User Reviews

This is one of the best films we watched in my high school Spanish class. If you are a fan of the opera, this film will strongly entertain you. Of course, the dancing is wonderful. Watching these amazing dancers moving to the music of Bizet is well worth checking out.

While rehearing Carmen of Bizet, the middle-aged choreographer Antonio (Antonio Gades) brings the sexy Carmen (Laura del Sol) to perform the lead role. Antonio falls in love for Carmen, who is an independent and seductive woman incapable to accept a possessive love. When Carmen has an affair with another dancer, Antonio is consumed by his jealousy like D. José in the original opera, entwining fiction with reality.

"Carmen" is another great movie of Carlos Saura's trilogy dedicated to the Flamenco dance. The dramatic love story is developed with the lives of the artists entwined with the characters they are rehearsing, and many times is not absolutely clear whether what is happening is reality (with the dancers) or fiction (of the play). Paco de Lucia is another attraction of this original version of the famous Bizet's opera, which is based on the novel of Prosper Mérimée. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Carmen"

The latest film from a list given to me of must-watch Spanish language movies recommended by my Spanish neighbours and like all the rest, so far, very enjoyable.

Now that I live in Spain, I have watched ladies here dancing the flamenco and frankly found it just a little boring with all its stamping and posturing, but here, as the backdrop to this Carlos Saura movie and with male dancers featuring just as prominently, it's something altogether different. It's vibrant, sexy and involving as a flamenco version of the famous Bizet tragic opera is staged by middle-aged director and choreographer, Antonio played by Antonio Gades. As the film begins he's still not found his leading lady, until dark-haired beauty Laura Del Sol turns up Vivien Leigh-style to win the part.

The ideas of life imitating art, backstage drama and staging a play within a play (or movie) aren't new but under Saura's assured, if stylised direction, the film tellingly uses extended dance sequences to carry the story, interspersed with naturalistic acting, particularly by the two leads. You don't even need to know much about the opera itself to guess that this one will end in tears.

Gades has an expressive face, with especially tired-looking eyes and a steely determined look when he's driving his troupe to their limits. Del Sol has an allure and air of wantoness which makes her right for the role in Gades' production but wrong as his lover. Sure enough, after sleeping with him and professing her devotion to him, we next see her having a fumble in her dressing-room with a fellow-dancer and not even a particularly attractive one at that.

Gades' obsession only grows as he realises she is too important to fire her but can't stop his obsessive, possessive feelings for her resulting in the dramatic climax, which is cleverly and effectively shot partly off-stage with the camera then panning across the rest of the completely disinterested company sat only yards away.

I'm no opera buff, but almost all of Bizet's original music here is familiar to me and while I may not fully appreciate the cultural significance of flamenco in Spain, its use here in unspokenly expressing emotion as well as a dance spectacle, I found very appealing and interesting.

Filmed in Spain by Spaniards, this is a Spanish tale based on a French novel and the French opera which it inspired. Saura's flamenco "Carmen" is an exciting work of art.

A modern ensemble of musicians and dancers is rehearsing a flamenco interpretation of the Carmen story. The producer and star dancer is Antonio (Antonio Gades). The setting appears to be suburban Madrid, but we see so little of the world outside the rehearsal room that it hardly matters. Antonio has done his research, and has become obsessed with the Carmen legend. He chooses a girl named Carmen to play 'his' Carmen, and life begins tragically to imitate art ...

The opening credits are backed by Dore prints with Bizet playing. This is clearly going to be a production which makes clever use of the many-layered Carmen myth. And so it proves. Antonio pores over his copy of Merimee, and as a knot of singers and guitarists breaks into an improvised buleria, we hear Bizet jarringly overlaid. Antonio is being pulled in two directions, simultaneously possessed by the duende of authentic flamenco and lured by the bewitching Carmen of 19th-century romanticism. One current, the flamenco, is spontaneous and natural, the other is unSpanish and highly theatrical. Both are warring and fermenting within Antonio's psyche.

Cats don't come when you call them, observes Antonio, and they come when you don't call. Herein is the essence of Carmen's wild character. Antonio has Cristina as his senior dancer (the marvellous Cristina Hoyos), but as he tells her, good though she is, she is not 'the' Carmen. He travels to Seville (where else?) in search of his ideal, and there he finds his leading lady - and his nemesis. The young gypsy beauty scrambles into the dance class late, her unruly dignity immediately apparent, and we see in Antonio's face that he knows. This is 'his' Carmen.

