Diva(1981)

This was outstanding. Opera could very much be a metaphor for film to me, and the great way that opera dominates the life of addict Jules here could easily apply to me in my approach to film, and ANY remarkable actress of today. For example, if I could travel back in time, I would easily have felt this way about Garbo, who is my favourite actress ever... Probably the best thing Luc Besson ever laid his hands on...

Reviewed on August 16, 2016

Despite the ridiculous premise, namely the idea of Taiwanese gangster trying to get a hold of a bootleg recording of an opera singer (to blackmail her to signing a contract with them), the movie is better than I thought it would be going in. There are a couple big downsides that keeps me from giving it a higher rating. One is that this opera singer (Cynthia) finds solace with a young postman (Jules) who is pretty…

Reviewed on December 5, 2020

**A very experimental film in terms of visuals and aesthetics, but one that disappoints us due to the poor conception of the characters and the lack of harmonization of the plot.** This film harmoniously brings together two arts that I greatly value: cinema, of course, and opera, which for me is the most complete, challenging and versatile stage art that exists. Although the film is not about opera and is far from…

Reviewed on March 14, 2024

That fact that I could listen to the “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana” aria from “La Wally” all day helps gets this off to a cracking start, and then we have a young fan in the form of moped postie “Jules” (Frédéric Andréi) - a lad with a distinctly Jean-Pierre Aumont look to him, who manages to make a sneaky recording. Why sneaky? Well that’s because the singer, “Cynthia Hawkins” (Wilhelmina Fernandez) hates recordings…

Reviewed on August 9, 2025