Rating: 
Summary: French Crime/Chase, Very Stylishly Done
Review: Jules (Frederic Andrei) is a young special delivery messenger in Paris who loves opera and worships the singer Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhemenia Wiggins Fernandez). She's famous for never making recordings. Jules secretly tapes her, and the action starts. Two Taiwan hoods learned of his plans and are determined to steal the tape so they can make bootleg copies. At the same time, a prostitute lets the police know that she made a tape implicating the chief of police in some very nasty crimes involving prostitution and drugs. The tapes get mixed up, and the Taiwan hoods and two ruthless killers working for the police chief go after Jules. He meets and is helped by a young Viet Namese girl and her protector, played by the first-rate French actor Richard Bohringer. Things sort themselves out but only after two hours of stylish, exciting film making, the development of interesting characters you start to care about, especially Jules, and a first-rate chase involving Jules on his moped in and out of the Paris Metro.
The opera recording Jules made is of Hawkins singing an aria from La Wally. The actress playing the role, Wilhemenia Wiggins Fernandez, is an opera singer (and a good actress). She probably had a lot of movie goers running to record shops trying to get her stuff. It's a beautiful, haunting piece of work and is heard several times.
I think Diva is an excellent, high-class mystery/chase movie that holds up very well. Watching it again reminded me of how much I liked it the first time I saw it. The DVD transfer isn't bad; just make sure you get the version put out by Studio Canal/Anchor Bay.
Rating: 
Summary: Siskell and Ebert led me to this jewel!
Review: Living in a remote corner of the country prevents me from seeing many "art" or foreign films. One of the few that I have seen is 1982's "Diva", recommended at the time by the aforementioned critics. This is one time that I am glad to have tuned to their show for this film is an intensely entertaining thriller. Not only do the thrills never subside, the developing relationship between the lady-in-question and the young delivery boy is wonderfully presented. And the operatic performances by star Wilhelminia Wiggins-Fernandez are breathtaking, sending the proverbial chills up one's spine. One doesn't have to "parlez francais" to get into this remarkable French film.
Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: Most films are produced by professional production houses and have elements of the formulaic. They are action thrillers, romances, horrors or mysteries. Production companies will use teams of writers a bank of directors and hire actors who have some star quality. Some films from production houses are good, most are mediocre and some are bombs. However most tend to be reasonably simple in construction and use the same tools of audience manipulation. Diva is a film that is different from the main stream. It is in reality simply a mystery thriller with a well-written comic plot. From that point of view it can not be said to be an intellectual film it is very much a main stream production. However whilst not an intellectual film it is a intelligent film. The plot is multi dimensional. A courier secretly tapes the performance of a reclusive opera star. The opera star has never allowed her work to be copied so that the tape is immensely valuable. At the same time a dying woman puts into the couriers bag a tape which holds the clue to a major corruption scandal. The film is about the pursuit of the courier by two lots of villains, one chasing the recording the others chasing the tape. Introduced into the mix is the character of a detective figure who is unlike the conventional action hero as one can be. A character who is obsessed with a Zen like philosophy, who lives in a huge bar apartment and does incredibly complex jigsaw puzzles and who makes strange speeches on the art of buttering the baguette. Rather than the film being powered by a simple plot each scene is carefully crafted both to develop the narrative of the film and also to illustrate the feel of the film and to define the characters. The opening scene is a glorious aria from the rather obscure opera La Wally. The aria is one of subtle beauty and gravity and it is sung by the Diva of the title who is a woman of incredible attractiveness. The key of course is that the film is entertaining and keeps one interested, as it does not use the normal formulas and resolutions of conventional mysteries. It is rather an entry into a slightly strange surreal world. Although France makes its share of dud films, films like this give it the reputation of a country which makes films which are more enjoyable than those released by the mainstream.
Rating:
Summary: Beats FoxLorber, but only a so-so print. Why?
Review: Much better sound than the (awful) Fox Lorber version, much better DVD recording quality, and widescreen, too. HOWEVER, the Fox Lorber guys started with a much better print (they just messed it up); this version (Anchor Bay) used a grainy and somewhat faded print. A shame for a movie that relies so much on the visuals. When, oh when can we have a competent DVD recording struck from a high-quality print?
