Tapes 'n Tapes

When the now-defunct United Artists Classics acquired the rights to Diva, Jean-Jacques Beineix's 1981debut feature, do you suppose they had any idea of the tremendous success it would become – that a New York audience would take to it the way their Parisian counterparts did – or was it just dumb luck? The film opened in New York in April 1982 (about a year after its French debut) at the Plaza Theater to mixed reviews. The Times' Canby was all but dismissive of it ("empty though frightfully chic-looking"), but Kael ate it up, calling Beineix "Carol Reed reborn with a Mohawk haircut." Regardless, the film was a smash hit, with almost every show selling out. I saw Diva for the first time in June of 82, waiting on line for over two hours with a bunch of other New Yorkers eager to see the film that was on everybody lips. Though I was only an impressionable high-school kid, I had seen a fair share of French films, but nothing at all like this. Sure, À bout de souffle was cool as fuck, but Diva was all about the here and now, and its mobylette-riding protagonist Jules became something of a role model for years to come. (I even bought a second-hand Malaguti. Yes, it's pathetic.) The film had a successful run in New York for over a year, and I must have seen it at least twenty times, dragging various friends (and girlfriends) whenever I could. Diva is once again back in New York for its twenty-fifth anniversary, in a new print (with vastly improved subtitles) courtesy of Rialto. I went to see it a few weeks ago – on the morning of my birthday in fact – and I'll admit that I approached it with trepidation. Would the film hold up after all these years, or would it feel horribly dated? Would Jules, Gorodish and Alba still seem as cool now that my own mobylette years have long passed? The answer is a resounding...yes. Based on one of Delacorta's Gorodish & Alba novels (which follow the adventures of a Zen-like French musician and his companion, a 14 year-old nymphet), Diva was the genesis of the Cinéma du look, that mini-movement in 80s French cinema that blended high-art with low, and favored the slick style of adverts and music videos, still in their infancy at the time. Though there's no denying that Diva is an incredibly stylized work, Beineix backs it up with enough substance to justify its gloss. A tale of two tapes, as it were, the film finds our postal worker hero Jules (Frédéric Andréi) caught up in the underworld of both international music piracy and human trafficking. Living in an old garage amidst trashed luxury automobiles and pop-art murals, Jules' one passion is opera, particularly the voice of Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Fernandez), who has refused to commit her voice to record. Smuggling his Nagra reel-to-reel into the opera house, he makes a pristine recording that is of great interest to a couple of Taiwanese music pirates in black suits and mirror shades. A random encounter with a cassette-carrying escaped prostitute sets off a chain of events that includes several murders by awl, a suspenseful chase scene through Paris' streets and Metro, and a lesson in buttering bread. What's most remarkable about watching Diva today is how much it is a product of its time. Today, Jules' bootleg tape would be available as a torrent within hours after the performance, and the prostitutes damning evidence would be a digital audio file attached to an email. There's something comforting in the limitations of the pre-Interweb all-analog world, where something physical, not virtual, is both the cause and solution to a series of problems. What hasn't faded at all after all these years is that, beneath its multiple layers of intrigue and super-cool exterior, Diva is a film steeped in dreamy idealized cinematic romance. Jules' all-night dalliance with the diva still stands as one of the most romantic sequences ever, and their rainy dawn promenade through Paris to the Satie-esque theme by Vladimir Cosma will melt all but the hardest of hearts. (Jules' hesitant hand as he reaches to touch her shoulder is pure magic.) At 17 I believed that Beineix's Paris – where a simple postman can have a platonic romance with an opera star, befriend a roller-skating thieving Vietnamese beauty, be chased by trench coat wearing assassins, and be rescued by a Gitanes-smoking, multiple Citroën Traction Avant owning cool guy – truly existed. Today I consider Diva to be a perfect bit of romantic escapist fantasy. Unlike many films from the 80s, Diva has only improved with age, and it's easy to see why the film had such long legs during its initial run. If you've never seen it, or haven't revisited it in years, don't miss this opportunity. Diva is currently playing at Film Forum in New York. Afterwards, it is rolling out to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland etc. See Rialto's site for complete details.

Comments

[G. Kenny]

Of course it's still cool. Gorodish and Alba will be forever cool, just like Blake and Mortimer, just like Caldicott and Charters, for heaven's sake. They're designed that way. And it will still take some doing for the forces of evil to transform Paris into a city wherein the romance of "Diva" couldn't take place. "Carol Reed reborn with a mohawk haircut." That's not bad. Better if it had been left "Carol Reed with a mohawk," but still... I'll have to look into the work of this Kael broad...

[Jared]

Saw this for the first time last summer at the HFA on a double bill with Subway, which I don't think held up as well. Too many movie stars, and too claustrophobic.

[lylee]

Thanks for a lovely tribute to a dream of a movie...

I saw "Diva" as part of a general French culture course my freshman year of college, and at the time thought it knocked the socks off "A bout de souffle" (which I also saw as part of the same course). I liked it so much I bought it on VHS, but I haven't seen it in years. I heard it was being rereleased for its 25th but thought it was only playing in New York. Now I can't wait to reexperience it when it hits Los Angeles...Thanks for the Rialto link!

[Michael Lieberman]

I love this film.

I first saw it on VHS, when my video store carried about twenty foreign titles and I was determined to see all of them.

About 6 or 7 years ago, I saw this in Toronto when I caught a Radiohead show. Back then, before the MPAA was as berserk as it is now, I took my 35mm SLR into theaters and snapped frames throughout the film. I forgot about how much my actions mimicked the character's. Also, I no longer take pictures in theaters -- I can barely pay off student loans let alone an MPAA fine.

[Elizabeth McKee]

no mention of the great bit part by the evil brother from A Nos Amours?

[Filmbrain]

Elizabeth --

I didn't even spot him -- who was he in Diva?

[Elizabeth McKee]

he is the record store cashier!!!

[Filmbrain]

Ah....nice catch, Elizabeth! I didn't notice him.

[Ugolin]

"What's most remarkable about watching Diva today is how much it is a product of its time."

Is this the "most remarkable" bit about the movie? Or is the line just another bit of Filmbrain's sloppy, wooden prose.

[Filmbrain]

Most likely the latter.

However, I don't believe I said it was the most remarkable thing about the film. Sloppy reading?

[Hotspur]

In case anyone was wondering what happened to Diva star Frederic Andrei, you'll be happy to hear he and his motorbike found gainful employment a year later in the TV movie "The Facts of Life Goes to Paris"! You can watch it in all its cross-cultural glory here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3DTyeNk5Hk

[Dan]

Hotspur: Truly, the Shame of the City.

I saw Diva sometime in the '80s on Cinemax, I think. Fell in love. Obsessed over it for a while. Have seen it a few times since and it holds up, sure -- although many times since my fifth or so viewing I questioned why I liked it so much -- all of its surface cool and visual style wrapped around one of my fave genres, a thriller? I surmise it's because the movie is not only wholly entertaining and quirky, it's also about music and passion (as subtexts, anyway, taking a backseat in the film to its own cool factor, however).

I did just read Pauline Kael's review of Diva a few days before seeing this post. It's in 'Taking It All In' which covers those early '80s. Not sure if all of her work is available online like that of famed French critic Roget E-bert.
Did Ben-ex ever make anything else as good as this or Betty Blue? Believe me, I've looked into it and hate to say, sadly, no.

Always wanted a wave machine of my own, too.

Care to post something about 'Qui-etes Vous, Polly Maggoo'? There's a dearth of writing about it, star Dorothy MacGowan and filmmaker William Klein.