft in the dark. In the film's final scene, Jules plays his tape of Cynthia's performance for her and she expresses her nervousness over hearing it because she "never heard erselfsing."


Cast

*
Frédéric Andréi Frédéric Andréi (born 23 October 1959) is a French actor and director. In 1980 he starred in ''Le Voyage en douce'' under director Michel Deville. The next year he played the lead in Jean-Jacques Beineix's ''Diva Diva (; ) is the Latin w ...
as Jules *
Wilhelmenia Fernandez Wilhelmenia Fernandez, sometimes billed as Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, is an American soprano. She was born in Philadelphia in 1949. She appeared in the 1981 film ''Diva'' by French director Jean-Jacques Beineix.HEATON, MICHAEL.Soprano Wi ...
(billed as Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez) as Cynthia Hawkins *
Richard Bohringer Richard Bohringer (born 16 January 1942) is a French actor. Personal life Bohringer was born in Moulins, Allier, to a French mother and a German father. He is the father of actress Romane Bohringer, and has three other children, Mathieu, Richa ...
as Gorodish * Dominique Pinon as ''Le Curé'' ("The Priest") *
Gérard Darmon Gérard Darmon (born 29 February 1948) is a French- Moroccan actor and singer. Personal life He was the second husband of actress Mathilda May (mother of his two youngest children). He has three children: Virginie (born 1968) and, by May, daug ...
as ''L'Antillais'' * Thuy An Luu as Alba *
Jacques Fabbri Jacques Fabbri (4 July 1925 – 24 December 1997) was a French actor. He began his acting career in 1949, and acted in about 50 films. Selected filmography * ''Rendezvous in July'' (1949) - Bernard * ''The Girl from Maxim's'' (1950) - Le duc ...
as Jean Saporta * Anny Romand as Paula, Police officer * Patrick Floersheim as ''Zatopek'', Police officer * Chantal Deruaz as Nadia *
Roland Bertin Roland Bertin (born 16 November 1930) is a French stage and film actor. He has appeared in at least 100 films and television shows since 1970. Selected filmography * '' Le Petit théâtre de Jean Renoir'' (1970) (a.k.a. ''The Little Theatre of ...
as Weinstadt * Jean-Luc Porraz as Mermoz *
Laure Duthilleul Laure Duthilleul (born 14 January 1959) is a French actress, director and screenwriter. She has appeared in more than 70 films and television shows since 1981. She has appeared in five films that have been screened at the Cannes Film Festival. S ...
as Mermoz's friend *
Dominique Besnehard Dominique Besnehard (; born 5 February 1954) is a French actor, film producer, casting director, writer and talent manager. He has appeared in more than 80 films and television shows since 1975. He starred in the 1983 film ''À nos amours'', whi ...
as record store employee *
Isabelle Mergault Isabelle Mergault (born 11 May 1958) is a French actress, director, writer and television/radio personality. Personal life Isabelle Mergault was born in Aubervilliers, Seine-Saint-Denis near Paris Paris () is the capital and most populou ...
as game girl


Soundtrack

Highlights of the soundtrack include the aria ''Ebben? Ne andrò lontana'' from Alfredo Catalani's opera '' La Wally'', and a pastiche of Erik Satie's ''
Gymnopédies The ''Gymnopédies'' (), or ''Trois Gymnopédies'', are three piano compositions written by French composer and pianist Erik Satie. He completed the whole set by 2 April 1888, but they were at first published individually: the first and the thir ...
'' composed by
Vladimir Cosma Vladimir Cosma (born 13 April 1940) is a Romanian composer, conductor and violinist. He was born into a family of musicians. His father, Teodor Cosma, was a pianist and conductor, his mother a writer-composer, his uncle, Edgar Cosma, composer and ...
. Fernandez, an established singer, performed her own vocals.


Home video

The film was released on DVD on 29 May 2001 by Anchor Bay Entertainment. A
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
edition was released by
Kino Lorber Kino Lorber is an international film distribution company based in New York City. Founded in 1977, it was originally known as Kino International until it was acquired by and merged into Lorber HT Digital in 2009. It specializes in art house films, ...
on 11 August 2020.


