Carmen

FRI May 21 7:15 pm Konvikt / film hall / free admission

CARMEN
Spain 1983

director Carlos Saura
screenplay Carlos Saura, Antonio Gades
director of photography Teo Escamilla
editor Pedro del Rey
music Paco de Lucía, Georges Bizet
cast Antonio Gades, Laura del Sol, Paco de Lucía, Cristina Hoyos,
Juan Antonio Jiménez, Sebastián Moreno


A timeless story of love and falling out of love. Carmen, Carlos Saura's second musical that was made with Antonio Gades, is inspired by Georges Bizet's opera. It is an adaptation of the piece to the world of flamenco, that tells the story of Antonio, the director of a dance company who is working on the staging of Bizet's Carmen. When he finds the ideal protagonist, he begins an obsessive relationship with her that reproduces the libretto of the opera. It received the award for the best artistic contribution at the Cannes Festival, and was nominated for an Oscar in 1984.

 

Carmen is also an insightful and provocative exposition on the interpenetration between reality and performance. Saura's perspective is integrally rooted to a cultural interrogation on the underlying nature – and perception – of Spanish identity. At the heart of the discourse is Antonio Gades's deliberate attempt to divest the story of Carmen from the cultural caricatures inherent in Bizet's opera, and consequently, re-infuse the authenticity of native performance. It is interesting to note that through Antonio's deliberate dismantling of cultural myth, Saura incisively defines his character as an implicit embodiment of Spanish cultural authenticity.