PROMENADE SENTIMENTALE
I remember glancing upon a boxless VHS cassette on the back seat of a friend's car sometime back in the 90's when I was teenager. It had cellotaped across it a small cut out image of the word DIVA presented in some futurist looking font, possibly taken from a Time Out magazine cinema listing. I sensed that the effort required in carrying out this pre-internet version of cut and paste was an act of genuine commitment and fondness by my friend. Enquiring as to what exactly DIVA was, the friend paused for a moment, searching for some way to explain. I can't remember his answer, I just remember the existential French-like way he took to reflect on the question. All I ascertained from his vague description in the end was that it was his favourite film.
It was all very Gorodish now I come to think of it.
I'll come to Gorodish later.
Like Jules the central protagonist of Jean-Jacques Beineix's 1981 classic DIVA, my friend was also a postman at the time, but unlike Jules he had yet to fully begin his love of opera, although DIVA would prove to be a harbinger of that soon to be passion for the both of us.
I can still remember that first time watching DIVA, hearing those ominous opening chords of Verdi's Rigoletto introducing the opening white titles against a midnight blue background on screen with what appeared to be a statue of Orpheus holding lyre aloft outside the Opéra Garnier and being immediately curious as to what would ensue in the movie from here on in.
Watching the film on a 14'' Panasonic television in my postman friend's Zen like apartment, I noticed that there appeared to be a harmonious synergy between DIVA and his own personal interior aesethic as if he had carried the 'le cinéma du look' influence of Jean-Jacques Beineix's unique cinematic world over into his life.
The plot by the writer Daniel Odier (Delacorta) of the book the film is based on is like a mad fusion of Jean Pierre Melville's 'Le Samourai', Zen Buddhism and Operatic fantasy with a clear homage to a Leontyne Price style soprano as the DIVA (Cynthia Hawkins) in question.
The story itself was never of any real interest to me and I don't suppose it was to my friend either. DIVA was all about the ambience of the cinematic atmosphere the film draws you into. The best way for me to describe it is like enjoying a beautiful fever dream of Paris through a cinematic lens.
And the master of ambience within the story itself is Gorodish, a chain smoking Zen layabout who takes baths in the daytime and meditates on jigsaw puzzles of giant waves. If French existentialism had a pop version of itself in human form, it would be Gorodish. And not only did the guy have an excessively large apartment in Paris, he also had a lighthouse in the country to escape to when things got bad.
Cool was actually cool back then.
I mostly related to Jules as the music obsessed postman and I'm sure my friend did too, although he also had a serious Gorodish streak which was becoming harder for me to ignore. Stepping into his apartment off the high street in my local rural town for a coffee after school felt like stepping into 1980's Paris. I remember he even had an unsmoked pack of Gitanes in a drawer as well as several tins of Banana Nesquik to hand in his kitchen, more as an art prop than to drink as it was briefly referenced in the original book of DIVA. This was becoming a carefully curated obsession for him and one I found equally compelling. Listening to the soundtrack, especially the famous aria 'Ebben? Ne andrò lontana' from Catalani's 1892 opera La Wally (100 years before I discovered DIVA), we became just like Jules who repeatedly listens to the piece on his Nagra professional tape recorder having illegally recorded it from Cynthia Hawkins' recital concert.
When I look back, I realise I had visited Paris via my friend's apartment before actually visiting Paris in reality. When a few years later, we travelled with my eldest brother to the French capital for a week's holiday, both my friend and I took turns to borrow the CD walkman player I'd brought with us as we each played the DIVA soundtrack on our own, standing in and under locations/landmarks from the film. How could anyone who's seen the film not want to play the synonymous Promenade Sentimentale whilst in Paris? It should be the city's national anthem, even if it is a sub Keith Jarrett/Eric Satie rip off.
The pinnacle of our shared obsession of the film came about when a rare screening was announced to be taking place in London at the ABC cinema (the only newsreel theater to be built inside a tube underground) in Piccadilly Circus. Naturally, my friend and I made the cinematic pilgrimage to see the film finally up on the big screen that until now we'd only ever seen on a television.
The atmosphere of the old cinema was happily congruous with DIVA with an almost Parisian noir-like atmosphere in the auditorium.
I half expected Gorodish to turn up and smoke a Gitane in front of us.
But then I remembered, he was sitting right next to me.
Rest In Peace Jean Jacques Beineix (8 October 1946 – 13 January 2022)
