Diva (1981)
92%RT Audience Score: 86%
Awards & Nominations: NA
Beineix combines unique cinematography, an intelligent script, and a brilliant soundtrack to make Diva a stylishly memorable film.
Diva is a movie that’s so stylish, it’s practically a fashion show. It’s got everything from high art to modern morality, and it’s all mixed up with a touch of Zen. The film is a debate on the legality and morality of capturing the artistic moment in a bottle, but it’s also a comedy thriller that’s sure to delight fans. And let’s not forget the beauty and power of the human voice, which is on full display here. Diva is a fan’s fantasy-come-true, and it’s a movie that’s sure to leave you spellbound.
Production Company(ies)
Horizon Pictures,
Distributor
NA
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Lighthouse, Gatteville-le-Phare, Manche, France
MPAA / Certificate
R
Year of Release
1982
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Mono
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Aspect ratio:1.66 : 1
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Runtime:NA
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Language(s):French, English, Italian, Latin
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Streaming): Jun 3, 2008
Genre(s)
Mystery & Thriller
Keyword(s)
starring Frederic Andrei, Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, Richard Bohringer, Thuy An Luu, Jacques Fabbri, Chantal Deruaz, directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix, written by Jean-Jacques Beineix, Philippe Djian, genre: Mystery & Thriller, box office performance: $60.5K, reviewed by Melissa Anderson, Bruce McCabe, David Fear, Hank Sartin, Lisa Schwarzbaum, Sid Smith, Judy Stone, Matt Brunson, David Lamble, Michael Lasky, Judy Wynn, Veronica Geng, produced by Claudie Ossard, MPAA rating: R, cinematography, soundtrack, mail carrier, American diva, recording, police chief, mob, gangsters, suspense, thriller, stylish, brilliant
Worldwide gross: $146,738
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $463,943
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,755
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 50,594
US/Canada gross: $146,738
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $463,943
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,345
US/Canada opening weekend: $5,672
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $17,933
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,552
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez – Cynthia Hawkins
Richard Bohringer – Gorodish
Thuy An Luu – Alba
Jacques Fabbri – Commissaire Jean Saporta
Chantal Deruaz – Nadia
Director(s)
Jean-Jacques Beineix
Writer(s)
NA
Producer(s)
NA
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
NA
Academy Awards
All Critics (54) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (52) | Rotten (2)
Beineixs film delights, if not overwhelms, the eye. (And in its obsession with the beauty and power of the human voice, Diva might also be thought of as an illustration of the cinéma du listen). Its bewitchery hasnt dimmed more than forty years later.
April 29, 2022
Melissa Anderson
4Columns
TOP CRITIC
Diva is a cinematic textbook on style. It comments on so many facets of the daily contemporary culture — and of film — that it seems to be an inspired shorthand.
April 27, 2018
Bruce McCabe
Boston Globe
TOP CRITIC
November 18, 2011 | Rating: 3/5
David Fear
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
November 17, 2011 | Rating: 3/5
Hank Sartin
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
September 7, 2011 | Rating: A
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly
TOP CRITIC
The movie’s a maelstrom of possibilities touching ethnic relations, high art, fashion and modern morality, not to mention cinema.
October 18, 2008 | Rating: 3.5/4
Sid Smith
Chicago Tribune
TOP CRITIC
In his first feature-length film, director Jean-Jacques Beineix shows a fanciful, tongue-in-cheek talent for spoofing old mysteries, creating incongruously beautiful photographic images and mixing it all up with a touch of Zen. Delightfully original.
November 11, 2021 | Rating: 4/4
Judy Stone
San Francisco Examiner
An art-house flick that should appeal even to people who don’t like art-house flicks.
August 16, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/4
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy
Diva hasn’t dated a moment, stylistically or topically, for the movie is, in many ways, a sublimely entertaining debate on the legality and morality of trying to capture the artistic moment in a bottle.
May 29, 2020
David Lamble
Bay Area Reporter
Ostensibly the film is a comedy thriller. Other than a few sight gags the humor is noticeably missing and the thrills only come if you completely suspend credibility.
May 12, 2020
Michael Lasky
Bay Area Reporter
Diva is a fan’s fantasy-come-true.
August 19, 2019
Judy Wynn
Sojourner
Beineix makes a colorful, rhythmic thriller — the beauty intensifies the suspense… Diva’s freshness invites you beyond movies for comparisons.
January 10, 2018
Veronica Geng
The New York Review of Books…
Plot
A young opera-loving mailman, Jules, becomes inadvertently entangled in murder, when a young woman fleeing two mob hit men drops an incriminating cassette into his mailbag. Jules has just recently recorded opera star Cynthia Hawkins’ latest concert, something of a coup as Hawkins refuses to make recordings of any kind. Soon Jules finds himself the target of the hit men, who want the voice recording, and also of another couple of ominous and mysterious agents.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, who plays American diva Cynthia Hawkins in the film, was actually an opera singer in real life and had never acted before.
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