Carmen

Hard to imagine trying to make a silent film out of an opera, but DeMille manages to pull it off, more or less. Opera star Geraldine Farrar plays the title role; she leads a young officer (Wallace Reid) to ruin. Of course, she gets hers in the end ... or in the chest, in this case.

Farrar is okay in her part, but really excels when she is in beyotch mode. Reid seems little more than window dressing at the start, but he gets more interesting as he gets more ticked off. Farrar plays him like a cheap drum.

A mid-thirties Pedro de Cordoba plays a bullfighter; it's interesting to see him this young. There is also a good catfight between Farrar and another gypsy.

The version I saw on YouTube was tinted and restored, and contains themes from the opera.

As some of the other reviewers have said, Geraldine Farrar is quite extraordinary in this film. She is most evidently having the time of her life, freed from the shackles of the operatic stage and the tyranny of those conventions which demand conformity. Her instincts were obviously spontaneous, and her body language and facial expressions go far beyond what was expected in an operatic performance, in those days and even now. "You have killed me, but I am free!" You can sense this freedom in every frame of the movie. The restored film is beautiful, amazingly clear and vibrant, with the tinting adding greatly to the effect. The one thing I found jarring, however, was the music! Gillian Anderson (the conductor, not the actress) performed a labor of love in resuscitating Hugo Riesenfeld's original orchestral score, complete with vocal soloists, but for all that, frequently the music is at odds with the film, despite -- or perhaps because of -- being excerpted from Bizet's opera. There are too many episodes in the film that have no direct counterpart in the music, and I feel it would have been better to give a Carl Davis or his brilliant equivalent the freedom to write a totally new score, especially since the film is based on Merimee's novel rather than the opera libretto of Halevy. Until that happens, I'll prefer to watch the film without sound, but watch it I will!

CARMEN (1915) is Cecil B DeMille's adaptation of the famed opera, starring operatic legend Geraldine Farrar in the title role. Carmen is an independent minded, sultry Gyspy girl who agrees to seduce an idealistic army officer, Don José (Wallace Reid) in order to distract him from smuggling activity. José falls in love with Carmen and becomes part of a love triangle that leads to tragedy.

The script distills the essence of the opera into a movie that runs just shy of an hour, eliminating extraneous characters and focusing on the main plot threads. Carmen and Don José receive the most emphasis in this treatment. Geraldine Farrar had played this role on stage over 60 times before making the film. Farrar is truly mesmerizing, playing Carmen with abandon and verve. Her expressive performance and strikingly unusual beauty made it impossible for me to take my eyes off of her. She really embodies Carmen very well, teasing and tempting, then showing ferocious independence and an iron will. Although accustomed to the stage, where larger than life acting was the order of the day, Farrar successfully scaled her performance for the camera. It's a big performance, to be sure, but her work has its subtleties as well. Wallace Reid is also very believable as the once upright army officer whose love turns to obsession and leads to tragedy. Reid was one of the early superstars of American cinema, and he also proves very charismatic. There is undeniable and abundant chemistry between Farrar and Reid. Pedro de Cordoba also does fine work as Escamillo, a bullfighter who loves Carmen.

The work of the actors is in general quite well done, in line with the style of the time but not so much as to be laughable today. The cinematography is for the most part competent rather than brilliant, but there are touches of innovation here and there, like DeMille's fondness for chiaroscuro lighting. There is also some intriguing tinting during the scene in the bar where Carmen dances for José and his response arouses the jealousy of her real love, Escamillo. Close-ups are used sparingly, but effectively, particularly when it comes to Carmen.

Although lacking the grandeur (and, of course, the music) of the opera, CARMEN succeeds in presenting the main thrust of the story, and the main interest today rests on Geraldine Farrar's charismatic performance, as well as her chemistry with Wallace Reid. SCORE: 8/10.

If anyone is ever looking for an introduction to opera - then they could do much, much worse than this abridged version of Bizet's "Carmen". Telling the story of the anonymous temptress (Geraldine Farrar) who helps her smuggling friends by seducing the erstwhile incorruptible "Don José" (Wallace Reid) so they can continue to ply their trade. Soon, the poor captain is ensnared in her trap and when he kills his brother to help her, finds himself in the soup, so to speak. Whilst the detail of the story is largely lost here, the gist remains and the performances from the truly world class soprano Farrar and from Reid do their job fine. The design of the production is also quite effective: it hasn't the static look of so many of these early stage-to-screen adaptations - especially around the torero scenes - and, of course, it has the wonderful score to underpin it. The inter-titles are sparing - we get most of the plot from their expressions and the music, and that largely works well too. It is a bit clunky at times, the big crowd scenes are a bit confusing but the cat-fight is quite fun and it offers enough of a soupçon of the original, quite visceral, story to make it well worth watching.

Geraldine Farrar (as Carmen) is a Gypsy involved with a gang of smugglers; to help them, she agrees to deflect Officer Wallace Reid (as Don Jose)'s attention with a seduction. Mr. Reid is so smitten with Ms. Farrar, he decides to pursue her; but Farrar only has eyes for bullfighter Pedro de Cordoba (as Escamillo)… Farrar, with a flower in her teeth, is unintentionally amusing (and not very convincing to modern eyes) as a seductress. Nonetheless, she was a big Metropolitan Opera star, and Bizet's "Carmen" proved to be a popular film debut. In fact, Motion Picture Magazine conducted an extensive poll to determine "Screen Masterpieces of Acting". and Farrar's "Carmen" was the best female performance of the year 1915; she outpolled not only Mae Marsh (in "Birth of a Nation") and Mary Pickford (in "Rags"), but also Theda Bara in a competing version of "Carmen".

A movie highlight is Farrar letting her hair down and cat-fighting with another woman in the cigarette factory where they work - and almost ripping the other woman's shirt off! Reid is a very handsome leading man, who doesn't overact throughout; making a scene where he nearly rapes Farrar more convincing. Mr. de Cordoba always uses his eyes to great advantage. Cecil B. DeMille shows improvement as a director - near the end, Farrar and de Cordoba play a nicely staged scene before the bullfight; though, Farrar ruins it by approaching the camera like she's going to take a bow. After the bullfight, Reid and Farrar take more "affective" bows.

****** Carmen (10/31/15) Cecil B. DeMille ~ Geraldine Farrar, Wallace Reid, Pedro de Cordoba, Horace B. Carpenter