The film's artistic conceit is a subtle movement between actuality and fantasy, echoing the conflict between the truth of flamenco and the falseness of the Bizet Carmen. Are Cristina and Carmen at each other's throats in real life, or is this Antonio's heated imagination expanding on the Tabacalera clash? Is the Habanera scene a straightforward rehearsal, or Antonio's reverie? Does Carmen really appear wearing the high comb and mantilla, or has Antonio succumbed to the myth?

Antonio 'sculpts' Carmen, teaching the youngster how to dance, and how to feel the dance. He pushes her hard and makes enormous physical demands of her, yet from the first cigarette the dynamics are established - Carmen is unknowable, untameable. Antonio will end by destroying his creation. He is Don Jose, and he can't help it.

In this deeply attractive film, some scenes transcend even the excellent norm. Such a scene is the Tabacalera number. The women pound the tables in a flamenco rhythm as they sing the haunting "Don't Go Near The Brambles". The hostility between Cristina and Carmen boils over into violence, faithfully reproducing Merimee and Bizet, and all portrayed in dance. As Antonio arrives in the role of Don Jose to arrest the gypsy wildcat, Bizet's tragic motif begins to play.

Carmen and Antonio drink a glass of manzanilla together, symbolically cementing their relationship. At her bidding, Antonio dances the Farruca, the 'baile jondo', the key which unlocks the secret of flamenco. Aroused, Carmen joins in, and the dance (always a metaphor for copulation) merges into actual lovemaking. But delight is followed by disappointment. At 2am, Antonio wakes to find Carmen grabbing her clothes and slipping away. It is futile to ask why. She is Carmen.

Antonio dances alone in the rehearsal room. The room's stark cuboid, with its whole-wall mirror, makes an interesting contrast with his fluid, mobile form. Does dancing help him think? Do his thoughts inspire his dance? The image of a man moving beautifully in a bare box of a room is one of the film's quiet triumphs.

At this crucial point in their blossoming love affair, Carmen and Antonio begin to take divergent paths. This is intelligently depicted by the use of parallel scenes. Antonio sweeps open the drapes to let in the first light of a new day while, somewhere else, electronic grilles part in a parody of Antonio's curtains to admit Carmen to a prison. She is visiting the jailbird husband whom she doesn't love. Antonio has grown emotionally: Carmen is a low-life hustler incapable of change. In a Christ-like gesture, Antonio drinks a solitary glass of manzanilla, the cup of the passion which will not pass him by.

The best scene of the film, straddling reality and fantasy, ordinariness and high artifice, dance and dialogue, is the poker game. The jailbird Jose Fernandez has left prison and joined the troupe. There is a powerful flamenco dance in which Antonio and the gitano confront each other and fight. Afterwards, as he gets up from the floor, Jose removes his wig and others gather round, solicitous for his well-being. Once more, the film has drawn us into an emotional conflict, only to strip away the illusion.

Other treasures abound. The corrida is lovingly depicted in mock-dance, with balletic veronicas and a silent faena: then there is the 'dance-off' between a jealous Antonio and an imperious Carmen, with their contrasting rhythmic signatures: and the squalor of betrayal and abuse in which the story culminates. The presence of Paco de Lucia, legendary guitarist and the scion of a great flamenco dynasty, is in itself a certificate of the film's artistic authenticity.

Verdict - a superb, unfussy modern work which captures the strong flavour of this ancient Spanish folk-art on film.

This is an amazing film, both for the incredibly energy evoked from the frenetic flamenco dancing, and from the unique way that the filmmakers interweave the story of the stage production with the lives of the characters preparing for it. Spellbinding is the only word I can use to describe the experience. This is not 'Bizet's Carmen' by any usual standard. This is not a usual film by any standard. Every nuanced glance, every stomp of the foot, every piece of the music is intertwined so captivatingly that you can't take your eyes off the screen. You don't need to love opera or flamenco(I don't)to be captured, enraptured, enthralled by this film. Subtle and direct; loud and still; One of, if not the best, movies of it's kind, because there are so few like it.

