I've been intrigued by this movie ever since I saw a still from it in one of my father's film magazines from 1982; little did I know that the menacing, short-cropped-haired man with dark shades in that photo was Dominique Pinon who would later become associated with Jean-Pierre Jeunet's films. As it turned out, Pinon seems also to have had an almost as healthy working relationship with another French maverick film-maker, Jean-Jacques Beineix. Pinon's grumpy, taciturn, no-nonsense characterization of a hit-man named "Priest" is just one of the considerable pleasures gleaned from this entrancing film.
Anyway, I was happy to confirm that Beineix's famed feature-length directorial debut is every bit as good as its reputation would suggest. I'm no fan of opera, but the repeated lyrical song in the film (and the formidable rendition of it by real-life opera singer Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez) becomes its emotional core. It must be said that DIVA does move at a deliberate pace and the complex plot-line (which at times involves six different people chasing our hero!) needs the viewer's full attention but the film is nevertheless an exciting, funny, romantic and at times magical experience, conducted with a disarming touch of irony and flawless flair by Beineix; apart from featuring a couple of breathtaking chase sequences and a plethora of other thrills, it manages to perfectly capture the drudgery of the life of an obsessive fan who, at first, is content simply to live in the shadow of his "diva", compulsively listening to his pirated recording of a live performance he had attended but, as the film progresses, gets increasingly enmeshed not only in the private life of his idol but also in the sleazy Parisian underworld of drug-dealing, prostitution, hit men and police corruption. As I said before, DIVA delivers not only in the action stakes - including the murder of a barefooted key witness that must surely be a nod to Cloris Leachman's turn in Robert Aldrich's KISS ME DEADLY (1955) - but also deliberates on the perennial battle between the integrity of an artist and the commercial exploitation of art and the illusory star/fan relationship to which us avid film-goers are certainly no strangers.
Anyway, I was happy to confirm that Beineix's famed feature-length directorial debut is every bit as good as its reputation would suggest. I'm no fan of opera, but the repeated lyrical song in the film (and the formidable rendition of it by real-life opera singer Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez) becomes its emotional core. It must be said that DIVA does move at a deliberate pace and the complex plot-line (which at times involves six different people chasing our hero!) needs the viewer's full attention but the film is nevertheless an exciting, funny, romantic and at times magical experience, conducted with a disarming touch of irony and flawless flair by Beineix; apart from featuring a couple of breathtaking chase sequences and a plethora of other thrills, it manages to perfectly capture the drudgery of the life of an obsessive fan who, at first, is content simply to live in the shadow of his "diva", compulsively listening to his pirated recording of a live performance he had attended but, as the film progresses, gets increasingly enmeshed not only in the private life of his idol but also in the sleazy Parisian underworld of drug-dealing, prostitution, hit men and police corruption. As I said before, DIVA delivers not only in the action stakes - including the murder of a barefooted key witness that must surely be a nod to Cloris Leachman's turn in Robert Aldrich's KISS ME DEADLY (1955) - but also deliberates on the perennial battle between the integrity of an artist and the commercial exploitation of art and the illusory star/fan relationship to which us avid film-goers are certainly no strangers.