Product Details

• Actors: Wilhelmenia Fernandez, Frédéric Andréi, Richard Bohringer, Thuy An Luu, Jacques Fabbri
• Directors: Jean-Jacques Beineix
• Writers: Jean-Jacques Beineix, Daniel Odier, Jean Van Hamme
• Producers: Claudie Ossard, Irčne Silberman, Serge Silberman
• Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Lionsgate
• DVD Release Date: June 3, 2008
• Run Time: 123 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (126 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00166UFA2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,349 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Diva (Remastered Widescreen Edition) (Meridian Collection)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Modern noir meets high opera in the French suspense flick Diva. Delivery boy Jules has an opera obsession. He spends his small disposable income on sophisticated sound equipment and manages to bootleg a live performance of his favorite diva, Cynthia Hawkins (played by real-life opera singer Wilhelmina Wiggins Fernandez). But Jules is spotted making the recording by shady investors who want the tape. As if that weren't enough, a second cassette, filled with enough evidence to topple an international drug and prostitution ring, makes its way into Jules's mailbag. Writer-director Jean-Jacques Beineix does a terrific job of adapting Delacorta's pulpy novel for the screen, keeping all the excitement while adding a layer of depth. A movie to make even a dedicated opera hater appreciate a perfectly sung aria, Diva has enormous loft apartments, thugs galore, gorgeous visuals, and a corker of a chase scene. Watch it--and watch your back. --Ali Davis

Product Description

Director Jean-Jacques Beineix launched the Cinema Du Look movement with this stylish cult thriller that remains as innovative today as when it premiered in 1981. Jules (FREDERIC ANDREI), a young postal carrier, illegally tapes a concert of a reclusive opera singer (American soprano WILHELMENA WIGGINS FERNANDEZ). Jules' attempts to woo the diva are interrupted when Taiwanese bootleggers come after the recording. His problems become worse when a prostitute slips another tape, one that incriminates a police chief, into his bag. Jules must escape the police chief, the cop's henchmen and the bootleggers to keep both precious tapes safe - and to stay alive. Featuring critically acclaimed cinematography and a celebrated chase through the Paris Metro, DIVA earned Cesar Awards for Best Music, Best Cinematography and Best Directorial Debut.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 79 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Stylish, hip thriller marred by poor transfer May 28, 1999

By C. Burch

Format:DVD

This stylish, hip thriller of the early 80's is a cult classic. Featuring Wilhelmenia Wiggins-Fernandez, a real-life Diva. In the film she plays Cynthia Hawkins, an opera singer who refuses to record her music.

Frédéric Andréi (Jules) is a loner messenger boy, who makes a beautiful bootleg recording of one of her recitals. He also becomes the unknowing recipient of a tape containing evidence about the Paris underworld, setting off a chain of events where everyone's motives are misunderstood.

Sad to say, this good film is seriously marred by the worst sound transfer I have ever heard on a DVD. It is muddy and indistinct, much worse than most VHS tapes. Because the voice of Wilhelmenia Wiggins-Fernandez is central to the plot, the poor audio quality makes it hard to understand why anyone would make such a fuss about recording her.

The video transfer is not great, but passable, however the audio quality seriously dimishes the impact of a good film. If you listen to the compact disk soundtrack, you'll know what you're missing. This DVD looks like it was rushed to market with very little thought or care. The film deserves a better fate.

94 of 97 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst transfer yet of a great film - Should be recalled June 8, 2008

By PatrickO VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

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.

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you, Anchor Bay June 17, 2001

By A Customer

Format:DVD

Bravo. Anchor Bay understands why many of us are buying DVDs of films we never would have considered purchasing on video: not merely because they are available, but because of the QUALITY. Their "Diva" release is a prime example of this, and I won't bother extolling the virtues of the movie *as* a movie since the Amazon.com review and the other reviewers have done that so well.

I haven't seen the earlier Fox Lorber issue of "Diva", but from the reviews I read here, and from the Fox Lorber titles I unfortunately own, I can only imagine that they (Fox Lorber) did their usual criminally indifferent - or is it agressively incompetent? - job, making no attempt to clean up the image and sound on a poor-quality master, but rather doing a quick-and-dirty transfer in order to be first to market, before the public wises up.

With that as the background, then, the new Anchor Bay release of "Diva" was well worth waiting for. The image quality is simply beautiful - clean, clear and crisp, with no discernable noise, dirt, or other undesireable visual artifacts. It's comparable in quality to Paramount's superb work on the "Chinatown" DVD, or most anything in The Criterion Collection's excellent series. Another very pleasant surprise is the restored and updated sound which, on the Fox Lorber release, was rated even below the poor quality of the image. Fans of "Diva" know that it has one of the most unique and memorable soundtracks of the many memorable 1980s movie soundtracks, and I cannot remember it ever sounding better than it does on the new Anchor Bay release.

So again, thank you, Anchor Bay, for doing justice to one of my favorite films on DVD.... And as for you, Fox Lorber, isn't there a better business model out there than doing violence to art for money? Read more ›

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Who Murdered DIVA? The Meridian Collection, That's Who! August 3, 2008

By Tom S. TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:DVD

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.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Anchor Bay vs Lionsgate June 8, 2008

By D. Hartley

Format:DVD

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. Read more ›