People are voting emotionally.

Great Film overall

As Good As It Gets

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

A fun French movie concerning an opera singer who never records her work and a young fan who manages to make a tape of her performing. Another tape, this one implicating a criminal boss, is mixed into the plot and a couple of nefarious types are sent to find it. It's a quirky thriller, a bit dated now (duh) but still quite fun and well done enough to keep your attention. Wilhelmenia Fernandez is/was an 'adequate' actor but she sings beautifully and the film opens with her performance of "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana" from the opera "La Wally". Even though I know it has to have been 'enhanced' somewhat for film purposes, it's not at all far from what she does when she sings it live. In any case, it still exists as one of the best versions.

Wilhelmina Fernandez plays an American opera singer who has never recorded her performances. Jules is a Parisian postal carrier and an opera enthusiast who secretly tapes her but for himself. Then there is a second tape by a woman who gets murdered. She has a secret worth killing for. There is entry of suspense and melodrama here especially between the soprano and Jules, an unlikely romance. This film has plenty of memorable moments whether it is the chase in the Metro or the opera scenes. Paris still looks the same as when I last visited it in 2007. Paris is timeless in this early eighties film. I enjoy seeing the opera house and other locations in Paris.

A different film. Lovely film typical from the 80's. Interesting because the main character was driving a moped and listening to classical music on it. Another character intoned puzzle as big as the floor of a room, which was the image of a wave against the sky and a little white bird between them. There was a small Chinese girl who wants to be a woman. There was also a black woman, a very good opera singer (the diva!).There was little action, praising record technology and more opera. Interesting scenery, a clash between the highest idealistic forms of human thought with monotonous everyday life giving birth to haters, crimes, corruption, prostitution.It was very art film. But it's worth watching.http://vihrenmitevmovies.blogspot.com/

This film had a unique opening in England. A couple of young guys had bought a tatty cinema in Kings Cross, London, with the idea of turning it into an outlet for "art house" films. They renamed it "The Palace" and started up a video label with the same name. They would probably have gone broke within a year, had it not been for "Diva".A fabulous movie, but French. Death in England. No-one wanted it. Nevertheless, the Palace boys bought the full UK rights to it, had nice clear, literate subtitles placed on the film - then did something previously unheard-of.They opened it at their cinema and SIMULTANEOUSLY issued it on VIDEO. IDIOTS!And yet it proved to be a shrewd move. The thing was, being such a beautiful movie, those who were able to, STILL went to see it in the CINEMA - and then bought the video. Those who lived out of town settled for just the video. And EVERYONE bought the soundtrack album for Vladimir Cosma's haunting "Sentimental Promenade" and WWF's incredible rendition of the aria from "La Wally" (pronounced "valley").Palace cleaned up.Eventually, it found its way to wider release and after only a short time, Britain's then-trendy new TV network, Channel Four. It was the success-story of the Eighties - and deservedly so. I'm not even going to rave about it - plenty of others in this strain have already done the job FOR me.I'll just add that if you haven't seen this masterpiece, ignore the comments of the few who just didn't GET it - and ENJOY!