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ANNUAL SHOWING

Today was the annual viewing of Jacques Beineix'

Diva (1982)

What is it about this film that keeps giving to me?

It is a NYTimes Best 1176 film but so are 1175 other films that I do not watch over and over.

It is a really nice romantic love story.

It is a nasty, suspense filled, chase-down of an incriminating audio tape.

There is another illicit tape of a singer who does not want to be recorded.

It has some really nice insights in the modern dilemma of artistic performers in an electronic age.

The main hero is passionate. He is unique. An oddball. But a well loved one. He has many friends.

There is a guardian angel!

Not really but like that.

The city of Paris is turned upside down in all the on-location scenes. There is no 'falsity' about how the film was shot but everything that it shoots is artificial; the urban infrastructure, a lighthouse, ancient autos that are not really that old.

Are you confused?

Good.

You ought to see this really generous film at least once. You do not have to become an annual visitor although you might want to be.

There is so much in it that, in a year, I forget wonderful details and am surprised all over again.

Interesting that this film was not critically welcomed. It was trashed.

Only 100,000 people went to see it in its first year.

Then it began to take on a life of its own.

Millions.

For a very long time 800,000 people a year saw it in Paris.

The director Jacques Beineix has not been all that successful.

Only two of his films have made it to disc.

We will be seeing the second one soon.

Betty Blue / 37º2 le matin (1986)

Labels: best films