Cinema du Look and Diva

This week we dove into the French cinema category of Cinema du Look. That is exactly as it sounds. It the using not only words to tell a story, but the world around us. It takes a large focus on the world around and using that to work into our tale. Cinema du Look is the idea of how it is built or constructed. We learned about some of the key directors during this period like Luc Besson and Leos Carax. In class we watched Jean-Jacques Beineix film, Diva, and it was wonderful. The ideas were simple for a film in this category. They had a youthful influence with doomed love affairs and an anti-establishment ideal. This were a common theme with any film of the youth of the 80s who wanted to break away and be free from the hand of the authorities.

The movie Diva had a lot of extras that can go unnoticed if you are not looking for them. Professor even stated that a second view can do well and that is always true to really understand a film. A film is just the vision of the director he attempts to portray to you. It is hard to fully understand the things in the background with out another viewing, but these are a few of the things I took away.

When we are talking about the looks from a film, this photo does it best. You can sit and stare at this for a long time and ponder upon it

Cinema du Look is all about how it is constructed and put together. This idea from the film dint hit me until after we finished, and we were discussing. In the movie, it opens on the main character on his scooter that he has attached the “Spirit of Ecstasy” to the

The Spirit of Ecstasy off the hood of a Rolls Royce

front. This comes off a very expensive and high-class car, a Rolls Royce. At first, I just laughed because it was funny to see it on something like a moped. Very surprising that the whole film was based on getting a recording because that hood ornament is worth a nice penny. Later, we see him receive a Rolex from the girl as a gift after they were looking at the crushed Rolls Royce. The Rolls Royce and Rolex both represent what I think Cinema du look stands for. These products are all about using the best materials and being put

A Rolex submariner to show the build and quality.

together perfectly. People go out and purchase these items because of their build quality and how they look. It is all about their construction and built. This was what I thought was a way to relate the idea of Cinema du Look to the audience

I think one of the greatest parts was to listen to this wonderful voice. I am not an Opera fan in the slightest, but it was very relaxing to sit and listen. It felt like her music was a representation of drugs because every time the characters would listen, they would become entranced and lose themselves when it played. The music was there to stand for something much more and showed the power it can have. Like past films like Rocky Horror Picture, I had to go back and listen again because it was so great. I think the music was my favorite part of the whole movie. It just had a way of bringing you in and making you sit deeper into your seat as it goes on. Over all the film was very pleasurable.