Carmen is one of the best films I've ever seen. It's hard to say whose performance is best: Antonio Gades, Cristina Hoyos and Laura del Sol are superb.They dance their souls out. It's a beautiful tale of inseparability of life and myth; myth penetrates everyday life. Dance becomes life and entire life is danced out. Real people at one and the same time live their own lives and become somebody else, act out the parts of lovers of old. The magic is continuing.

This is one of a number of Saura efforts celebrating various types of Latin dances (of which I own 5!), but only the first I have checked out. Nominated for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar, it details the vicissitudes behind a flamenco dance company's staging of Georges Bizet's famous opera "Carmen" based on the Prosper Merimee' novel. For the record, I own as many as 9(!) adaptations of the source material – of which the 1920 (by Ernst Lubitsch), 1948 (Charles Vidor), 1954 (Otto Preminger), 1962 (Carmine Gallone) and 1984 (Francesco Rosi) are still unwatched.

Needless to say, being no fan of either opera or dance, I can only stick with them when briefly incorporated into a movie narrative – or, as happens to be the case here, are presented in the manner of the tried-and-true "putting-on-a-show" formula. In that respect, it adheres to pretty much all of the established tropes of the sub-genre: the girl cast in the title role on the strength of her ideal temperament is a non-starter at first and, naturally, incurs the jealousy of the company's star attraction (past her prime and basically relegated to being a co-choreographer with the director/male lead, himself not so young anymore!); the latter, then, has a turbulent relationship with his new protégé (married to an estranged drug dealer just out of prison and an unrepentant wanton to boot!) – which threatens the production and, ultimately, brings about his personal downfall.

Clearly the film's mainstay for the casual viewer is the way the plot line being 'dramatized' becomes mirrored in reality: apart from the male lead's afore-mentioned double-duty, rather unsubtly, the female protagonist shares her name with that of the character she is 'interpreting' – making this turn-of-events somewhat predictable. Having said that, the occasionally exhilarating dance sequences and the protagonists' charisma eventually save the day.

Passionate, dramatic, riveting as Flamenco itself, the film is simply amazing. It is set on the immortal Bizet's music. The original music is written and performed by one of the greatest classical guitarists, leading proponent of the Modern Flamenco style, Paco de Lucia who plays a musician with the same name. Legendary Flamenco dancer and choreographer Antonio Gades co/wrote the script and choreographed this fabulous version of the celebrated Georges Bizet/Prosper Mérimée novella/opera. He plays a main character Antonio, the famous dancer/choreographer who works on retelling the story of Carmen in the Flamenco style that combines dances with singing and rhythmic hand clapping and has a highly charged level of dynamics that appeals enormously to the viewers.

Brilliant and graceful Cristina Hoyos whose technical excellence matches the elegant artistry of her dancing shines in the supporting role. Hoyos had been the first dancer in Gades' company for twenty years (1968-1988) and she was the protagonist of three films that Carlos Saura made of Gades' three great shows: "Bodas de Sangre" (1978), "Carmen" (1983) and "El Amor Brujo" (1985). Gorgeous Laura del Sol is a young dancer named Carmen in whom Antony sees from the first sight another Carmen, who was immortalized by two Frenchmen, the writer Prosper Mérimée in his most famous novella written in 1846 that had inspired George Bizet's world famous Opéra-Comique version from 1875.

As in the opera and in the novella, Carmen in Saura's film is desirable and deadly, the ultimate femme fatale who has to be free above anything else. She could not tolerate the possessive love of any man and would prefer death to submission. There some 50 movie adaptations of the story and the opera to the screen, and as different as they are, they all have in common the only possible tragic end. Saura/Gades' film is unique as the most sensual of all and truly Spanish. I fell in love with it from the first time I saw it over twenty years ago and it is as special and beautiful today as it was back then. Highly recommended.

The movie within the movie - a concept done many times in the history of cinema. It is accomplished here as well as in any.

If you love Carmen, you'll love this version.

If you love flamenco, you'll love this version.

The plot of the classic opera is played out in the actual rehearsal of the opera by a flamenco troupe. The music is authentic. The direction wonderful.

If you like dancing, you'll love this version.

