Beineix’s dazzling ‘Diva’ turns 25

Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Diva,” which opens a 25th-anniversary run today at the Nuart, remains a dazzler, as fresh as tomorrow. Made with wit and humor, this French stunner abounds in the go-for-broke spirit of a first film made by a talented, nervy director -- Beineix had spent a decade as an assistant director, working for everyone from the veteran Rene Clement to Jerry Lewis (on the legendary never-released Holocaust movie “The Day the Clown Cried”).

The action begins when young, slender Jules (Frederic Andrei), a wistful Paris postman, secretly tapes the magnificent singer Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhlemina Higgins Fernandez) as she performs in the Alfredo Catalani opera “La Wally.” He is spotted by a pair of Taiwanese bootleggers eager to snatch his cassette, for Hawkins adamantly refuses to record. Before long, Jules becomes the witness to the murder of a woman who, before her demise, managed to slip a different cassette into Jules’ moped satchel. Of course, the cassettes get mixed up as Jules becomes a target for those responsible for the woman’s death.

Adapted by Beineix from a novel by Delacorta, “Diva” takes off as a breathless freewheeling adventure amid spectacular settings, yet it pauses from time to time to allow a sweet flirtation to develop between the regal yet down-to-earth Hawkins and the often feckless Jules. These two are most appealing, but Beineix deliberately eschews depth and dimension to plunge his audience into exhilarating and amusing mayhem. “Diva” is essentially a celebration of the abundant joys and possibilities of filmmaking that hasn’t lost any of its fizz.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Beineix’s own career. His “Diva” follow-up, “The Moon and The Gutter,” starring Nastassja Kinski as a rich girl who heads for the docks to tantalize stevedore Gerard Depardieu, was simply ludicrous. And though Beneix rebounded momentarily with the passionate love story “Betty Blue,” his career never regained momentum. Even his 2001 murder mystery “Mortal Transfer,” about a psychoanalyst and a patient strangled on his couch, failed to receive wide exposure in the U.S., though it was well reviewed on the festival circuit.

Elusive success never tarnished his devotion to the medium, however. Beneix recently wrote an autobiography, of which he has remarked, “My book is about illusions and disillusions, glories and flops -- the whole downside of cinema, and yet how we’re ready to die for a movie.”

“Diva.” MPAA rating: Unrated. In French with English subtitles. Running Time: One hour, 57 minutes. At Landmark’s Nuart Theatre, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., 310-281-8223.