Diva (1982)

Jean-Jacques Beineix (Betty Blue) made a catchy debut as a director with this slick, defiantly superficial 1982 movie about a young mail carrier who illegally records a performance by an opera singer, then gets the tape mixed up with evidence that could incriminate gangsters. Wearing flashy commercialism like a badge, Beineix fills the screen with explosions of disposable pop kitsch. Yet he also tells a fairly compelling story in the process, a story that only seems to get more interesting the closer one gets to the end. An unusual experience, Diva should be seen also for the influence it had on the look and feel of movies and music videos in the '80s. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

Who Murdered DIVA? The Meridian Collection, That's Who!

I'm so glad I still own the 2000 Anchor Bay DVD release of this wonderful film, and now I'll never part with it. I was really looking forward to this 2008 Meridian Collection reissue with its promised new print, new soundtrack, and new extras. Imagine my disappointment--this is the most appallingly amateurish packaging of an important classic of world cinema that I've ever seen. The "new" picture transfer is grainy and indistinct, and the (monaural!) soundtrack is even worse. In this day and age of enhanced digital technology, I can't believe that anyone in their right mind would dare to present this mess to the DVD-buying public. Shame on them!

My advice to DIVA fans and newcomers: Move heaven and earth to snag a copy of the 2000 Anchor Bay version. You may have to search for it, but it's worth it. It is presented in true, crystal-clear, anamorphic digital video and Chace Digital Dolby Surround 5.1 stereo. It also includes the excellent English-dubbed soundtrack (also in Dolby Surround 5.1 stereo) if you don't want to read subtitles. Both the English soundtrack and the Surround stereo are missing from the terrible Meridian Collection package, and the new "extras" are entirely skippable. Stick with Anchor Bay's vastly superior version of DIVA--you'll thank me for it. August 4, 2008

An Incredible Film

"Diva"

An Incredible Film

Amos Lassen

It is absolutely amazing to see "Diva" and to realize that it was made in 1981. It is stunning to watch and is an exercise in what style is all about.
The plot is complex and unique. A young Parisian mail courier is perfectly content with his somewhat offbeat lifestyle, his love of opera and his friends. He especially loves one American diva who will not allow herself to be recorded. In fact, he loves her voice so much that he succeeds in making an illegal tape of her at a concert. When the tape becomes mixed-up with a tape that implicated a police chief with the mob, our mail man has to fight to survive.
Today's movies have simple structures but "Diva" has a great deal of plot and it combines beautiful photography with a suspenseful plot, excellent acting, sex, romance and philosophy.
It has been regarded by many as the pivotal art film of the 80's and has influenced many. This is cinema as experience as it crosses genres and gives us spectacular views of Paris in the rain. This film belongs to its director, Jean-Jacques Beineix, who set high production values which he never compromised.
Somewhat Hitchcockian and noir, this is one classy film. I am not going to talk any more about the plot bur let me just say that "Diva" is a colorful pop mixture of action, romance, music, legend and fairy tale together and it is a must-see, even some 30 yeas later.
The DVD digital transfer is lacking but the interview with the director is enlightening. Some reviewers have some disparaging remarks but each to his own.
June 14, 2008

Anchor Bay vs Lionsgate

I know, I know: "Save your technical rants for the discussion boards!" And I usually do (in fact, I was commenter #1 for the review by "Mutantchaos" above). But since I stupidly went ahead and purchased the new Lionsgate edition anyway (after buying into the two comments that followed mine, one allegedly from Lionsgate themselves,spinning like Karl Rove, and the other from a "customer" who I am now convinced is a shill for Lionsgate) I wanted to throw in my "A-B" comparisons-as a public service.

Mutantchaos and the previous reviewer are absolutely correct regarding the picture being "cropped" on the Lionsgate disc; the Anchor Bay displays a truer 16x9 enhancement. Also, the Lionsgate was mastered with a very high contrast level, which highlights every bit of print debris, making for a distractingly grainy picture. The only "improvement" I see in the Lionsgate edition is that their transfer sports better color saturation, with more natural flesh tones; Anchor Bay's print has a slightly reddish tint overall when you compare the two. Also, I noticed that I had to really kick up the volume on the new Lionsgate disc in order to achieve comparable audio levels to the Anchor Bay edition.

One nitpicky difference I accidentally discovered as well: The Lionsgate edition appears to be newly translated for the subtitles, and it's not necessarily for the better. One scene in particular that threw up the red flag for me was a line translated by Anchor Bay as "The abyss meets the abyss"; which is very poetic. The Lionsgate version translates the same line as "The deep meets the deep." Sounds a little dumbed down, n'est ce pas?

To be completely "fair and balanced",let me conclude that the bottom line is the simple fact that "Diva" has yet to be RESTORED. "Remastered" does not equate "restored"; both Anchor Bay and Lionsgate have obviously taken thier transfers from the same flawed master (I started to recognize the same scratches and defects while comparing scenes!).

A note for Lionsgate: If you want to successfully market a "prestige line" of reissues based on the Criterion model, it's going to take more than a cynical ploy like creating a sound alike moniker ("Meridian"/"Criterion") and a lookalike logo to justify that list price. June 8, 2008

Worst transfer yet of a great film - Should be recalled

The Anchor Bay version from 2001 is currently the best you can do with this title. I had high hopes for the new release, but was suspicious based on the awful cover art. Sure enough, they have a super-low bit rate, are actually zooming on the image in some areas and have problems with no English subtitles on some of the extras (the film is in French). I've shown the Anchor Bay version to friends in the last few years all of whom have been impressed by this clever caper from 1981. But when a company comes out with a new version (seven years after the last time Diva was released on DVD) it deserves a whole lot better than this. I second the call for the director of the film and whoever owns the rights to get it the heck away from Lion's Gate so Criterion or some decent production studio can take a crack at it. DO NOT BUY THIS EDITION. June 8, 2008

Review for the abysmal "Meridian Collection" DVD. I gave it a 1 because you can't give a 0.

As I said in the title - I gave this DVD 1 star only because you can't give 0 stars. The film is great of course, but this new "remastered" DVD is terrible.

To start, the "remastered" picture is cropped and it's mastered very poorly - especially when compared to my disc from Anchor Bay (Diva), which looks much nicer even though it is 7 years old! They even claim that this transfer was approved by the director. Maybe he approved a transfer that was watched in a post production studio, but unless he has gone blind I can't imagine he would watch this DVD and approve of it. This is sort of transfer you'd expect from a DVD released years ago when the format was new, but in 2008 this is ridiculous.

But it gets worse! The special features, including the commentary - those are mostly in French - and have NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES! Really? Is this a joke? I would expect that on a disc released in France, but this is made for North America, and with the exception of Quebec, not many of us can speak French making these featurettes pretty much useless to 90% of us. And the menus (which is the only thing on the disc that looks nice) - those are all in French too.

And Spanish speakers, you are S.O.L. because the listed Spanish subs don't exist.

So if you speak French or English, have never seen the film before and don't care about special features, I suppose maybe you can rent it just to see the film. For those of you who, like me, are a bit more hung up with DVD quality (and I would imagine that describes 95% of the 2008 audience for a film like Diva) - run, do not walk, away from this DVD. This may be the worst DVD for 2008 - I have seen cheapo public domain DVD titles that were much nicer than this. This is a major quality control screw up, and anyone who has this horrible disc should return it to Lions Gate so they don't think they can do it again.

Lions Gate, shame on you. Please give the rights over to Criterion so we can see a good DVD of this classic film. Pretty please. June 3, 2008

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