Carmen

There may have once been a grain of truth in the original Merimeé novel, but it has been turned into an icon beyond recognition as much as La Dame Aux Camelias has. Vivian Romance camps it up playing "gitaine" for all it's worth. She plays it like grand opera, probably the director's immediate frame of reference. When one thinks of the Rom one thinks of oppressed people, and it is perfectly consistent to see a young woman from an oppressed group as a sexpot--- that's their value. It is no accident that the story has been redone with former slaves (Carmen Jones) and by Senegal, although in that case, while still oppressed and clandestine, she is more in command than some of the others. Two of the best Carmens are by Sara Montiel and Imperio Argentina, although there is no question that we are watching a bourgeois stereotype regarding what the directors consider a "lower class." Romance's Carmen is worth seeing for comparison.

Filmed in 1942-1943 in Roman studios and on location in Spain .

....but it does not really sound Spanish for all that :besides,Jean Marais -one of my favorite French actors- ,like Glenn Ford in "the loves of Carmen" - is not Latin at all:hence the necessity to make him up outrageously with dubious results;on the other hand ,Viviane Romance's ,(along with Ginette Leclerc ,par excellence the ideal femmes fatales ) choice is perfect ,the part was tailor-made for her.

Based on Bizet's opera (omitting the Michaela character) and on Mérimée's novel ,Christian -Jaque directs a Carmen by the numbers,using now and then Bizet's music ,particularly " La Garde Montante " with a deployment of troops,pageantry worthy of the folklore for tourists.Nobody sings ,and the only aria with is heard is the obligatory "'Air Du Toréador".

Fortunately ,Christian-Jaque ,whose know-how never deserted him ,favors Mérimée over Bizet."It was meant to be" is Carmen's motto ,a femme fatale who knows she won't escape from a fate which is written in the cards ;the scenes with Madame Marguerite Moreno as the fortune- teller are a true delight for the cine-buffs :this actress can outshine everyone on the screen when she appears ,weren't it only for some minutes.

The office Catholique Du Cinema forbade the movie to their flock ;the lines are full of saucy sexual innuendos :the bandits regretting they couldn't share the young girl's dowry (and virginity) was a scene too many for them;and if it were not enough,the outlaws,disguised as priests ,ask the travelers to put their money and jewels under saint Cunegonde's wing ,that it to say in their Bible/box;the final scenes ,when Marais asks a priest to give him absolution is too little too late ;it's possible that this edifying scene was imposed upon him by the producers .

In the field of the literary adaptation,Christian-Jaque would do much better with Maupassant's "Boule De Suif"(1945)