Too many fans seem to be blown away

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Looking round for articles online about the history of French cinema, (as you do!)I found out about a French film movement that appeared in the 80's called cinéma du look.Looking round for details about what titles were from the movement,I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had unintentionally picked up one of the movies from the movement recently, which led to me getting ready to take a look at du diva.The plot:With opera singer Cynthia Hawkins saying that she will never record an album,a super fan (and post office worker) called Jules decides to go to a concert and make a bootleg recording.After making the recording,Jules gets the chance to go backstage and meet Hawkins.Walking out from the backstage,Jules decides to steal Hawkins performance gown as a memento to the concert.Just before Jules starts up his moped to get away from the venue,a prostitute called Nadia slips a cassette into Jules rucksack containing a recording which reveals that the head of police is corrupt,just before two gangsters kill her.Driving off unaware of Nadia,Jules soon finds the law and the underworld to desperate to hear his secret recordings.View on the film:Rolling out as one of the first cinéma du look titles,co- writer/(along with Jean Van Hamme)director Jean-Jacques Beineix & cinematographer Philippe Rousselot glaze the film in exploding primary colours.Following Jules attempts to outrun the cops/gangsters with ultra-stylised tracking shots giving the title an on the streets urgency, Beineix and Rousselot unveil a lush pop- art world,where freshly squeezed red,yellows and blues give the film a chic comic- book atmosphere.Focusing on the surface in their adaptation of Daniel Odier's novel, (the first in a series of books) Beineix and Jean Van Hamme make sure to keep the glitter lit by taking Jules run-ins in deliciously quirky directions,from the two sun-glass wearing "amateur" hit men,to Hawkins being an "Artist" diva.Showing Jules to be a bit of a stalker,the writers stay away from darkness to whip up a light and fluffy connection between Jules and Hawkins,as Jules fandom brings out a sweet sensitivity in Hawkins.Performing the songs with her own incredible voice, Wilhelmenia Fernandez gives a terrific performance as Hawkins,whose strongly held perfectionist side is given a wicked playfulness,as Hawkins uncovers Jules fandom.Driving over a sea of pulp colours, Frédéric Andréi gives a very good performance as Jules,with Andréi giving Jules a deer in the headlights appearance over everyone being after his secret recording,as Jules meets his dream diva.

The first time I saw "Diva" I hated it so much I walked out with only 10 minutes to go because I didn't want to waste another minute of my life. I saw it again last night, years later, and for the life of me couldn't figure out why I had hated it so much."Diva" is a very stylish, very esoteric, very "French" film. So if any of those descriptions scare you, you might end up hating it. On the flip side, beware if you're a hardcore art film fan, because this movie is also a straightforward crime/action flick. So if the phrase "action flick" makes you cringe, you might end up hating it also. In other words, "Diva" straddles the worlds of Godard ("Contempt") and Michael Bay ("The Transformers"). And it has the potential to offend anyone who hates either extreme.The plot, based on the 1979 novel "Diva" by Daniel Odier, is about a young moped-riding hero who finds himself in possession of two different tapes, one wanted by criminal gangsters and the other wanted by equally vicious corporate suits. The kid himself is mostly clueless, but he is taken under the wing of a mysterious millionaire who gets involved... sort of a Bruce Wayne without the Bat outfit. The "Diva" in the title is an opera singer who is played and, even more impressively, *sung* by the amazing Wilhelmenia Fernandez who in real life is known for her haunting rendition of "La Wally" as sung in this film. She is the one whose voice ends up on a bootleg tape, which is wanted by the corporate suits, who are chasing our hero, who is also running from gangsters, who want a different tape he has.If the plot sounds tricky, perhaps comical, that's because it is. There are a lot of twists, turns, criss-crosses and surprises to keep you entertained. And while there aren't any outright punchlines and gags, there are some bits of humor and over-the-top characterizations that can only be interpreted as satirical. Example: the grumpy gangster played by the awesome Dominique Pinon whose only lines seem to be: "I hate cops", "I hate Beethoven", "I hate parking decks", and so forth (stick around til the end to find out evidently the 1 thing he likes).But the real reason to enjoy this film is its artistic, stylish presentation. Directed by Jean-Jacques Beneix, this is perhaps his best example of a film style he practically defined in the 80s, known as "cinéma du look". This style is characterized by non-naturalistic, self-conscious aesthetics, notably intense colors and lighting effects. For example, the millionaire's loft is drenched in vivid blues. The city chase scenes seem to have an eery, artificial red/pink hue. And the Diva's rooms are a high-contrast, Kubrickian white.Everyone in this movie is cool. Like too-cool-for-school cool. It glorifies classical music fans, gangsters, hipsters, rich folks, poor folks, Americans, Koreans, French, kleptomaniacs, prostitutes, good guys, bad guys, and everyone except that one poor slob who works at the carnival. Everyone is cool and in control.Add to that the creative camera shots, for example lots of reflections (in the bad guys' sunglasses, or in the hubcap of a car, etc), and there you definitely have "stylish".The music is artistic, but artistic in a very 80s sort of way (almost pop, a little bit cheezy at times but still cool). And of course Wilhelmenia's singing of the operatic piece from "La Wally" is gorgeous, and the film opens with a generous music-only scene where we can truly enjoy it.So, upon my 2nd viewing, I recommend this film. I think the only reason why I hated it at first was because I was comparing it to Beneix's 1986 masterpiece "Betty Blue" (37°2 le matin), which digs much deeper into poetry and character development, while sacrificing the intense plot that "Diva" has.I would compare "Diva" to the more plot-oriented films of Wim Wenders ("Faraway, So Close", "Until the End of the World", "End of Violence") and Ridley Scott of the 80s ("Black Rain", "Someone to Watch Over Me" ...incidentally Wilhelmenia Fernandez was also on the soundtrack of that one, singing "La Wally"). With "Diva"'s exaggerated colors and large sets, I might also compare it to the visual style--visuals only--of Jean-Pierre Jeunet ("City of Lost Children", "Amelie"), Tom Tykwer ("Winter Sleepers", "Run Lola Run") and the talented Japanese filmmaker Hideaki Anno ("Ritual"). There might even be a dash of Kieslowski ("The Double Life of Veronique", "Three Colors"). If you like any of the films or directors I've mentioned, you should give "Diva" a shot. And if you hate it the first time, be sure to try it again a few years later.