Reception


Initial reaction

The film initially was not a commercial success after its March 1981 release in France, where it faced bad press and a hostile reception by critics. However, French audiences slowly grew after it was released in the United States and found success there. ''Diva'' played for a year in Paris theaters. David Denby, in ''New York'', upon its 1982 American release, wrote "One of the most audacious and original films to come out of France in recent years...''Diva'' must be the only pop movie inspired by a love of opera." Film critic Roger Ebert gave it four out of four stars and praised its cast of characters. He called Beineix "a director with an enormous gift for creating visual images" and elaborated on his filmmaking: Ebert also praised the film's
chase scene A car chase or vehicle pursuit is the vehicular overland chase of one party by another, involving at least one automobile or other wheeled motor vehicle in pursuit, commonly hot pursuit of suspects by law enforcement. The rise of the automotive i ...
through the Paris metro, writing that it "deserves ranking with the all-time classics, '' Raiders of the Lost Ark'', '' The French Connection'', and ''
Bullitt ''Bullitt'' is a 1968 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Philip D'Antoni. The picture stars Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Jacqueline Bisset. The screenplay by Alan R. Trustman and Harry Kleine ...
''."


Retrospect

Since its re-release in 2007, ''Diva'' has received acclaim from film critics; review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 96% based on reviews from 50 critics, with an
average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...
score of 8.13 out of 10. Lisa Schwarzbaum of ''Entertainment Weekly'' gave it an A rating and praised its "voluptuous romanticism". She wrote of the film's visual ties to cinéma du look, "the movie's mad excitement hinges entirely on the pleasure to be had in moving our eye from one gorgeously composed stage set of artifice to another."


Awards

* César Awards: ** Best Debut:
Jean-Jacques Beineix Jean-Jacques Beineix (; 8 October 1946 – 13 January 2022) was a French film director best known for the films ''Diva'' and ''Betty Blue''. His work is regarded as a prime example of the ''cinéma du look'' film movement in France. Early life ...
**
Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
:
Vladimir Cosma Vladimir Cosma (born 13 April 1940) is a Romanian composer, conductor and violinist. He was born into a family of musicians. His father, Teodor Cosma, was a pianist and conductor, his mother a writer-composer, his uncle, Edgar Cosma, composer and ...
**
Cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...
:
Philippe Rousselot Philippe Rousselot, (born 4 September 1945) is a French cinematographer and film director best known for his wide range of work in both European and mainstream American cinema, ranging in genres from drama, to fantasy, to blockbusters. He ha ...
**
Sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' b ...
: Jean-Pierre Ruh The film was entered into the
12th Moscow International Film Festival The 12th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 7 to 21 July 1981. The Golden Prizes were awarded to the Brazilian film '' O Homem que Virou Suco'' directed by João Batista de Andrade, the Vietnamese film '' The Abandoned Field: Free ...
and was selected as the French entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
at the
54th Academy Awards The 54th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1981 and took place on March 29, 1982, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m ...
, but was not accepted as a nominee.Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences


See also

*
List of submissions to the 54th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of submissions to the 54th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was created in 1956 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honour non-English-speaking films ...
*
List of French submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film France has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film since the conception of the award in 1956. France has been one of the most successful countries in the world in this category, and more than half of their Oscar ...
*
Postmodernist film Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...


References


External links

* * *
2008 review
by Roger Ebert {{DEFAULTSORT:Diva (Film) 1981 films 1981 directorial debut films 1980s English-language films 1980s French-language films 1981 multilingual films 1980s mystery thriller films 1980s psychological thriller films 1980s romantic thriller films Best First Feature Film César Award winners Films about opera Films about organized crime in France Films about singers Films based on crime novels Films based on Swiss novels Films directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix Films produced by Serge Silberman Films scored by Vladimir Cosma Films set in Paris Films shot in Normandy Films shot in Paris French multilingual films French mystery thriller films French psychological thriller films French romantic thriller films Media containing Gymnopedies 1980s French films