Diva
Subway
With the arrival of directors Jean-Jacques Beineix and Luc Besson in the 1980s, it seemed that French cinema had finally emerged from the post-New Wave era with a stylish new voice. Seen today these films still dazzle with their arch sense of humor, glossy surfaces and fast-paced action sequences. In Diva, a lowly courier obsessed with a beautiful opera singer makes a bootleg tape of her performance and becomes embroiled in a world of pimps, drug traffickers and music pirates. In Besson’s Subway, Christopher Lambert plays a safecracking punk who takes refuge in the Paris Underground after stealing valuable documents from a powerful millionaire. Within the strange confines of the Metro, he realizes his dream of forming a rock band along with numerous subterranean musicians.
PROGRAM
-
Diva
Directed by Jean-Jacques Beiniex.
With Frederic Andrei, Wilhelmina Wiggins Fernandez, Richard Bohringer.
France, 1981, 35mm, color, 123 min.
French with English subtitles.
-
Subway
Directed by Luc Besson.
With Christopher Lambert, Isabelle Adjani, Jean-Hugues Anglade.
France, 1985, 35mm, color, 108 min.
French with English subtitles.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
The Single Standard / Carnival in Flanders
Dumbo / He Who Gets Slapped
The Marriage Circle / The Merry Widow
The Cat and the Canary / And Then There Were None
