35mm restoration courtesy of Rialto Pictures
An international arthouse sensation that launched the “cinéma du look,” an explosion of visually stunning, punk-inspired, super-cool French movies in the ‘80s, Diva follows a young postman who becomes entranced with the voice of an American opera superstar and secretly records her singing. When the tape accidentally gets mixed up with another incriminating recording, the young mail carrier becomes a prime target, being chased across Paris–most famously on moped–by drug dealers, ruthless music pirates, and a slew of cops. Recently entranced by its discovery, New York Times critic Wesley Morris praised its “ravishingly style-soaked priorities” and at the time Roger Ebert called it “a visual extravaganza. One of the most persistently entertaining, absorbing and scary thrillers I’ve seen in a long time.”