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rewatching "Diva" (1981)
Feb. 22nd, 2013 12:19 amDiva
Just finished watching this again, possibly the first time since I first saw it in the tiny art film theatre of my small college town in 1982.
It's a beautiful, beautiful film--built on the framework of a gritty French crime drama but filled to the brim with music and incredible, simple, gorgeous imagery. It features one of the two film appearances of Wilhelmenia Fernandez, a stunningly lovely, amazingly gifted soprano, playing the title character, an American opera singer appearing in Paris. The role she plays, and her performance of it--a strong, independent, but compellingly calm and gentle woman--are breathtaking. A series of scenes in the center of the film where the diva and her ?admirer?lover?acolyte wander through the streets of Paris are just astoundingly simple and beautiful. At one point she processes, like a queen, slowly and magnificently through the rain, her young man holding an umbrella over her as he walks a step behind her--it's a perfect fantasia of a powerful, serene woman and her loving and devoted servant.
The cinematography of the film is outstanding--not just the shot selection, but the imagery, the colours, the composition, the amazing simplicity of a car sitting quietly in a wooded glade or a lighthouse on a deserted shore. Watching this, the characters and the images came back to me, rich in their own right but somehow deeper and more beautiful for being able to remember the impact they had on me when I first saw them and then to experience them all over again, just as glorious as the first time, 31 years ago.
Some movies don't age well. This ages like the magnificent city of its setting--almost imperceptibly, but beautifully.
Just finished watching this again, possibly the first time since I first saw it in the tiny art film theatre of my small college town in 1982.
It's a beautiful, beautiful film--built on the framework of a gritty French crime drama but filled to the brim with music and incredible, simple, gorgeous imagery. It features one of the two film appearances of Wilhelmenia Fernandez, a stunningly lovely, amazingly gifted soprano, playing the title character, an American opera singer appearing in Paris. The role she plays, and her performance of it--a strong, independent, but compellingly calm and gentle woman--are breathtaking. A series of scenes in the center of the film where the diva and her ?admirer?lover?acolyte wander through the streets of Paris are just astoundingly simple and beautiful. At one point she processes, like a queen, slowly and magnificently through the rain, her young man holding an umbrella over her as he walks a step behind her--it's a perfect fantasia of a powerful, serene woman and her loving and devoted servant.
The cinematography of the film is outstanding--not just the shot selection, but the imagery, the colours, the composition, the amazing simplicity of a car sitting quietly in a wooded glade or a lighthouse on a deserted shore. Watching this, the characters and the images came back to me, rich in their own right but somehow deeper and more beautiful for being able to remember the impact they had on me when I first saw them and then to experience them all over again, just as glorious as the first time, 31 years ago.
Some movies don't age well. This ages like the magnificent city of its setting--almost imperceptibly, but beautifully.
