Movie Type: Psychological Thriller, Romantic Mystery
Themes: Flight of the Innocent, Witnessing a Crime
Main Cast: Frederic Andréi, Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, Richard Bohringer, Thuy An Luu, Dominique Pinon
Release Year: 1981
Country: FR
Run Time: 123 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The diva of the title is a famous black opera singer (Wilhelmina Wiggins-Fernandez) who steadfastly refuses to be recorded. The singer is idolized by young French mail-carrier Jules (Frederic Andrei), who sneaks a tape recorder into the theater and records her performance. This is witnessed by a pair of Taiwanese criminals, who unlike Andrei wish to profit from the bootlegged recording. They begin to pursue the boy, as do a couple of home-grown hooligans who believe that Jules is in possession of some murder evidence. The serpentine plot leads to a warm friendship between Jules and the reclusive diva - and to a brilliantly photographed (by Philipe Rousselot) motorcycle chase through the subway tunnels of Paris. Diva marked the directorial debut of Jean-Jacques Beineix, whose obvious fondness for the more esoteric techniques of the Nouvelle Vague never impedes his willingness to simply entertain his audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
A stunning debut for director Jean-Jacques Beineix, Diva is a pulsating, eccentric slice of post-modernism. Shocking to many audiences, Diva blends violence, wit and punk style in a manner that later would be appropriated by Quentin Tarantino and other admirers of updated, jazzed-up film noir. The plot concerns a black Parisian soprano, some recording pirates who want to profit from her voice, corrupt policemen and a chief who runs a prostitution ring, and other seedy scenarios. More important than any of this is the frenzied, bold atmospherics, aided by an eclectic sound track. Cinematographer Philippe Rousselot's work earned him several critics' awards. Beneix failed to live up to the dazzling promise shown in Diva, a film whose attitude was widely imitated in the rest of the 1980s and the 1990s. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Jules, a young postman, is obsessed with Cynthia Hawkins, a beautiful and celebrated opera singer who has never consented to have her performances recorded. He attends her performance, secretly and illegally records it, and steals a gown from her dressing room.
Unknowingly, Jules also comes into possession of another important tape: the testimony of a prostitute, exposing Saporta, a high-ranking policeman, as the boss of various rackets. The prostitute drops the recording in the bag of the postman's moped moments before she is murdered.
In danger from Saporta's enforcers as well as from Taiwanese gangsters seeking the Hawkins tape, Jules seeks refuge with his new friends, the mysterious bohemian Serge Gorodish and his young muse Alba (the central figures of a series of novels, including the one upon which the screenplay was based). Gorodish acts as a deus ex machina to manipulate Jules's enemies into destroying each other. Meanwhile a romantic relationship between Jules and Cynthia develops, beautifully emphasised by the piano instrumental 'Promenade Sentimentale' of Vladimir Cosma as they walk around Paris early one morning.
Jules returns Hawkins' dress out of guilt after stealing it. Although she is initially angry, she then becomes amused and somewhat moved that she has such a fan. The two have breakfast together and Jules is given the privilege of hearing her practice her singing. Their relationship becomes somewhat strained however, when Hawkins hears that a perfect bootleg copy of her performance was made and sent to Taiwan, which insists that she either sign to make recordings of her performances or they will sell copies of the illegal tape. Jules believes that Gorodish and Alba sold the tape to the hitmen after him. He later learns that they still have the tape and that the call was a fake. At the end of the movie however, he plays the bootleg tape for Cynthia. She expresses slight nervousness over hearing it as she "never heard [herself] sing". Jules responds by holding her and the two dance together to the music.
