A COMEDY. A THRILLER. A ROMANCE.
How frustrating it must be as an assistant director to go to work every day and know that you could create just as good a picture as the man who’ll get all the credit. I imagine that this is how Jean-Jacques Beineix felt at times during the 1970s. I should add that some of the filmmakers he served were not too shabby to say the least… but it is also fair to say that they probably didn’t expect him to launch a new cinematic movement.
Making a bootleg tape
The story begins with Jules (Frederic Andrei), a postman, attending a performance by the renowned opera singer Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez) who has never allowed her singing to be recorded. Jules, who wants to be able to enjoy her voice in privacy, makes a bootleg tape and also steals a gown from her dressing room. Shortly thereafter, another tape lands in Jules’s possession without his knowledge; a prostitute hides it in his bag moments before she’s murdered by two men posing as cops. The tape contains her testimony linking a high-ranking police official to organized crime.
Jules realizes that he’s being followed and hooks up with two new acquaintances, bohemian Serge Gorodish (Richard Bohringer) and his muse, Alba (Thuy An Luu). His life is in danger, but he also strikes up a relationship with Cynthia , even returning her gown. She has no idea however that he’s caught her voice on tape illegally…
Inspiring Luc Besson
The cinematic movement I was referring to is “cinema du look”; Diva eventually became a hit (after first being ignored by French critics), but Luc Besson in particular became the most famous of the directors of this style. Unlike films of the 1970s, “cinema du look” movies focused on alienated youths who regarded the police as enemies; bright colors (in clothes and surroundings) and a mixture of pop and high-art cultures dominated the style. For instance, viewers are rewarded with the spectacular talent of Wiggins Fernandez’s voice (she’s a real opera singer) as well as a now-classic moped chase in the Paris subway, energetically photographed by Philippe Rousselot who effectively creates a feeling that the action is faster than it must have been in real life.
The film balances between different sentiments; it is a thriller (the high-ranking cop exposed on the damaging tape is eager to get his hands on it), but it is also an intriguing look at people who prefer to stay out of the mainstream (Serge and Alba) as well as a romantic story about a die-hard fan who gets a chance to spend time with his idol. Beineix and Rousselot stage very beautiful scenes with them, not least the final one where Cynthia, incredibly, hears her own voice on tape for the first time. Along with his two editors and his cinematographer, Beineix also creates energy and inventive compositions that keep one interested throughout.
The act of listening is dangerous in this film; there’s a tape that could get Jules killed and another that contains the voice of a singer who could never imagine listening to it. All we know is that those tapes are guaranteed to land us in an intensely-colored adventure featuring characters that seem to live in an alternative France. Hardly a life-changing experience, but enough to thrill you for two hours.
Diva 1981-France. 118 min. Color. Produced by Serge Silberman, Irène Silberman. Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix. Screenplay: Jean-Jacques Beineix, Jean Van Hamme. Novel: Daniel Odier. Cinematography: Philippe Rousselot. Editing: Monique Prim, Marie-Josephe Yoyotte. Cast: Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez (Cynthia Hawkins), Frederic Andrei (Jules), Richard Bohringer (Serge Gorodish), Thuy An Luu (Alba), Jacques Fabbri.
Last word: “Our world was changing at that time. It started to move faster, due to mass travel, commodities, and means of communication, which were, by the way, very, very archaic compared with what we have nowadays. Nevertheless, in ‘Diva’, the story dealt with that, which is artist, fans, artistic integrity regarding the production, endless reproduction, piracy, and technologies. In fact, there’s a phrase in the film which triggered a lot of problems with the producers, who wanted me to cut the line, which goes ‘It is up to industry to adapt to art, and not art to adapt to industry.’ It was naïve, maybe, but I still stick to that.” (Beineix, The Hollywood Interview)
