Diva
We've Been Trying To Get This For Years and Finally – A New 35mm Print!
Early in Jean-Jacques Beineix's directorial debut, Diva (1981), the character Gorodish (Richard Bohringer) is described as "going through his cool period." Much the same could be said of Beineix with this film -- a work that simply oozes cool, but in a very special way.
Beineix had spent 10 years working as an assistant director when he made Diva, and he obviously knew this was his one big chance. As a result, he crafted the most attention-getting film possible -- and it worked. Suddenly, French movies were hip again. He dropped back to the foundations of the French New Wave -- both stylistically and in choice of material. The mystery thriller was a fundamental of the Cahiers du Cinema -- the French film magazine that helped give birth to the New Wave movement -- crowd. But he also made it his own, adding elements of fantastic romance and intellectualism. At bottom, it's a stylish thriller about a young man, Jules (Frederic Andrei), who makes a bootleg recording of a famous opera singer (Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez). The recording gets mixed up with one that incriminates a police official in racketeering and murder, setting the thriller plot in motion. However, the thriller aspect -- entertaining as it is -- is ultimately secondary to the characterizations and the film's all-pervasive style. It's a beautifully layered work that's much more than a showcase for Beineix's talent. (Ken Hanke)
Diva
Thu & Fri April 10 & 11, 2008, 7:00 & 9:30, Muenzinger Auditorium
France, in French, Color, France:117 min / USA:123 min, 1.66 : 1
Tickets
10 films for $60 with punch card
$9 general admission.
$7 w/UCB student ID,
$7 for senior citizens
$1 discount to anyone with a bike helmet
Free on your birthday! CU Cinema Studies students get in free.
Parking
Pay lot 360 (now only $1/hour!), across from the buffalo statue and next to the
Duane Physics tower, is closest to Muenzinger. Free parking can be found after 5pm at the meters
along Colorado Ave east of Folsom stadium and along University Ave west of Macky.
RTD Bus
Park elsewhere and catch the HOP to campus
International Film Series
(Originally called The University Film Commission)
Established 1941 by James Sandoe.
First Person Cinema
(Originally called The Experimental Cinema Group)
Established 1955 by Carla Selby, Gladney Oakley, Bruce Conner and Stan Brakhage.
C.U. Film Program
(AKA The Rocky Mountain Film Center)
First offered degrees in filmmaking and critical studies in 1989 under the guidance of Virgil
Grillo.
Celebrating Stan
Created by Suranjan Ganguly in 2003.
C.U. Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts
Established 2017 by Chair Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz.