Carmen [Blu-ray]

Director: Francesco Rosi Francesco Rosi

Overview

Georges Bizet's 1875 opera about Carmen, the colorful cigarette factory worker whose flirtations with the soldier Don José are forgotten in her love for the matador Escamillo, is the source for director Francesco Rosi's cinematic version of the same story. Plácido Domingo sings the part of Don José, Julia Migenes-Johnson sings Carmen, and Ruggero Raimondi is Escamillo. Although there is nothing to fault in the singing itself, some viewers may feel that director Rosi has stayed closer to a stage production than the medium of film would warrant. Carmen received the 1984 Cesar award for "Best Sound."

Product Details

Release Date:	08/30/2011
UPC:	0887090030106
Original Release:	1984
Rating:	NR
Source:	Olive Films
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	2:35:00

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Juliana Migenes-Johnson	Carmen,Actor
Placido Domingo	Don Jose
Ruggero Raimondi	Escamillio
Faith Esham	Micaela
Jean-Philippe Lafont	Dancairo
Gerard Garino	Remendado
Susan Daniel	Mercedes
Lilian Watson	Frasquita
Jean Paul Bogart	Zuniga
Francois Le Roux	Morales
Julien Guiomar	Lillas Pastia
Accursio Di Leo	Guide
Maria Compano	Manuelita
Enrique El Cojo	Old Dancer/Innkeeper
Santiago Lopez	Escamillo's Double
Christina Hoyos	Dancer
Juan Antonio Jimenez	Dancer
Aurora Vargas	Carmen's Friend,Carmen's Friend,Carmen's Friend
Esperanza Fernandez	Carmen's Friend
Lourdes Garcia	Carmen's Friend
Maria Gomez	Carmen's Friend
Pilar Becerra	Carmen's Friend
Lorin Maazel	Conductor
Georges Bizet	Composer

Technical Credits

Francesco Rosi

Tonino Guerra

Patrice Ledoux	Producer
Francesco Rosi	Director,Screenwriter
Alessandro Von Normann	Executive Producer
Dominique Hennequin	Sound Mixer
Harald Maury	Sound/Sound Designer
Hugues Darmois	Sound Editor
Jacques Maumont	Sound Mixer
Bernard Le Roux	Sound/Sound Designer
Jean-Louis Ducarme	Sound Mixer
Guy Level	Sound Editor,Sound/Sound Designer
Tonino Guerra	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Adapting an opera for film is a daunting task. On the one hand, the performers must act their parts convincingly while matching their prerecorded voices to their lip movements. On the other, technicians must continually tweak their sound equipment during outdoor scenes to maintain studio-quality reproduction under constantly changing temperatures and wind conditions. In this heralded 1984 film production of Carmen, the cast and sound crew work in nearly perfect synergy on-location in Spain to create a landmark film that set high standards for future opera films. Love gone wrong -- deceitful, fatal love -- is, of course, the central theme of this Georges Bizet masterpiece, one of the most popular and most frequently performed operas of all time. In an innovation establishing this theme, director Francesco Rosi opens the production in an arena in which a roaming bull bleeds under the assault of banderilleros and picadors -- after a matador promised everything with the wave of a scarlet cloak but yielded nothing. American soprano Julia Migenes-Johnson is magnificent as Carmen. Her sultry movements and her peasant defiance communicate nearly as effectively as her soprano voice, which she spent months manipulating to develop the mezzo quality demanded by her role. Placido Domingo, opera's undisputed king of repertoire who has performed the role of Don José hundreds of times on-stage and in audio recordings, demonstrates why critics view him as one of the better tenors of recent decades. Although his acting is pedestrian and his then middle-age physique lacks dash, his voice has decibels to spare. He gets the job done. The cinematography, the period costumes, and the instrumental support of the Orchestre National de France under Lorin Maazel are all excellent.

All Movie Guide - Mike Cummings