Diva 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Diva 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 19, 2025

Jean-Jacques Beineix's "Diva" (1981) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the release include new program featuring interviews with the director, cast, and crew members, and new program with French critic Denis Parent. In French or English, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Note: The text below was first used in our review of Kino Lorber's release of Diva, produced in 2020.

A few months before the lockdowns made it impossible to organize events in my neck of the woods, I attended a rather large reunion party. I was a guest there and for the bigger part of it felt like an outsider, but towards the end, I got lucky and met a very nice couple who had a seemingly never-ending supply of hilarious stories. One of their stories mirrored an experience I had a long time ago, and I would like to share a short version of it because it sums up rather well how I feel about Jean-Jacques Beineix’s directorial debut, Diva. I will address the couple only as Mr. A and Mrs. B, for obvious reasons.

Mr. A and Mrs. B fell in love while they were attending college. Apparently, they noticed each other during their freshman year, but it took another year before they finally went out on a date and then officially became a couple. One reason they could not connect right away was the fact that they had to take classes in different buildings on opposite ends of the campus, so the only time they could see each other was when they went to the library. Another reason was that they both assumed the other was already seeing someone else, so for about a year, they essentially hung out with other people who had better relationship potential. Then one day, fate finally intervened, and the two attended the same party with different groups of friends. (Here comes the crucial part of the story, so pay attention now). Mr. A gathered the courage to approach Mrs. B, but before he did it, he quickly put together a winning strategy -- engage Mrs. B in a long conversation, impress her with his manners and wit, and at the right moment ask for a phone number so that later on he can take her out on a date. So, Mr. A went to work confident that he knew exactly what had to be done, but then spent so much time talking and impressing Mrs. B that by the end of the night, she began wondering whether she was the target of a strange game he and his buddies might have chosen her for. Then this fictional, strange game just about materialized when one of Mr. A’s far less sophisticated buddies decided to prove to a group he had arrived with that straight talk is a lot more effective than a winning strategy and boldly approached Mrs. B as well. He quickly took over the conversation, Mr. A became seriously frustrated and soon after walked away, and approximately ten minutes later, Mrs. B gave her phone number to the wrong person. Two weeks after the party, Mr. A and Mrs. B finally went out on their first date and began deconstructing Mr. A’s winning strategy, and both could not stop laughing because it had gotten just about everything wrong. Its biggest flaw was that Mrs. B did not need to be impressed because she had already seen enough from Mr. A to know that she would love to go out with him, so the more he behaved like a person she had never seen before, the more perplexed and suspicious she became of his intentions. All she needed was a simple and clear sign that he wanted to go out with her as well.

Beineix’s film goes to work to impress with a very similar winning strategy that can be quite perplexing because it ends up unnecessarily complicating its identity, frequently eroding its integrity as well. It tells a story about the repeated misplacement of a cassette with a recording of opera star Cynthia Hawkins' (Wilhelmenia Fernandez) latest concert, which is supposed to be so valuable that mob assassins would kill innocent people to obtain it. When a fan (Frederic Andrei) of Hawkins accidentally becomes the owner of the cassette, his world suddenly spins out of control, but because he can’t immediately grasp the seriousness of the situation, he is transformed into the ‘star’ of quite possibly the most bizarre chase ever staged on the streets of Paris.

There is plenty to like in Diva, but most unfortunately, its stylization is seriously overdone. Indeed, Beineix uses the big chase as a ruse to sell a hugely attractive image of Paris as a giant playground where just about anything could happen, and initially, the trick works quite well. However, as the chase intensifies and the twists become more outrageous, Diva becomes very arty, routinely emphasizing stylization choices which ultimately leave the impression that Beineix is doing a great deal of showboating. As a result, the end product looks and feels a lot like a kitschy action opera, though it is quite clear that the original intent was different.

A few years after Diva premiered in French cinemas, Luc Besson completed Subway, which sells a very unique image of Paris as well. However, its stylization is controlled much better and balanced with a very attractive causal sense of humor. Also, Subway features a classic ‘80s synth-pop/jazz/rock soundtrack by Eric Serra that transforms it into a pretty cool time capsule.

Diva 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

StudioCanal's release of Diva is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray is Region-B "locked".

Please note that all screencaptures included with this release are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc.

