1001 movies to see before you die (added later). A well made and entertaining dramatic thriller with a soft French feel to its thrills. The villains were threatening, yet simple to me. I enjoyed the diva who was an opera singer who refused to be recorded, but ironically her best fan is the only one who does. I don't plan to see it again, but the streets of Paris and the chase scenes were fun. RUS.

In a film filled with symbolism and circular resonance, a young bike messenger (Frederic Andrei) worships an opera diva's music with near-sexual passion, even as he illegally records her concert. Director Jean-Jacques Beineix's consummately French use of symbols will delight any literature student: for example, the bundle of dirty money tossed disdainfully out the window lands next to a blind accordion player, whose music turns out to be what has been playing all along in the earphone of Priest, the punk assassin (Dominique Pinon). C'est bon! (This film is one of my Paris favorites.)

My all time favourite movie!!! Just makes me feel so happy and warm by the end. It really makes me feel wonderful after a bad day. Also fantastic performances from the whole cast, very beautiful cinematography and locations. The music is also simply outstanding (I even have my own vinyl copy. Would recommend this film to anyone who loves French New Wave and fun feel-good movies.

Beautifully photographed as well as having a well-paced, compelling story.

Like many of Beineix's films, Diva was initially poorly received by French critics before undergoing popular and critical revaluation that saw its profile rise substantially. It's an important film when considering its place in cinematic history, with an emphasis on aesthetic and visual design that would kickstart the movement known as cinéma du look. However, it's that same feature that makes the film kind of difficult to appreciate - there is such a focus on practical design that the story suffers as a result, coming across as fragmentary and stitched-together. The story is designed around a coincidence - a young Parisian postman that comes into possession of two recordings that are confused with one another; one is a unique bootleg of an American opera singer that famously refuses to have her voice recorded, while the other is an incriminating testimony against a dirty local cop. As a result, interested parties converge in their attempts to secure the tapes for themselves, often creating conflict out of misunderstandings. Sounds sort of Guy Ritchie-esque, right? But the plot just sort of rambles around, dedicating a subtantial amount of time to an unlikely romance between the postman (Andréi) and the opera singer (Fernandez) while also giving virtually no explanation behind Bohringer's Gorodish, who arguably serves to unite the subplots more than any other character and who develops a bizarre heist-flick plan to rectify the film's events. However, if you can stomach the narrative, Beineix gives you a visually original and influential shooting style to tide you over, most clearly evident in the extended scene of a chase through the Paris Metro on moped. The film is full of interesting lighting choices and color schemes, and would be cited as a direct inspiration on many French action films of the next decade or more. Unusual and with some high notes, but the story problems just don't settle in the stomach well. (3/5)

I watched this for the second time forty years after I watched it the first time. Diva is so much more than an example of 80s New Wave cinema. It's a complex thriller filled with interesting characters and humor. Richard Bohringer is terrific.

Justifiably praised by critics and fans alike, Diva overflows with style, charm, and a breathless sense of adventure. Visually arresting and immensely watchable, Jean-Jacques Beineix's feature film debut jolted new life into French Art House cinema.

On my top 10 of all time...not to be missed!

I didn't think I cared for Opera much, but the music grabbed from the outset and pervades the film. for its time it was very avante-garde and can still hold its head high today.

A stylish, influential French cinema gem skillfully helmed by Jean-Jacques Beineix with an absorbing plot, if not entirely coherent, that also knows how to build tension and a ravishing cinematography.

I liked it. Except suspending disbelief is really hard. A recording made on his lap from the audience in the Opera House sounds studio quality. Really? Maybe this was plausible in 1981, but today, when we've all tried to record on our smart phones from the audience we know how impossible it is. That said, OK, I liked it. Well, one more thing. The guy (Dominique Pinon) who can kill with one dart, one throw. But, during a car chase through Paris he can't manage to shoot the guy he's chasing despite the fact his victim is on a scooter and he is leaning out the passenger side? He does eventually shoot the kid in the arm, but... But, OK, I liked this film.

At some point the subtitles were updated to be more politically correct. Originally a character was referred to as the Spic, later he became the Caribbean. I liked the old version better.

This was what Hitchcock meant when he developed visual storytelling. This was what Truffaut and his French colleagues were trying out in the French new wave. Diva is exciting, effortlessly cool, and astonishingly cinematic.

