MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Twilightfa Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

classicsoncall This film has a dual plot line in which dirty cops are after the main character because they believe he has a cassette tape incriminating their boss in prostitution and drug trafficking. At the same time, Jules (Frédéric Andréi) has created his own tape of a famous operatic singer who refuses to have her own voice recorded as an affront by those who would profit from it. It's an interesting double bind Jules finds himself in, even though for a good portion of the story he's unaware that the tape he holds of a crooked chief inspector is in his possession; it was secretly dropped into his mail satchel by the mistress of Commissaire Saporta (Jacques Fabbri) while on the run from the thugs he set out after her. For whatever reason, even for all it's intrigue, I couldn't quite connect with this story. It's not hard to follow if one pays attention, and the opera star Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Fernandez) has the most beautiful voice, but the characters and situations ultimately didn't engage me in a meaningful way. The eventual confrontation between the corrupt Chief Inspector and Jules ends in the most ignominious way when the cop falls off of an elevated landing in a warehouse when the lights go out. That just seemed so lame to me. No doubt others will find much more intrigue and mystery to the film than this viewer did, so in keeping with a time honored phrase designed to keep you invested in the story until it's conclusion, I would simply state, it's not over until the black lady sings.

morrison-dylan-fan Looking round for articles online about the history of French cinema, (as you do!)I found out about a French film movement that appeared in the 80's called cinéma du look.Looking round for details about what titles were from the movement,I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had unintentionally picked up one of the movies from the movement recently, which led to me getting ready to take a look at du diva.The plot:With opera singer Cynthia Hawkins saying that she will never record an album,a super fan (and post office worker) called Jules decides to go to a concert and make a bootleg recording.After making the recording,Jules gets the chance to go backstage and meet Hawkins.Walking out from the backstage,Jules decides to steal Hawkins performance gown as a memento to the concert.Just before Jules starts up his moped to get away from the venue,a prostitute called Nadia slips a cassette into Jules rucksack containing a recording which reveals that the head of police is corrupt,just before two gangsters kill her.Driving off unaware of Nadia,Jules soon finds the law and the underworld to desperate to hear his secret recordings.View on the film:Rolling out as one of the first cinéma du look titles,co- writer/(along with Jean Van Hamme)director Jean-Jacques Beineix & cinematographer Philippe Rousselot glaze the film in exploding primary colours.Following Jules attempts to outrun the cops/gangsters with ultra-stylised tracking shots giving the title an on the streets urgency, Beineix and Rousselot unveil a lush pop- art world,where freshly squeezed red,yellows and blues give the film a chic comic- book atmosphere.Focusing on the surface in their adaptation of Daniel Odier's novel, (the first in a series of books) Beineix and Jean Van Hamme make sure to keep the glitter lit by taking Jules run-ins in deliciously quirky directions,from the two sun-glass wearing "amateur" hit men,to Hawkins being an "Artist" diva.Showing Jules to be a bit of a stalker,the writers stay away from darkness to whip up a light and fluffy connection between Jules and Hawkins,as Jules fandom brings out a sweet sensitivity in Hawkins.Performing the songs with her own incredible voice, Wilhelmenia Fernandez gives a terrific performance as Hawkins,whose strongly held perfectionist side is given a wicked playfulness,as Hawkins uncovers Jules fandom.Driving over a sea of pulp colours, Frédéric Andréi gives a very good performance as Jules,with Andréi giving Jules a deer in the headlights appearance over everyone being after his secret recording,as Jules meets his dream diva.