There is tragedy. There is passion. There is intrigue.

There is...

Carmen.

In Carmen, Saura once again seeks to establish a dynamic rapport between reality and fiction, between the actual passions of the personalities in a dance company preparing the choreography for the dance portions of the opera Carmen and the scripted passions from the story of the fictional Carmen, the famous fatal mix of a free spirit (read disregard for fidelity) and her ability to drive men mad with desire. Saura used this same vehicle fiction/reality in an earlier black-and-white film, Bodes de Sangre (Blood Wedding). But, whereas the tensions between the dancers rehearsing Blood Wedding showed to advantage how they evolved into the fictional characters of the story to be performed through directing their emotions into their roles, in Carmen, the parallel between the petty, libidinal urges of the dancers of the troop during rehearsals and the spirit forging to do with the mythic Carmen never comes even close to being believable. It remains a gadget, and, for that reason, a bothersome distraction. One really needs to see Blood Wedding next to Carmen to appreciate the comparison. However, it hardly matters, the melodrama Saura tries to impose upon his Carmen, because the Flamenco dancing and guitar music of the rehearsals_ which are 95% of the film _by some of the best known Flamenco dancers and musicians, more than repays the price of entry. A flawed film, and a wonder: perfect for doing a drill in Keats's 'negative capacity', perhaps?

This is a wonderful film! Full of passion, music and drama. It follows the story of the opera of the same name. Even Carmen-haters will agree that this is a version that overcomes the boredom bred of familiarity and infuses new life into this overproduced work.

The setting is a flamenco school in Spain, and the search is on for the star of a production of a flamenco Carmen. The director finds, and then falls in love with his new leading lady. The complications arise from there, from some unhappiness on the part of the best dancer in the troupe who feels she should be the star and not the newcomer, and from the storyline of the opera.

The director of the film is the real-life director of one of the most famous dance schools in Spain, and the dancers, except for the character of Carmen, are members of the school.

The dancing is exciting and dangerous, the story, though very familiar, attains fresh vigor in the new setting, and is altogether one of the best films of the eighties.

The amazing grace and power of flamenco has never been on more vigorous display than in Carlos Saura Carmen, the second of the Spanish director's flamenco trilogy that includes: Blood Wedding (1981), Carmen (1983), and El Amor Brujo (1986). Although the epitaph for movie musicals has now been written, there was never one more alive than this soaring dance interpretation of Bizet's opera based on the novella by Prosper Merimee. Winner of the BAFTA award for Best Foreign-language film and nominated for an Oscar in the same category, in Carmen, Saura attempts to expand the limited vision of the French opera into a deeper and more artistic example of Spain's national identity. Supported by performances by Spain's great guitarist Paco de Lucia and familiar songs by Bizet such as Toreador's March, La Habanera, and the lovely Intermezzo, the film bursts with energy and sensuality.

Shot in Gades' dance studio in Madrid, the film is marked by riveting performances by Antonio Gades, former director of the National Ballet of Spain, Cristina Hoyos, an acclaimed flamenco dancer, and singer and dancer Laura del Sol in her first leading role. Carmen opens with the director of the dance company (Gades) rehearsing for a dance production of the opera. He is searching among his students for a young dancer to play the lead role but has not found one that suits his ideal. According to Gades, he wants a girl with "a wild and strange beauty, her lips full and well shaped, opening onto small teeth, whiter than the whitest pearls, her long, black, shiny hair with blue glints similar to a raven's feathers, and eyes with a voluptuous but surly expression." It is only when the director/choreographer travels to a similar studio in Seville that he finds his Carmen, played by the dark-haired del Sol. The film then moves seamlessly between the rehearsals of the company for its new production and the lives of the dancers, reflecting the story of the opera in an almost surreal way that blurs the distinction between illusion and reality. The teacher becomes personally involved with his student but finds that she is elusive, self-absorbed, and proud of her independence. When he discovers, however, that she is married and her husband has just been released from prison after serving a sentence on a drug-related charge, his possessiveness turns into a destructive jealousy that ends the film on a melodramatic tone.