Five stars for the movie per se, three for the technical execution of this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Film, Imperfect Print
Review: The film gets five stars, the print-to-DVD four. DVD's are supposed to make classic films such as this cleaner, remember? At any rate, this film is timeless in its own style, and the storyline and direction of the characters and plot exceeds brilliantly. There is a majestic mystery element to this film, and mixed with some delectable snippets of music and a motorcycle chase through the Paris underground, the film moves forward sufficiently enough. Ultimately this is an 'art film'- and it excels in that category thanks to the effective acting and surreal undertones. Certainly a film such as this deserves the best possible print, and Anchor Bay, while rightly lauded for releasing 'Diva' on DVD, has not released a DVD of the highest quality. I RatMouse can attest to such flaws, as I see everthing in the finest minute detail (I have a digital television). But the print really is not terribly bad- don't be turned away. This film just deserves the best.
Rating:
Summary: Who stole the Diva's thunder?
Review: The release of this particular title on DVD was inevitable, and I for one am thankful they did it sooner rather than later. Not only is it a classic foreign film, but a classic French exercise in cine noir that I doubt will ever age very much. I've never read the novel, and even though there's a bit of graininess on the digital transfer, "DIVA" has never sounded better; this is a film that's meant for surround sound. The subtitles on my edition aren't exactly what they should be, but they'll suffice. There's enough artiness for the intelligentia, enough action for the restless, and enough style for the purists--but the editing is flawless, and it's one of the few films these days I can still stand to watch from beginning to end without having to flip through anything. Credit Beneix for a quality soundtrack, naturally. He took a big swan dive into obscurity with "Le Matin", but this remains his major contribution to the world of cinema, and had New Line revamped it with a A-list actor and a $200 million dollar budget, they'd still get it wrong. A keeper.
Rating:
Summary: One of the great films of the 80s
Review: The splicing of high and pop culture was, for the 80s, nowhere better realized than in this film, Beneix's debut as a director. The intermix of characters is both miraculous and clever--Taiwanese music pirates, thugs, crooked cops, a recording-shy opera singer, the opera-loving mailman who adores her, a Vietnamese gamine, an oddball loner guy in his 40s: all these combine to make Diva a unique visual and aural pleasure of the highest degree. Yes, there's the famous motorcycle chase scene in the subway. Yes, there's Wiggins' singing, which is truly sublime. And yes, there's Richard Bohringer, the aforementioned oddball wearing a diver's mask as he waxes poetic on the making of toast. How can you go wrong? And there's the equally famous tape mixup--one pirated by our (anti)hero, Jules, the mailman at a Wiggins concert, and the other providing evidence to destroy an international prostitution-drug ring. The interplay of these elements is so deftly handled all you can do is sit back amazed... Beneix really knew what he was doing. The film is, if possible, even stronger today than when it was first released. A great addition to anyone's DVD library. I love it!
Rating:
Summary: One of the ten top cult movies of the eighties!
Review: This film is simply perfect . The script works out as real watch mechanism . You do not a find just a single hole in its dramatic structure .
The overlapping of both situations linked for that twist of fate will allow to follow a plot loaded with tension and interest .
The office boy is so engaged with the charm of this diva , that will allow him to surpass his own possibilities and trascend suddenly .
The minimalist oriental female , the dark side of those misfits make of that film literally unique in its style . Beineix made his great contribution to the universal cinema that demonstrates us once more the no ending premise about art and entertainment. He made a glorious work without restrictions in its artistic proposal.
Brilliant and unforgettable film.
Rating:
Summary: Very Diverse French Cult movie
Review: This movie was recommended to my by the NY Times 1000 best movies of all time and it's certainly not bad.
The story is a little complicated to tell since there are two plots that are intertwined, leading to misunderstandings that are sometimes funny, sometimes a little shameful.
Acting is of course superb and very laidback, except for the Diva herself, who is American.
The two henchmen of the mob however are portrayed dumb and have some characteristics that could also belong the Three Stooges. One of them hates everything and will always say so. This to me brings the movie down a bit.
The music is diverse too. Some of the classical and of course the opera stuff is really good. Unfortunately it was made in 1982 so it also included really bad synthesizer music that never really stood to the test of time.
See it nonetheless, it's a great classic.
Rating:
Summary: See this film three times
Review: This quirky/action/artsy/violence/romance/chase film features a young moped-riding French mailman whose addiction for opera gets him into loads of trouble. In the first ten minutes of the movie, he sneaks high-fidelity recording equipment into a performance by an American opera diva who refuses to allow the commercial music industry record her voice. His innocent (but naive) motive is simply to enjoy the music for himself, but some sinister bad guys saw him make the tape and they are willing to kill him for it! In addition to this storyline, the movie contains numerous interesting subplots. In fact, you will find yourself concentrating so hard on the French subtitles on your first time through that you will (enthusiastically) watch this movie a second time just to make sense of it all. Finally, you might find yourself watching this movie a third time just to revisit the stunning cinematography.
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