Diva (1981 film)

Diva
Film poster
Directed byJean-Jacques Beineix
Screenplay byJean-Jacques Beineix
Jean Van Hamme
Based onDiva
by Daniel Odier
Produced byClaudie Ossard
Irène Silberman
Serge Silberman
StarringFrédéric Andréi
Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez
Richard Bohringer
CinematographyPhilippe Rousselot
Edited byMonique Prim
Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte
Music byVladimir Cosma
Production
companies
Les Films Galaxie
Greenwich Film Productions
Distributed byCompagnie Commerciale Française Cinématographique
Release date
  • 11 March 1981 (1981-03-11) (France)
Running time
117 minutes[1]
CountryFrance
LanguagesFrench
English
Budget$1.5 million
Box office$19.8 million[2]

Diva is a 1981 French thriller film directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix, adapted from the novel Diva by Daniel Odier. It eschewed the realist mood of the 1970s French cinema and instead adopted a colourful, melodic style, later described as cinéma du look. The mixture of "film noir, opera and art-house styles" did not please the producers,[3] but was more to the liking of the Canadian audience at the Toronto International Film Festival where it was screened and achieved a 'Critics' Choice' in 1981.[4]

The film made a successful debut in France in 1981 with 2,281,569 admissions, and had success in the U.S. the next year, grossing $2,678,103.[2] The film was selected as the French entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 54th Academy Awards, but was not nominated. Diva became a cult classic and was internationally acclaimed.

  1. ^ "DIVA (AA)". British Board of Film Classification. 17 June 1982. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  2. ^ a b "Diva (1981)" (in French). JP's Box-Office.
  3. ^ Russell, David. Two or Three Things we know about Beneix. Sight and Sound, January 1990, p42-7.
  4. ^ MUBI - Diva, 1981 accessed 3 April 2024.