Some of the most memorable scenes in Carmen include Gades dancing the Ferucca in his own home as his lover sees him through his window, then, once inside, watches while he performs a full routine. Another remarkable sequence is the dance between Gades and Christina that depicts the male-female relationship with elegance and grace. Though the performance by del Sol captures Carmen's fiercely independent streak, for me she seems a bit too wholesome to be fully convincing as a jezebel, leaving the tragic resolution of the story feeling unmotivated. Whether or not you find the drama convincing, however, ultimately the film is not about the story but about the passion and breathtaking art of the dance. Carmen is a powerful experience that can evoke in the viewer an unexpected feeling of wonder

Carlos Saura's Carmen is one of the finest achievements in world, let alone Spanish, cinema. It manages to excite interest in flamenco in its wonderful staged adaptations from Bizet with powerful physical force. At the same time we see the impact of the creation and rehearsal of a new interpretation of Carmen on the choreographer/director and the principle dancers. The fine line between life and art is dazzling.

Highly regarded at release, but since rather neglected. Immense importance in the history of performing arts. A classic use of embedded plots. One of my favourite films. Why hasn't the soundtrack been re-released?

I've seen this film at least 4 times since '84 and it's still great every time I see it. It's a very compelling version of the opera Carmen, with amazing Flamenco dancing, bare bones sets, and, of course, wonderful music.

This telling of Carmen is a story within a story, with each paralleling the other, until the doubly tragic ending. Obviously a low budget Spanish production, the film contains dancing by some of Spain's premier Flamenco dancers. The combination of the soaring opera music and the sound of the dancers boots on the wooden stage, makes the telling of the story even more powerful.

It's independent movie making at it's best and probably my all time favorite foreign film.

On the face of it, Carlos Saura's 1983 Carmen is simply yet another version - to join dozens of others - of Bizet's world-famous opera, using flamenco music and dance, and a modern story-line, alongside elements of the opera. Following in the footsteps of many a Hollywood musical, Saura sets his story in the period of rehearsal before a new production, except in this case there is no successful opening night as the climax of the movie, but a tragic death echoing the opera. The music and dancing are dramatic, passionate and exciting, especially for those of us who love flamenco; and the weaving together of the modern characters and plot with those of the opera is effective, if somewhat contrived.

There is, however, an ironic aspect to the film. Possibly no country in the western world has a stronger culture than Spain. Spanish food, drink, language, literature, music, dance and much else are unique and immediately identifiable. Yet one of its national icons - the free-spirited gypsy Carmen, who seduces and abandons men at will - is a totally French creation. Bizet, who never set foot in Spain, based his 1875 opera on a story by Prosper Merimée, also a Frenchman; and no matter how Spanish his music sounds, it is merely imitation. So for Saura to base a film on Carmen has a significance not shared by the other two films in his "flamenco trilogy" - Blood Wedding and Love the Magician - where the originals are quintessentially Spanish.

It is tempting therefore to regard the film as a kind of reclamation for Spain of Bizet's pseudo-Spanish Carmen. And certainly in the adaptation for guitar of some of Bizet's music, and in the translation to flamenco dance of some of the action of the opera, such a reclamation or reconciliation has taken place. But I for one wish that Saura had gone further; had deconstructed the original stereotypes; and had shown that by the late 20th century José had grown up, and could refrain from knifing Carmen, no matter how Spanish he might feel and how free-spirited she might be. In other words, perhaps a happy Hollywood ending would not have been such a bad idea!

Personally, I think that the film was done very professionally, I loved the choreography and the acting. The plot is also gripping and mysterious. The film itself is very emotional, and what I liked about it most is that it makes you think afterwards. Antonio Gades has absolutely lived his role to the end, and I must say that it's one of my favourite pictures and Saura is a wonderful director.

Carlos Saura's Carmen is a tense and surreal story of a director who falls in love with the lead actress he has chosen for his stage version of Bizet's Carmen. The acting performances are very good: Antonio Gades as the perfectionist, passionate and contemplative director Antonio and Laura del Sol as Carmen, the epitome of the femme fatale. Their liaison is radiant though doomed to fail.

The foundation for the fatalistic way in which Antonio falls for Carmen lies in the fact that she perfectly fits the persona that he had in mind when searching for his lead actress. Saura cleverly uses the switching between reality, play and a combination of both, which adds to the surreal feel of the film. As a bonus we get an insider's look at the contagious Spanish fervor and joie de vivre. True craftsmanship.

