Carlos Saura's biggest international box-office success was this self-reflexive meditation on Prosper Merimee's Carmen story. Antonio Gades plays a choreographer who gets involved with his neophyte lead dancer (Laura del Sol) and grows dangerously jealous. Depicting the joys and anguishes of their affair in between rehearsals for Gades's ballet, Carmen is a visually hypnotic hall of mirrors in which the dancers become inseparable from their personae.
Cast
Antonio-Antonio Gades
Carmen-Laura del Sol
Paco-Paco de Lucia
Cristina-Cristina Hoyos
Juan-Juan Antonio Jimenez
Escamillo-Sebastian Moreno
Pepe Giron-Jose Yepes
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Synopsis: Director Carlos Saura's Carmen develops a fictional story revolving around the rehearsals of Georges Bizet's opera about the brash and colorful cigarette factory woman and her dalliance with the soldier Don Jose and eventual love for Escamillo, the bullfighter. Saura introduces exciting flamenco dance scenes and a love story between Antonio (Antonio Gades), the choreographer of the opera, and the actress playing Carmen, Laura del Sol. Joan Sutherland and Paco de Lucia also perform segments from Bizet's 1875 opera. The mix of magical choreography, rousing flamenco dances, and operatic insertions as well as the tongue-in-cheek parodies of the French opera and foreign stereotypes of Spaniards keeps most viewers well entertained throughout. Saura's Carmen won an award for "Artistic Contribution" and for "Technical Achievement" at the Cannes Film Festival in 1983, another award for "Technical Achievement" at the 1983 Venice Film Festival, and the "Best Foreign Language Film" award at the 1984 British Academy Awards. It was the second in a trilogy of films choreographed in a similar style by Antonio Gades.
