Hacker Cinema
Diva
1981 · Film · 117 min
Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix
Jules, a young Parisian postman, secretly records a concert performance given by the opera singer Cynthia Hawkins, whom he idolises. The following day, Jules runs into a woman who is being pursued by armed thugs. Before she is killed, the woman slips an audio cassette into his mail bag...
2 positive1 negative1 neutralfrom 4 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
4 comments on Hacker News
I don't really know. Amadeus is my absolute favorite movie of all time, but it has been set around the music. Tous les Matins du Monde is another fond memory, but it's a biopic of Marin Marais, a composer. In Diva, the excerpt from La Wally works well. The Ride of the Valkyries (sp?) is of course famous, but not so impressive. Let's not forget 2001, a Space Oddyssey.
My favorite moment is literary. In one of Douglas Adams' books (Dirk Gently), someone hears fantastic music from some alien space station that he has to "destroy" in the past or something, altering the timeline of the universe, and thus losing the music. But then when he comes back, his girlfriend plays that same music on the cello. I copied this from the book:
His face was so amazed that she stopped playing the instant she saw him.
"What's wrong?" she said, alarmed.
"Where did you get that music?" said Richard in a whisper.
She shrugged. "Well, from the music shop," she said, puzzled. She wasn't being facetious, she simply didn't understand the question.
"What is it?"
"It's from this cantata I'm playing in in a couple of week," she said, "Bach, number six."
"Who wrote it?"
"Well, Bach I expect. If you think about it."
"Who?"
"Watch my lips. Bach. B-A-C-H. Johannes Sebastian. Remember?"
"No, never heard of him. Who is he? Did he write anything else?"
Susan put down her bow, propped up her cello, stood up and came over to him.
"Are you allright?" she said.
... [bit later, Richard calls his friend] ...
"Reg, the music -"
"Ah yes, I thought you'd be pleased. Took a bit of work, I can tell you. I saved only the tiniest scrap, of course, but even so I cheated. It was rather more than one man could actually do in a lifetime, but I don't suppose anybody will look at that too seriously."
Let me offer you some not Canal+ French films I've enjoyed: Breathless; Hiroshima Mon Amour; Diva; My Life as a Zucchini; Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles; The Rules of the Game; Last Year at Marienbad; La Collectionneuse; The Green Ray; One Sings, the Other Doesn’t; The Kid with a Bike; The 400 Blows; My Night at Maud's; The Wages of Fear.
Ciméma du look [1] does something other than conflict in a sense. The movies still have conflict (I'm really thinking of Diva [2] as my exemplar) but it is entirely secondary to the style and texture of the movie
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinéma_du_look [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diva_(1981_film)
I like the interface. HOwever I think the filters need a little work. For example I clicked on Action and I got these results: http://movieo.me/?grid=list_movie&file=movies%2F_movies&rate_by=tomato_top&page=1&genres%5B%5D=10402&genres%5B%5D=28
They contain Chicago, Diva, King Creole, etc.. not exactly what I would call action movies. All in all looks pretty cool !