Diva (1981)

[ravenus]

Announcement

Kino Lorber have announced that they are preparing a Blu-ray release of Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva (1981), starring Richard Bohringer, Dominique Pinon, Wilhelmenia Fernandez, Frédéric Andréi, and Thuy An Luu. The release will be available for purchase on August 11.

Synopsis: A young mail carrier, Jules (Frederic Andrei), becomes entranced with the voice of American diva Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez). She doesn't believe in being recorded, but Jules secretly records her singing on a tape. His recording gets mixed up with another tape that incriminates a police chief, who is working with the mob. Jules quickly becomes the target of mob gangsters, and he must find a way to get himself out of the situation alive.

Special Features:

• NEW Audio Commentary by Film Critic and Author Simon Abrams
• Scene Specific Audio Commentary by Director Jean-Jacques Beineix
• Introduction by Professor Phil Powrie (Author of JEAN-JACQUES BEINEIX) & Eric Grinda (6:20)
• Interview with Composer Vladimir Cosma (10:47)
• Interview with Casting Director Dominique Besnehard (7:20)
• Interview with Star Frédéric Andréi (5:46)
• Interview with Actors Anny Romand and Dominique Pinon (12:02)
• Interview with Actor Richard Bohringer (6:53)
• HOLDING GROUND with Director Jean-Jacques Beineix (11:00)
• IN THE CAFÉ with Director Jean-Jacques Beineix (8:30)
• Interview with Cinematographer Philippe Rousselot (6:04)
• Interview with Set Designer Hilton McConnico (6:50)
• Theatrical Trailer

[ravenus]

No mention of a new restoration. Hope this is a different master or at least does not have the excessive DVNR of the Studio Canal German BD (screenshots here). I had the Anchor Bay DVD and loved the film for its amazing visuals (Philippe Rousselot) and incredible score. Sadly it went missing from my collection many years ago, I hope this BD meets the expectations of the fans of this gorgeous film.

[silverlakephil]

I really thought Criterion would release this since a decent looking print was on their channel and they released Betty Blue

[Sifox211]

I hope this is good - I've loved this film ever since I caught it at a screening in Kensington back in the year it came out.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by silverlakephil

I really thought Criterion would release this since a decent looking print was on their channel and they released Betty Blue

Lots of movies appear on Criterion’s Channel that they won’t release.

[Scarabaeus]

The german one is 117 minutes, and this one 123. Is this some sort of director's cut, or did Studio Canal release a 24 fps Blu-ray with PAL speed-up?

[Jonbaker]

I hope the cover will be reversible with the US poster art.

[Albie989]

Well, Dvdbeaver has some screencaps up.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film9/blu-r...va_blu-ray.htm

[silverlakephil]

I just got this and checked out the opening scene. Looks and sounds great. The opening still gives me chills.

[russkie]

I received my copy yesterday and was totally thrilled to view this movie again after years of waiting

[HaroldnMaude]

I watched about half of this last night before I had to go to bed. It looks very good. I've seen the film before, on VHS, sometime in the early 90's. I remembered that a guy bootlegs an opera singer, but not much else.
My only complaint is about whoever did the translation for the subtitles, as while I'm not a fluent French speaker, I know enough that it bothers me how inaccurate the translation is. Often it is an approximation or something similar to what they are saying, but not at all an accurate translation.
For example, early on a character swears saying "Merde!" and the subtitle says, "F*ck," when an accurate translation would be "Sh!t." Later there are other longer passages of dialogue where, to anyone with a passing knowledge of French, the translation is just as inaccurate.

[castor]

I noticed the same thing with the subtitles, even with my limited knowledge of French. It's annoying. I wish they had used the same subtitles that are on the old Anchor Bay DVD, they're much better.

[grahams76]

Great transfer.

[beamish13]

I love Beineix so much. Mortal Transfer is criminally underrated

[silverlakephil]

In the extras they managed to interview almost all the actors who portrayed the principal characters except for the French Vietnamese Actress who portrayed Alba. I wonder what happened to her?

[castor]

I just found this blog post in French about her "mysterious disappearance". Here's the last 2 paragraphs translated.

