In the style of the French New Wave, director Jean-Jacques Beineix has created a throwback to the days of guerrilla filmmaking in the streets of Paris with a story full of crime, love, passion, obsession, and art. Diva follows the story of a young man obsessed with the operatic voice of Cynthia Hawkins, a "diva" whose voice can only be heard in person from the audience, as she will not allow her voice to be recorded.
The film opens with the young man sneaking a tape recorder into one of her performances and stealing her dress after getting her autograph. As the story progresses, he finds himself running for his life through the streets of Paris. 
The cinematography in this film is absolutely stunning. The camera moves with a fluid motion, a relaxed pace, almost rhythmic, even when there is no music. The camera flows like the sound of the divas voice, or the constant flowing of the ocean. Not only is this film beautiful, it is mysterious and thrilling. It is the perfect blend of genres. During the chase scenes, the camera is right along side the characters in the cars, mopeds, and on foot throughout the streets of Paris. 
The cinematography in this film is absolutely stunning. The camera moves with a fluid motion, a relaxed pace, almost rhythmic, even when there is no music. The camera flows like the sound of the divas voice, or the constant flowing of the ocean. Not only is this film beautiful, it is mysterious and thrilling. It is the perfect blend of genres. During the chase scenes, the camera is right along side the characters in the cars, mopeds, and on foot throughout the streets of Paris. 
Ticking clocks, doorbells buzzing, phones ringing, isolation, fear, claustrophobia and paranoia. These are some of the things that make up Roman Polanski's Repulsion. This film, made in 1960's London, accomplishes so much with the use of so little. Most of the film is shot entirely in an apartment with one actress. Polanski is able to create a haunting vision of a woman falling into the depths of madness through surreal images, shots that make the audience "jump", sound effects, and a very impressive performance by Catherine Deneuve.
The story takes place in London and follows Carol, a young woman who works at a salon and lives in an apartment with her sister Helen. At first, it seems as if Carol is shy, she doesn't talk much, daydreams often, and disregards the advances of men. She seems lonely but happy to be living with her sister. But when her sister's lover comes around, she gets frustrated. She can't have her sister's attention all to herself, and without Helen to cook dinner for her or take care of her, she almost refuses to take care of herself. This creates the impression that she really can't do anything for herself. And when Helen and her lover go on vacation and leave Carol alone in the apartment, her entire world begins to fall apart. 
Little things like cracks in the ground or on the walls of the apartment bother her so much that she sits staring at them. As a small sweat begins to build around her upper lip one can sense her fear building inside. This fear is what ultimately drives her mad. She becomes so claustrophobic, isolated and paranoid that she reacts with violence. She begins to distrust men in particular for fear of their sexual advances. She has nightmares of men grabbing her and being forceful with her. Its as if her character becomes "repulsed" by them. 
Polanski's use of the camera in this film adds to the emotional intensity of Carol's character. The camera is delicately placed in such a way that it covers every inch of the apartment from the floor to the ceiling which makes it feel as if the building is closing in on her. The camera is used to reveal things that Carol is thinking and feeling whether surreal, fantasy, nightmare or reality to try and understand her character and add to the realistic nature of her condition. He uses close ups of eyes, images of rotting meat and potatoes, cracking walls, shadows under doors, people appearing out of nowhere, and hands coming out of the walls to create this claustrophobic world in which Carol exists. 
Her progressive derangement is depicted with subtletly and suspense. The grainy black and white footage, even with the bad transfer to dvd with its random flashes of white lines across the screen add to the visual style of the film. This style is very much like Ingmar Bergman's Persona and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Those films of the same era, along with this one, began a tradition of directors whose visual style and narrative subtlety left the audience guessing and asking for more. This is the way horror films are meant to be done, not with excessive, gratuitous violence and gore, but with suspense and a growing fear inside the main character as well as the audience.
