Diva

 Year of Release:  1981

Director:  Jean-Jacques Beineix

Screenplay:  Jean-Jacques Beineix and Jean Van Hamme, based on the novel Diva by Delacorta (Daniel Odier)

Starring:  Frédèric Andréi, Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, Richard Bohringer, Thuy Ann Lu

Running Time:  117 minutes

Genre:  Crime, thriller

Paris:  Young opera-mad postman Jules (Andréi) makes a secret tape of American soprano Cynthia Hawkins (Fernandez), who refuses to allow herself to be recorded, and steals one of her gowns. The next day Jules finds himself in accidental possession of another tape which implicates a senior police officer, Saporta (Jacques Fabbri), in an international human trafficking ring.  Soon Jules finds himself pursued by two mysterious men who want his tape of Cynthia, as well as the police, and a pair of ruthless hitmen in the employ of Saporta.

Based on a 1979 novel by prolific writer Daniel Odier under the pseudonym Delacorta, this film was a sizeable cult hit in the 1980s and became one of the key films in the French cinéma du look movement of the 1980s and 1990s which were noted by a slick, beautiful visual style and spectacle.  This is certainly a beautiful film to look at moving from sparse rooms bathed in icy blue light, to a gorgeously romantic Paris dawn, elegant hotel rooms to elaborately painted garages which seem almost to be decorated by artfully wrecked cars, the whole thing drips with early '80s cool.  The film's centrepiece, and it's undoubted highlight, is an incredible chase through the streets of Paris and through the city's Metro system, in an incredibly exciting sequence.  While the film's complex narrative doesn't always make sense, and it is overlong, it doesn't really matter.  Jean-Jacques Beineix directs with style and verve and has a real eye for quirky visual details and eccentric characters.  The performances are good with the wide eyed  Frédèric Andréi making an engaging lead and Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez effective as the titular diva, the rest of the characters are more like a collection of odd and quirky details.  Gérard Darmon and Dominique Pinon are creepy as the vicious hitmen.  It feels very much a product of it's time, but it still works well, and is some great entertainment.

Gêrard Darmon and Dominique Pinon in Diva