Thuy An Luu then made one final appearance in a pretty good American B-series crime film set in the Vietnam War, "Saigon - Hell for two cops". In this film, Mac Griff and Perkins, of the American Criminal Investigation Service, have the mission to find in Saigon the murderers of Vietnamese prostitutes, mothers of babies whose father is an American soldier. They find that a senior American official is the murderer and their investigation is affected. Thuy An Luu plays the role of a Vietnamese prostitute sympathetic to Viêt-Cong. She appears less than 10 minutes in the film. This movie was shot in 1988.

Since then, nothing. Thuy An Luu is completely gone and today she doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. What happened to her? Is she dead or did she wish to disappear? Some gossip claims she was murdered in the United States shortly after filming in the latest film, while others claim that she voluntarily retired from the stage to live an anonymous family life. What is it really?

[ravenus]

Take the style out of 1981's Diva and all you have left is an ordinary, somewhat disjointed plot about two audio recordings that assorted folks are after, one a high-quality bootleg of an opera singer that has never cut any records, and the other the confession tape of a murdered woman that names the boss of a crime syndicate. But the style, put together by director Jean Jacques Beineix, production designer Hilton McConnico, DoP Philippe Rousselot and composer Vladimir Cosmo, IS the movie. Diva is suffused with a lush and romantic mood, even when it indulges in motorbike chases that go in and out of the Parisian metro or shootouts in a makeshift garage apartment. The sets showing the living quarters of the different characters are decorated and lit not to convey realism, but heighten a certain mood. As a critic points out, a lot of the mood is conveyed in the spatial geometry of these places. The music, a brilliant combination of opera, and more modern choices, is also an integral component of the mood. While not directly immersed in the murky morality of noir, Diva is a gorgeous chic romantic tribute to the genre.

I had the Anchor Bay DVD long ago, but it was either misplaced, or stolen by someone that conveniently forgot to return it. The KL blu is an impressive upgrade, far better than the DNR'ed messy screenshots of the European blu suggest. There are some soft shots that seem to come from a different element (including the last shot where Jules and his opera singer stand on an empty stage), but the bulk of he film well serves Rousselot's camera paintings. The DTS-HDMA 2.0 track, once raised to a suitable volume (a few notches above my normal setting) gives a strong audio presentation, especially Cosmo's score.

There are a bunch of extras, but I have yet to go through them.

[bugsy_pal]

Originally Posted by Scarabaeus

The german one is 117 minutes, and this one 123. Is this some sort of director's cut, or did Studio Canal release a 24 fps Blu-ray with PAL speed-up?

Good question. IMDB and Wikipedia list the movie as 117 minutes. There is definitely either (1) a speed-up issue with the European bluray, or (2) a slowdown issue with the KL bluray. There is a significant and obvious pitch difference between the two discs. Given that music plays an important part in the film, it would be good to know which is more correct.

They look very similar, with the KL being very slightly softer.

Another weird thing - the European bluray looks like the titles have been redone. They are very sharp and crisp, whereas the KL titles are not crisp at all, and the positioning is slightly different. If they've been redone for the European bluray, it's very well done, as it preserves the aniamation effects nicely.

[dougkuhn]

Only one gripe: The performance of "La Wally" at the end is considerably shortened. On the Criterion laserdisc and DVD, the performance is complete against a black screen (which is how it appeared in theaters when I saw it at a revival house in 2007). On Kino's disc, the picture fades to black after the credits end and the sound ends too.

A pity since it's a great disc otherwise.

[anwsmh]

Originally Posted by ravenus

... But the style, put together by director Jean Jacques Beineix, production designer Hilton McConnico, DoP Philippe Rousselot and composer Vladimir Cosmo, IS the movie. Diva is suffused with a lush and romantic mood, even when it indulges in motorbike chases that go in and out of the Parisian metro or shootouts in a makeshift garage apartment. The sets showing the living quarters of the different characters are decorated and lit not to convey realism, but heighten a certain mood. As a critic points out, a lot of the mood is conveyed in the spatial geometry of these places ...

I agree totally Ravenus. Thank you for adding to my appreciation of this fine movie (I hope you like Oldboy)