Carmen DVD Review:

"She always lied .. But when she spoke I believed her. I couldn't help it"

Carmen is the story of producer/dancer Antonio who is adapting the famous Opera and looking for his lead dancer. Shunning his current lead Cristina, Antonio finds a local amateur dancer fated to be the one, named Carmen; a cocky, forthright lady, whose life almost mirrors that of her character. Antonio quickly falls in love with this femme fatale man-eater, and sees his life merging in with that of the story.

The whole film is set in the dance studio, where the various performers move around and are doing their own thing; the musicians and singers are off stage rehearsing, and the dancers are each working their routines on the floor. The camera moves in-between the action, picking up the plot, and inter-weaving it with that of the opera, blending reality with story, and making this an ambiguous tale; when the plot reaches a dramatic stage Saura switches to the rehearsals to show the emotions and feelings of his characters, then moves back to reality, ultimately leading to the audience unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality. This is a recurring characteristic of Saura's work, and is also used in Tango, which is part of this trilogy.

This is a fiery story, involving passion, jealousy and lust, key themes through Saura's catalogue of work; in Carmen we have a modern woman who wants what she wants and gets it, cruelly exploiting men's lust for her, as did the character she portrays in the play. First she seduces, Saura capturing the spark in electric eye contact while she and Antonio dance, then she exploits Antonio’s jealousy of her. There aren't enough works with strong females such as this, and any mainstream titles like this end-up in a similar fashion. Although it is shocking and confusing in its own right, the audience should expect the female to be punished as this is true of almost any film where a woman expresses power over a male. In that it is unoriginal.

Carmen celebrates what it is to be Spanish. National dances, national songs, and a story, which is integral to Spanish history; but it's not over-the-top about it. It even mocks itself, the birthday celebration scenes making fun of the very essence of the film, Spanish dance, as well as bull-fighting and traditional Spanish dress. All tongue-in-cheek and jovial in it’s execution.

As well as being influenced by Italian Neo-realism, this film has quite a few touches of documentary film in it. It puts the audience right inside what could be a real stage and real rehearsals, with things going off all over. Combinations of various moving camera techniques, weaving between action, and the style of editing, often holding relatively long takes when moving are all in the documentary style. The betrayal scene was particularly influenced by documentary, a handheld camera used to track Antonio, the unsteady camera movement helping illuminate the feeling of wariness, nervousness and jealous anticipation.

This film was made in 1983. Even many Hollywood films appear dated from this time, yet this doesn’t. There is only one scene which allows this film to date itself, one showing 80s vehicles which are now almost totally extinct. The timelessness achieved is a great tribute to Saura and his Cinematographer, clearly whose style was before its time, much like the pioneers of 80s French cinema. This film did win various accolades for 'Technical Achievement' in 1983, when it was released. It is a good film, but once again it fails in the exact same ways as Tango; the two are just too similar in all respects to be put together in a box set. Similar narrative, similar presentation and subject matter. One is Argentinean, the other Spanish, but could someone not of these nationalities distinguish this, and would it make a difference if they could?

By all means rent or buy this DVD, it is worth a look. But if you’ve already seen Tango then might be best to leave it a while.

Chris Horsnell

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