Diva is a film directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix of 1981. It is one the first French films to let go of the realist, harsh mood of 1970s French cinema and return to the gorgeous, colourful, melodic films. Jean-Jacques Beineix (born October 8, 1946) is a French film director. ... 1981 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The French Republic or France (French: République française or France) is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. ... Film may refer to: photographic film a motion picture in academics, the study of motion pictures as an art form a thin skin or membrane, or any covering or coating, whether transparent or opaque a thin layer of liquid, either on a solid or liquid surface or free-standing Film... Realism is commonly defined as a concern for fact or reality and rejection of the impractical and visionary. ... Events and trends Although in the United States and in many other Western societies the 1970s are often seen as a period of transition between the turbulent 1960s and the more conservative 1980s and 1990s, many of the trends that are associated widely with the Sixties, from the Sexual Revolution... France has been influential in the development of film as a mass medium and as an art form. ...

Story

Jules, a postman, has secretedly and illegally recorded a concert by Cynthia Hawkins, a diva to whom he dedicates a fetish (he also manages to steal a dress). He also happesn, unbeknowned to him, to be in possession of another recording of a young prositute exposing the whereabouts of a gang of proxenetes and their accompliced in the police. The prostitute drops the recording in the bag of the motorbike moments before she is assassinated.

Jules is then persued by several parties: policemen, corrupted policemen and proxenetes, who want the prositute recording, and Taiwanese gangsters who want the Diva recording. He manages to escape them thanks to a couple of his friends who save him Deus ex machna style.

Comments

The whole film is set in a bizarre atmosphere, flirting with absurb and surrealism. The photographs, dialogues and story are extremely carefully tough, and the film was accalemed by the critics. It is now a cult film. A cult film is a movie that attracts a small but devoted group of obsessive fans or one that has remained popular over successive years amongst a small group of followers. ...

Amongst the interesting elements of the soundrack are the aria Ebben? Ne andrò lontana of an obscure opera, La Wally, and a pastiche of Satie's Gnossienne composed by Vladimir Cosma. La Wally is an four-act opera by Alfredo Catalani, composed on a libretto by Luigi Illica, and first performed in Milan on the January 20, 1892. ... Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (born Honfleur, 17 May 1866 – 1 July 1925 in Paris) was a French composer, performing pianist and publicist. ...

Casting:

• Frédéric Andréi : Jules
• Wilhelmenia Fernandez : Cynthia Hawkins
• Roland Bertin : Weinstadt
• Richard Bohringer : Gorodish
• Gérard Darmon : L' Antillais
• Chantal Deruaz : Nadia
• Jacques Fabbri : Jean Saporta
• Patrick Floersheim : Zatopek
• Thuy An Luu : Alba

Awards

• César Award for Best First Film : Jean-Jacques Beineix
• César for best music : Vladimir Cosma
• César for best photograhy : Philppe Rousselot
• César for best soundrack : Jean-Pierre Ruh

The César Award is the national film award of France first given out in 1975. ... Jean-Jacques Beineix (born October 8, 1946) is a French film director. ...

External links

IMDB entry (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082269/)