Mesmerizing film with unique scenes, great acting, and captivating sounds

Considered to be the first film in the Cinema Du Look movement, Diva sounded like a wonderful step forward in cinematic history. Diva is a film notorious of its time. It represented a massive change of pace from the realist French cinema established by directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and dispensed with the concept of narrative so that it could focus predominantly on style, the "look" that comes with cinema du look. And in Diva, the urban scenery is a very nice touch because it captures France in a very realistic manner without being overly glossy. It first becomes notorious when viewers are taken into an opera house and they see a dilapidated room filled with damage and age. Yet conversely it is enhanced by Jean Jacques-Beneix's manipulation of colour. Notorious for being a visual experience, Diva boasts the sight of a man riding a motorcycle through the Paris Metro which is certainly not something one would frequently see on film. The distinctive gimmicks of Diva are clear, they come from the imagery. But it is not always about what is being depicted, rather how it is captured. A quintessential asset of cinema du look films, Diva plays with different colours in many scenes. Blue lighting is used to set a calming mood, shadow is manipulated during the more intense scenes and much more. This adds an atmospheric edge to the scenery, clearly establishing everything that cinema du look stands for. And the way that the visuals of Diva blend with everything else happens so smoothly. The oscillation between youth-oriented depictions of petty crime, messy rooms and product placement and opera music sets an interesting atmosphere for Diva which keeps it effectively stylish during times. The soundtrack to Diva makes strong use of classical music which just gently fades its way into the story so that it comes off as feeling so natural. In essence, Diva is surely an experience for the eyes and the ears. However, Diva is a pinnacle of cinema du look films both for better and for worse. As much as I admire the style of the film and can lose myself in the atmosphere, there is no denying that the lack of story in Diva takes its toll. There are interesting characters and implications, but there generally needs to be more than just that as a means of sustaining a film and Diva fails to live up to this standard much of the time. The story stretches on for a long time with a very slow pace and a lack of genuine development that the viewer is able to zone in and out of the story in without it having really gone anywhere. There will just be different characters who will soon be played off as arbitrary just as the characters before them have. The film is not important for its story, but in the modern day it where the style of film in Diva is no longer groundbreaking it is easier to take note to its narrative faults. It still has its worth and comes with a sense of nostalgic value, but it is not precisely the same intellectually stimulating film that it was once upon a time. Diva ends up being predominantly a collection of stylishly captured scenes strung together by a plot so loose that the structure ends up feeling more like an anthology of experimental short films. It has its value for that, but the same cannot be said about the story. But to quote Jason Bateman in one of his most iconic moments on Arrested Development "I don't know what I expected". The characters in Diva are a collection of odd figures who fall into different groups for the sake of the narrative, and as a result the actual in-depth exploration of them is rather meandering. Nevertheless, the cast have their charms which cannot be ignored. Frederic Andrei makes an appealing lead as Jules. The young actor has a naturally energetic spirit and charm about him, yet he is very subtle in how he uses it. As a result, he restrains himself to elevate a level of sophistication into the character, ensuring that he doesn't overdue it. This makes Jules a realistic depiction of contemporary youth as it combines a free-spirited nature with a real adult attitude. Frederic Andrei captures the part with ease, and he the natural manner in which the intense mood flows through him proves that he is capable of tying himself into the atmosphere. Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez makes an interesting impact. She isn't precisely given much depth in terms of character, but its rather the mysterious nature of her which is so intriguing. Cynthia Hawkins represents an image of divine beauty, and Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez boosts her up onto this pefestal with a natural attraction and a hypnotic opera voice. As a result, she is a beautiful presence anytime she is seen or heard in the film which is so captivating that it puts the perspective of audiences into the eyes of Jules. She is a captivating addition to the cast and makes due with very passionate talent. The presence of Dominque Pinon is also welcome, particularly for any viewer who appreciates his later role in Delicatessen. In a nice contrast, he plays an antagonistic role this time around and doesn't have to say much to be convincing. In actuality, the antagonism can all be seen in his face even though it is covered in sunglasses much of the time. This just goes to show how easily he can be villainous, and the simplicity of it all is respectable. So Diva is a definitive cinema du look film for both its lack of narrative and innovative sense of style. It may not stand against the battle of age precisely as much any more, but Jean-Jacques Beneix's eye for strong imagery and clever combination of different class themes maintains creative nostalgic value at the least.

Diva is a wonderful thriller about two Parisian mob killers. This is a very stylish, suspenseful movie full with many many twists and turns. Some people say that "Diva" has better visuals than an actual story, but I still think that the director finds a great balance between artistic and tonal strength.