In the same way 'The Breakfast Club' defined a certain kind of 1980s American filmmaking, and 'Blow Up' defined 1960s hipness, 'Diva' defined a certain kind of 1980s European cinema. That doesn't mean it's great, just seminal. It marked a turning away from deep psychology, philosophy, politics or even plot, and marked an emphasis on style, energy, colors, etc. The movie is about being a cool movie, with cool sets, cool shots, a cool car chase, etc. The plot is just enough to hold it all together. All that said, it is great to look at, the chase is fun, and the film is fun too, in an empty calorie, music video sort of way. It's frustrating. If the acting was a little better (the leads range from pretty good to very awkward) and the story had a little more heart and brains, it could have kept it's grand style, and been a great film, not just an entertaining, great looking film.

I saw the first scene of this movie on a TV arts showcase which was going through some opera videos. I was totally intrigued; the opera was beautiful, the lighting and color consolidated the mood, and the main character, recording secretly with teary eyes, seemed like a creepy, artistically sensitive but also somewhat fanatic protagonist. I developed the delusion then that 'Diva' must be some sort of psychological, dramatic type of film, a little like Taxi Driver but not so insane, about yearning and obsession, the mystery about another human, admiration from a distance, and the...elite, or elect, or beautiful, or celebrity--the Diva--whatever you want to call it else. Instead, after the first few good minutes, which end after the main character steals the singer's dress, I was unpleasantly introduced to the actuality of this movie as a "thriller". And what a poorly written, shot, acted and edited thriller it is. It includes all sorts of bad TV show thriller clichés: multiple and switched tapes, chases, foreign mafia type of people (except this time they were having a hard on for a bootlegged cassette-- now this is interesting: the two "taiwanese" guys (apparently the ENTIRE world in this movie has a real hard on for Italian opera) WERE actually present during the first scene when the main character was recording...and yet, even though they are chasing people right and left, with sunglasses on, for the recording, they did not record it themselves!!--anyways, back to my list...) drug and prostitution dealers, inept and corrupt cops, an utter lack of understanding (or perhaps concern) of the function of a human body and how people die (or not) when stabbed, and magically and quickly faint when they are exposed to some sort of mist-spray, and REALLY REALLY REALLY awful deux ex machina. Of course, they had to cater to the majority of the critic population, so they jammed in other irrelevant "artistic" stuff. There is an "artistic" type who sits on a large bare floor while putting together a puzzle, and these slow mo shots of a wave machine keep repeatedly appearing with bad new age music in the background. Then there is a completely out of place (well, so is nearly everything else in here) and very long discussion on buttering a baguette. Everything is shot in blue to give yet another out-of-place melancholy noir feeling to a cheesy TV show plot. There are also tedious scenes involving metafiction on the medium of film with reel shapes rotating in various places. I've never liked this type of self-conscious self-reflexivity because I think art should do as a drug and kidnap its audience into its own world, not nag about its form or dress. Anyways. There is also this extremely annoying and stupid technique of panning or zooming at something peripheral during or at the end or a scene. The most stupid of these moments were when, after the main character had walked off screen, the camera takes several seconds to move towards a shot of an ordinary small pool of water. Another time, while bad guys are mishandling a character, the camera moves to a wallpainting of a little girl in a bus (??). For a movie which involves music a great deal the background music is awful. It is absent at certain moments where I think it could have benefited, but it is plenty and repetitious at certain moments when it is utterly superfluous and inappropriate. In fact, the whole recording is really botched, I'm not sure if it was lost in the transfer or what, but the ambiance and environmental sounds and totally lacking...it was as if they just recorded the dialog in an empty and bare studio. This kills any potential "thrill" considerably. Anyways, when the predictable ending played out (apparently elite sopranos are easily seduced by blank, fawning postmen) I had already lost all my reservoir for caring about the movie. Mediocre at best; in my opinion could have made a lot better of itself.