ARPAVAX:UNKNOWN:upstill (10/25/82)
To those who, like me, have endured months of hearing what a great
picture Diva is from everybody who's seen it, to those who have
never heard of it and those living in areas it hasn't reached, I have to
say: GO GO GO. Yes, they're right. I can't remember the last time I
saw such an exhilarating and playful act of film-making. There are a
half-dozen scenes in Diva (including the first one!) that are staged
so beautifully that they would count as the Big Scene in any other movie.
The plot is basically a thriller; young postman tape-records a recital
by opera singer who never allows her voice to be recorded, then winds up
on the lam from, well, that would be telling. Suffice it to say that there
are enough plot twists to keep your attention, enough offbeat characters to
fill several Hitchcock films, and a tone of artistic joy that is completely
unique.
I often hear people say of a film that every frame looked like a painting.
Well, how many films have you seen where every frame looks like a
modernist painting? The use of color and design in Diva is just that
imaginative. I can't imagine anybody seriously interested in film
not loving this one.
Steve Upstill