Jules (Fréderic Andréi) doesn't need any of the assorted divas that the world bows down to. The other lonely young men of the Earth's population have Donna Summer, Diana Ross, Cher. He could laugh at their mainstream appeal, their obsession with dancing/voguing the night away at the nearest discothèque. But he's much too shy (and straight) for that nonsense. Instead of waiting for a Madonna of some kind to help him shimmy down the dance floor for the rest of his young life, he opts for Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez), an opera star renowned for her glamour and exquisite singing voice. Cynthia is a diva, no doubt, but she is Jules' diva. As she hates the idea of the business side of music, she has never recorded a performance or, heaven forbid, an LP. So one only has the option to see her live. The few that know of her don't just listen, watch; they change as a human. They leave a concert with a completely new, romanticized outlook on life. At least that's how Jules regards her. A massive poster of Cynthia's stunning face rests next to his bed, acting as guidance; when she holds a recital near his home, he not only steals one of her dresses -- he also captures her performance on a professional quality audio recorder. These acts are not out of malice but of desperation. He lives the life of a lonely postman, having little to cling onto besides his beloved diva. As the film opens, nothing is at stake. Cut just a few minutes into "Diva", though, and you'll find Jules going from nobody to human target in a dramatic flash and bang. Attending the very same concert are two Taiwanese gangsters, who takes notice of Jules' cunning. He becomes a danger to himself, as they would do anything to get their paws on the priceless recording. But things don't end there. The following day, when performing his usual mail route, a prostitute (Chantal Deruaz), killed moments later, drops a cassette in his moped's carrier pouch. That cassette, as it so happens, bears a story that could spell the death sentence for an important law enforcement figure. Also complicating Jules' situation are a flirtatious Vietnamese gigi (Thuy An Luu) and her mysterious lover (Richard Bohringer), who have decidedly unclear motives. On its surface, "Diva" appears to be a De Palma meets Godard visual orgy, but after you cut through its many layers of innovative, celebratory, stylistic cues, you'll find yourself infatuated with its quasi-convoluted (yet simple) story of intrigue. Here is a film deserving of applause for its near-perfect courtship of style and story. "Diva" is an obvious cinematic enchilada of all your favorite thriller delicacies, but it is also so much more than that. Though it was the directorial debut for the now cinema du look defining Jean-Jacques Beineix, it is so assured in its every decision that we feel as though our lives are being manipulated by something akin to a roller coaster, safety controlled but also head-spinningly unpredictable. Beinix likes to toy with us, and for once, obeying the puppet master proves advantageous. Look at the climactic, wildly implausible moped vs. police car chase, for instance. It takes detours down stairs, through narrow alleyways, and into the subway. It's all fantasy pulp, but Beineix's extravagant fondling of the camera makes it all seem possible. That's a sign of a good film, making sheer artificiality seem real. He is a visual poet of the highest common denominator. His images speak louder than words. The opening, focusing on the concert, flips back and forth between the complexions of Jules, through medium shots, Cynthia, through awestruck, close/far angles, and the gangsters. We know that Jules will be the hero, Cynthia the lovely female lead, because cinematographer Philippe Rousselot handles their faces, their bodies, with transfixed appreciation. The criminals, by contrast, are only judged by their sunglasses, which the camera sees as a defining feature. The scene contains no dialogue, unless you count Fernandez's soul stirring voice. But it develops the characters, slyly and imaginatively. And other characters, such as the childish Vietnamese girl and her boyfriend (or lover/father figure/spiritual leader?), live in a loft defined by its blue saturation and sparse furniture. The way their motives remain foggy throughout the movie, how they retreat in the apartment as though it were a rich pop artist's oasis away from the European world, makes them seem otherworldly, completely invincible, ageless. Though "Diva" is extremely stylish, it contains a staggering amount of evocative performances. Andréi possesses a youthful quality that makes him indefinable and difficult to dislike; Fernandez, in her only film role, lives up to the title of the diva and acts as an impossibly knowing, appealing obsession. Luu is agreeably strange and pixieish, while Bohringer stays simultaneously trustworthy and untrustworthy -- he is stupendously enigmatic. Some have said that "Diva" has better visuals than it does actual story, but such an assumption undermines Beineix's mastery. He finds a deft balance between artistic and tonal strength, through his visual ticks and plot implausibilities. It is a wild ride, a thriller ready to delight through its giddy unconformity.

A very unusual thriller about an art fanatic who illegally records his favorite Opera Singer and the bizarre consequences that followed. Shot beautifully & masterfully but very confusing plot that had a little too many twists & turns. I found I didn't overly like the film but I didn't hate it either. Very chic, very French but ultimately a little too unusual.

Diva is slick and stylish, often dismissed as being superficial, but it provides a rich interaction with aesthetics and popular culture. It also delves into the nature of art and commerce and the balance of the two. All done gorgeously with georgously cinematography and blank detached stares, just like modern day culture.

This is a classic film that had eluded me for years, I am really glad I got to watch. The French really know how to make a crime film, and this is another great example. Excellent story, lots of twists, strong acting and very stylish. I knew nothing of the story, and it was better that way. Highly recommended!