• Mar 29, 2012 from 11:30am to 1:30pm
  • Location: Walter Reade Theater
  • Latest Activity: Aug 21, 2019

DIVA
JEAN-JACQUES BEINEIX, 1981
FRANCE | FORMAT: 35MM | 117MIN MINUTES

Special-delivery postman Jules (Frédéric Andréi) finds himself on the run all across Paris after making a pirated tape recording of the object of his obsession:  the never-recorded opera super-star Cynthia Hawkins (played by real-life opera star Wilhelmenia Fernandez). Among the pursuers: a drug kingpin, Taiwanese music pirates, and the Paris police. Is everyone that crazy for opera, or could something else have slipped into Jules’s mail pouch by mistake? Longtime assistant director Beineix’s debut was an international arthouse sensation, playing for over a year in some cinemas, nabbing four French César awards (including Best Film) and single-handledly launching the punk-inspired cinéma du lookmovement, whose subsequent exponents included Leos Carax and the young Luc Besson.

Founded in 1997 by legendary exhibitor and programmer Bruce Goldstein (joined one year later by partner Adrienne Halpern), Rialto Pictures quickly established itself as a new gold standard in the distribution of classic world cinema—from reissues of landmark works like The Third Man and Grand Illusion to the rediscovery of little-known masterpieces never before released in the U.S., including Alberto Lattuada’s Mafioso, Claude Sautet’s Classe Tous Risques and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows. On the occasion of Rialto’s 15th anniversary, we are pleased to present an exclusive weekday matinee series of 15 treasures from their remarkable library. Series programmed by Scott Foundas, Eric Di Bernardo and Adrienne Halpern.

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