Diva (1981) – An excellent polar with 4 Cesars (French Award)
Director: Jean-Jacque Beineix
Cast: Frederic Andrei, Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, Richard Bohringer
A Young Parisian mail courier is content with his bohemian lifestyle, his circle of friends and listening to opera, particularly one exceptional American diva who refuses to be recorded. So enamored with her, he makes an illegal tape of her at a concert. But when the tape is confused with one implicating a police chief with the mob, he must use all his ingenuity to survive.
Jean-Jacques Beineix’s first feature film, released in 1981, initially criticised, Diva became a cult film. The image is as polished as the soundtrack by Vladimir Cosma (winner of the César for best music).
A word by Karine Mauris, Cultural Attachée
“Diva” is about two worlds that collide and have nothing to do with each other, but also about passion, music, crime and crossbreeding. Everything is strange and at the same time familiar in “Diva”, everything is made to delight us, to seduce us, to intoxicate us with images and sounds, with leaps from one universe to another. A constant juxtaposition of contrasting images and sounds: Vladimir Cosma knows how to play with so many sound resources (from Jazz to Zen with Japanese instruments), like this vaguely Indian percussion music to accompany a hellish chase in the corridors of the Paris metro, and of course some extracts from the opera La Wally. Impeccable casting, an intentionally convoluted script, beautiful images, breathtaking scenes and chases and a finale that every musician should see. Magical and now cult.
Available until the 30/09/2021 on SBS on Demand HERE
Polina (2016)
Director : Valerie Muller
Cast : Veronika Zhovnytska, Juliette Binoche, Anastasia Shevtsova
Moscow, early 90s. Polina, aged 8, is a gifted ballerina. From a modest background she joins the prestigious school of Professor Bojinsky, who trains dancers for the Bolshoi. He immediately grasps her tremendous potential and makes her work so hard that at only 18 her dream finally comes true and she enters the prestigious Bolshoi. This is when she meets Adrien, a charming French dancer. He will help her to discover not only love but, more importantly, a new form of dance, more contemporary and expressive, a kind of dance that will change her life forever. From Moscow to Aix-En-Provence and Antwerp, from success to disillusion, we follow Polina’s incredible destiny. Selected in Alliance Francaise French Film Festival 2017
A word by Karine Mauris, Cultural Attachée
Adapted from the successful comic strip Polina by Bastien Vivès, this two-part film is an ode to creativity, resistance and gratitude through dance. We dance all the time in this film, in the metro, in the palaces, in the courtyards… a film with a very successful choreography by the talented Angelin Preljocaj and with Juliette Binoche full of humanity. Dance your life!
Available until the 30/09/2021 on SBS on Demand HERE
The Lovers On The Pont-Neuf (1991)
Director : Leos Carax
Cast : Juliette Binoche, Denis Lavant
Set around the Pont Neuf, Paris’s oldest bridge, while it was closed for repairs, ‘Les Amants du Pont-Neuf’ depicts a love story between two young vagrants: Alex is a street performer addicted to alcohol and sedatives and Michèle a painter driven to a life on the streets because of a failed relationship and a disease which is slowly destroying her sight.
Why is Les Amants du Pont Neuf a cult movie ? by Karine Mauris, Cultural Attachée
The first time I saw this movie I was just 17 years old. I was dreaming of Paris. It gave me even more desire for this city, to sit at the end of the Ile Saint Louis, to look at its bridges, the Seine, its barges… This film is a true declaration of love to Paris. I just saw it again 30 years later and this magical film never ceases to amaze me. The first part is amazing, full of sublime images, romance and marginal characters! When this long tracking shot on an avenue reminds us of the breathtaking fireworks sequence in Les Amants du Pont Neuf, we are more than ever in a great moment of cinema that can teach us to love madly! As always with Carax, the music is well cared for, we go from Bowie to Rita Mitsouko. At the opening of Cannes Festival, I saw Annette, the last movie of Carax, where I again found this romantic strangeness and absolute lyricism of this flamboyant director. Carax has everything of an “enfant terrible”. He knows how to create universe from scratch that resembles only him, and he favours the stage direction (mise en scène).”Les amants du pont neuf” is a work of art, as a painting or a sculpture could be disturbing and questioning…
Available until the 30/09/2021 on SBS on Demand HERE