Samiam3 Overambition is always risky. Diva is so plot heavy that it almost cracks, but it is delicious and entertaining. As far as genre is concerned, this movie flirts with several, but I think it is safe to label Diva as essentially a neo noir. It is darkly romantic, full of corruption, and photographed in spectacular fashion. The colours are rich and the camera work is exquisite. The movie is almost great but not quite. In an attempt to bring everything together, it has a little climax trouble. A tape of evidence with exposes the Chief inspector of Paris as crooked ends up in the moped satchel of a mail boy named Jules, who suddenly finds himself being hunted down by goons with guns. But that's not his only problem. Jules has made a secret recording of his favourite opera singer live in concert. This singer has blatantly refused to do any recordings, and when word gets out that such a recording exists, different people are going after it. It is ever more essential that Jules keep it hidden, considering, that he and his singer friend have become intimate friends. Even though Diva enjoys piling it up by the pound, it does so in a compelling fashion. It is a good balance of bold and slick. There are a few clichés buried beneath the labyrinth plot that a picky person may be drawn to pick out, but I enjoyed Diva for its sense of non- convention. It puts character before character type, and tension above twist. Cinematography plays an exceptional role in this motion picture, which captures Paris in a far more exuberant way than I am used to seeing (and I've been there). One item about the city which has never appeal to me is that it is very grey, with not enough green. Grey is the last of the colours on Diva's colour pallet (execpt when necessary). This motion picture prefers something a little more romantic or expressive. like a jazzy blue, or a fiery red. I can easily give Diva a pass, and I can recommend it on numerous grounds. As a non-Hollywood thriller, Diva is exceptional, but it is not a film for the soft minded. It gets a bit too convoluted, not too messy, but there is a sense that it could use a slight reworking. This is not a light motion picture, but it ain't a dull one either.

charsobees I saw the first scene of this movie on a TV arts showcase which was going through some opera videos. I was totally intrigued; the opera was beautiful, the lighting and color consolidated the mood, and the main character, recording secretly with teary eyes, seemed like a creepy, artistically sensitive but also somewhat fanatic protagonist. I developed the delusion then that 'Diva' must be some sort of psychological, dramatic type of film, a little like Taxi Driver but not so insane, about yearning and obsession, the mystery about another human, admiration from a distance, and the...elite, or elect, or beautiful, or celebrity--the Diva--whatever you want to call it else. Instead, after the first few good minutes, which end after the main character steals the singer's dress, I was unpleasantly introduced to the actuality of this movie as a "thriller". And what a poorly written, shot, acted and edited thriller it is. It includes all sorts of bad TV show thriller clichés: multiple and switched tapes, chases, foreign mafia type of people (except this time they were having a hard on for a bootlegged cassette-- now this is interesting: the two "taiwanese" guys (apparently the ENTIRE world in this movie has a real hard on for Italian opera) WERE actually present during the first scene when the main character was recording...and yet, even though they are chasing people right and left, with sunglasses on, for the recording, they did not record it themselves!!--anyways, back to my list...) drug and prostitution dealers, inept and corrupt cops, an utter lack of understanding (or perhaps concern) of the function of a human body and how people die (or not) when stabbed, and magically and quickly faint when they are exposed to some sort of mist-spray, and REALLY REALLY REALLY awful deux ex machina. Of course, they had to cater to the majority of the critic population, so they jammed in other irrelevant "artistic" stuff. There is an "artistic" type who sits on a large bare floor while putting together a puzzle, and these slow mo shots of a wave machine keep repeatedly appearing with bad new age music in the background. Then there is a completely out of place (well, so is nearly everything else in here) and very long discussion on buttering a baguette. Everything is shot in blue to give yet another out-of-place melancholy noir feeling to a cheesy TV show plot. There are also tedious scenes involving metafiction on the medium of film with reel shapes rotating in various places. I've never liked this type of self-conscious self-reflexivity because I think art should do as a drug and kidnap its audience into its own world, not nag about its form or dress. Anyways. There is also this extremely annoying and stupid technique of panning or zooming at something peripheral during or at the end or a scene. The most stupid of these moments were when, after the main character had walked off screen, the camera takes several seconds to move towards a shot of an ordinary small pool of water. Another time, while bad guys are mishandling a character, the camera moves to a wallpainting of a little girl in a bus (??). For a movie which involves music a great deal the background music is awful. It is absent at certain moments where I think it could have benefited, but it is plenty and repetitious at certain moments when it is utterly superfluous and inappropriate. In fact, the whole recording is really botched, I'm not sure if it was lost in the transfer or what, but the ambiance and environmental sounds and totally lacking...it was as if they just recorded the dialog in an empty and bare studio. This kills any potential "thrill" considerably. Anyways, when the predictable ending played out (apparently elite sopranos are easily seduced by blank, fawning postmen) I had already lost all my reservoir for caring about the movie. Mediocre at best; in my opinion could have made a lot better of itself.