This did look like an interesting film and it absolutely was, not to mention that it was a brilliant movie in its own right. Visually, Carmen is stunning, with ravishing cinematography, sumptuous colour and costumes and costumes and scenery that are enough to take the breath away. The music is magnificent as well and performed with authentic flavour which makes the experience even more passionate. The choreography is very vivid and shows a big amount of technical, even virtuosic brilliance, while the Flamenco dancing is not only efficient but the dancers actually show they're into it. The story is still as beautiful and passionate as ever, while the performances of Antonio Gades and Laura De Sol are superb and the two are riveting together. Every scene is compelling, but my favourite is the Poker scene which is one of the better scenes of any film I've seen recently. In conclusion, a must watch. 9/10 Bethany Cox

The process of creating a work of art can be extremely complex, and each one is unique and irreplaceable. But can something be considered a work of art if it is also derivative?

The Carlos Saura (director)-Antonio Gades (choreographer, dancer, actor) dance film version of Prosper Merimee's classic novel Carmen provides a perfect example to resolve this question. It draws much of its power and beauty from the famous Georges Bizet opera of the same name, whose libretto is cleverly positioned into the film's narrative. Yet the Saura-Gades film also borrows ideas from still other works of art: Can the passion involved in bringing life to an artistic creation supplant normal human love (The Red Shoes 1948)? And what happens when the creative process takes over and controls the artist's life to the point that he/she can no longer distinguish fantasy from reality (A Double Life.1947, itself derived from the earlier British film Men Are Not Gods 1936)?

In Carmen, Saura and Gades took Merimee's timeless story of love, jealousy, betrayal and doom and transposed it into a remarkable dance synthesis that manages to be both dramatically interesting and sensually passionate at the same time. In addition to a gorgeous sound track featuring generous portions of Bizet's glorious opera, Carmen's creators have given us an outstanding visual treat. The dance sequences are astonishing in how well they are integrated into Carmen's narrative--again reminiscent of The Red Shoes. For all its artifices, Carmen grabs its audience into a world that still manages to be both believable and arresting.

It is difficult to make a realistic yet theatrical movie about the creative process. Even the most acclaimed such ventures sometimes seem to be unable to totally escape from their artificial roots (cf. All About Eve 1950). This makes Carmen a very special achievement, one that excites and thrills us even with repeated viewings.

Carmen may be derivative, but it is undeniably a work of art as well as an entertainment landmark. Very highly recommended.

If you thought that "Dirty Dancing" brought dancing to its on-screen apex, then wait 'til you see Carlos Saura's "Carmen". Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, this movie depicts a dance instructor prepping his students for a production of Bizet's opera. I should admit that I've never seen a production of "Carmen" itself, although I've seen Otto Preminger's "Carmen Jones", which transferred the story to the southeast US and featured an entirely African-American cast (a bold move for a Hollywood production at the time).

Even having never seen the opera, I gotta admire the passion that these dancers put into their performances. Flamenco is an art unlike any other in the world, and I'd venture to say that this movie shows it at its best, and its most intense. Definitely see it.

great dancing, great music, great story. I saw it when it came out originally and dubbed into German, so my memory is a bit hazy, but it was very impressive. The story of the opera repeats itself in a production. All is shot very minimalistic, nearly just one set. It's stark, nearly monochrome and very intense because of that. Raw aggression and fury in the cigarette factory scene for instance. This one stands out most clearly in my memory 21 years after I've seen it.

Guitar by Paco de Lucia, again very minimalist.

I don't know whether there is a DVD available but I will start looking for one ;-)

...has not been updated. It looks so old, what's technology for? Too bad

The idea of this choreography intertwined between the tormented mind of Antonio and the dance they are rehearsing to the point of dwelling incoherently in and out of his nightmare is magnificent. Is his obsession needing of Carmen in his life is at the heart of the film and where everything moves forward. Carmen like a force of unstoppable nature would refuse to accept anything but what she desires. This is probably what I like the most of the film, its surrealist tone wherever everything is an interpretation of someone else's dreams and nightmares. Pretty much what cinema is all about, but here is all in your face, all at once, unapologetic and wild.