The release introduces an exclusive new 4K restoration of Diva, completed by TransPerfect Media on behalf of StudioCanal. This 4K restoration will also be available on a standalone Blu-ray release, which streets on the same date.

If you have seen our review of the Blu-ray release linked above, which was posted earlier this month, you are already aware that the 4K restoration is done properly and retains the film's native period appearance. In native 4K and 1080p, there are significant improvements in terms of delineation, clarity, and depth, and in some areas of the native 4K presentation, even the density levels of the visuals. Also, all visuals are a lot more even than they were on Kino Lorber's Blu-ray release, boasting significantly better fluidity. On the older presentation of the film, darker areas frequently produced noisy, somewhat shaky visuals, and on a large screen, many did not look as convincing as they should. Color reproduction and balance are very good. The HDR grade is very good too, and while I still feel that some darker areas have a few spots here and there that appear a tad too thick, I would choose the native 4K presentation as the most convincing. It is because the HDR grade gives the film the lushest and most richly nuanced color scheme. I really liked what I saw on my system a lot, especially in the areas where primary blue is supposed to be very prominent. Image stability is excellent. I did not encounter any encoding anomalies to report in our review.

Diva 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this release: French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I once again chose the French track to view the native 4K presentation of Diva. I did not encounter any anomalies, so I am reposting my comments from our review of the Blu-ray release of Diva.

In America, Kino Lorber presented Diva on Blu-ray only with its original French audio track. I have viewed Diva several times over the years and always with the French track. I used it again to see the new 4K restoration of Diva and thought that it is excellent. It is very healthy and has a wonderful range of nuanced dynamics. I also tested the English track. It shares the same qualities that many English tracks included with Hong Kong action films from the 1980s and 1990s have. Needless to say, it is quite silly and, occasionally, hilarious.

Diva 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Blue as Diva: Memories of a Cult Film - in this new program, Jean-Hacques Beineix recalls how Diva came to exist and comments on its unique style, visual appearance, and use of music. Also included are clips from interviews with actors Richard Bohringer, Frederic Andrei, and Dominique Pinon, composer Vladimir Cosma, and casting director Dominique Besnehard, amongst others. In French, with English subtitles. (72 min).

• Diva, About the Film - in this new program, French critic Denis Parent discusses the arrival of Diva and its success at the 1982 edition of the Cesar Awards (the French Oscars), as well as its relationship with Cinema du Look and the evolution of Jean-Jacques Beineix's career. In French, with English subtitles. (45 min).

BLU-RAY DISC

• Blue as Diva: Memories of a Cult Film - in this new program, Jean-Hacques Beineix recalls how Diva came to exist and comments on its unique style, visual appearance, and use of music. Also included are clips from interviews with actors Richard Bohringer, Frederic Andrei, and Dominique Pinon, composer Vladimir Cosma, and casting director Dominique Besnehard, amongst others. In French, with English subtitles. (72 min).

• Diva, About the Film - in this new program, French critic Denis Parent discusses the arrival of Diva and its success at the 1982 edition of the Cesar Awards (the French Oscars), as well as its relationship with Cinema du Look and the evolution of Jean-Jacques Beineix's career. In French, with English subtitles. (45 min).

Diva 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you have acquired the gorgeous recent 4K Blu-ray release of Luc Besson's Subway and are now determined to explore Cinema du Look, it is practically guaranteed that Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva is already on your radar. It is a curious film, certainly worth seeing, but it is not true that it is Beineix's best. Beineix's Betty Blue, for instance, is a vastly superior film, and Cinema du Look has even more ambitious gems that dazzle with special visuals and unbridled creativity. I am not trying to steer you away from Diva. Rather, I wish to encourage you to seek some of the less talked-about Cinema du Look films as well, because quite a few of them have unjustifiably remained in the shadow of the 'big' ones that mainstream critics have overhyped over the years.

This combo pack release brings a lovely exclusive new 4K restoration of Diva, completed by TransPerfect Media on behalf of StudioCanal. I think that the native 4K presentation of the 4K restoration is the most convincing presentation of Diva. It preserves the film's period appearance very well, and it looked rather strikingly lush on my system, definitely a little better than the 1080p presentation on the Blu-ray. Hopefully, TransPerfect Media will become a regular partner of StudioCanal, because, thus far, all restoration work done there has been vastly superior to that of big labs like Hiventy and Eclair. RECOMMENDED.