Over four decades on from its’ original release and a sensation at the time, Jean-Jacques Beineix‘s debut feature DIVA remains one of the most extraordinary cinematic experiences ever.
Originally released in the UK as part of the Palace Video label, which also distributed the most successful video rental tape pre-regulation, THE EVIL DEAD (also 1981), a year before the Video Recordings Act rendered everything to have a legitimate home video certificate, DIVA was one of THE arthouse titles to view along with Nagisa Oshima‘s AI NO CORRIDA (IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES (1976).
Now, StudioCanal are reissuing the film in both cinemas and home formats in a stunning new 4K restoration which encapsulates the film in a fantastic new transfer and heightens a truly visual and audio experience right from the outset.
However, how does one define DIVA as a movie? Is it a musical homage to opera? A crime drama? An alternate reality where accommodation seems to consist of large warehouse spaces in 1980s Paris? Whatever your own interpretation of the film after you see, either as somebody like me who saw it as a teenager on VHS, or as somebody new to the experience, DIVA still maintains the consistency of engrossing involvement and style that has given it such a reputation over the years.
The plot involves two tapes. The first is an illegal recording of a opera singer, Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhemenia Wiggins-Fernandez) of an aria from Calalani‘s ‘La Wally‘ recorded for his own pleasure by a mailman, Jules (Frederic Andrei), who visits Cynthia backstage and then nicks her own to place on his own picture of her at his place. Jules is an obsessive, both of opera and of Cynthia, to the point that he travels by moped to Munich to witness it.
The second tape contains evidence that could incriminate the local Chief Inspector of Homicide, Jean Saporte (Jacques Fabbri), courtesy of his mistress Nadia Kalanski (Chantal Deruaz) , a local prostitutes in a Paris district. The evidence points to a crime ring between Africa and Paris.
After arriving at the Paris railway station, pursued by two of Saporte’s cronies (Dominique Pinon and Gérard Darmon) she slips the tape into Jules’ mailbag just before getting an ice pick in the back. The chase and plot thickens….
In its’ remastered version, DIVA holds the attention, particularly during a stunning chase through the Paris Metro which is one of the most excitingly staged and edited ever in film history, leaving you out of breath as much as the police officer who is pursuing Jules on his moped as he navigates the escalators, stairs and tunnels of the Metro.
However, it is the beautifully rendered audio performance of Fernandez who is used as a key character in the narrative and also makes a comment about the commercial potential and artistic stubborness that befits a songstress and diva.
Sound is as important to the film as visuals and both compliment each other. After a handful of successful theatrical screenings in August 2025 at various venues across the UK, the film (which gave a renaissance to foreign-language output in the UK back in the day) is now ready to be unleashed again on audiences.
DIVA is released on October 6th on home formats. please order your copy of this foreign language must-see on UHD or Blu-Ray