Carmen

So the director who choreographed Black Swan, gives us a reimagining on Carmen. It's a musical, it's a dance spectacular.its drama filled study of the border issue in the USA. It's an arthouse study of all of the aforementioned. To summarise, someone has tried to get a quart into a pint pot and ended up with a hot mess. An interesting hot mess. But a hot mess nonetheless.

You can a movie about all of the above but not all at once.

That said, the movie is very well made. There is religious symbolism in the washing of feet, allusions to PTSD, slow motion action scenes, nice cinematography, the director is not without talent and the acting by the leads is very good. It is slow but somehow never boring and worth a watch if you consider yourself a cinephile.

Carmen is a movie that tries to be too many different things at once. It wants to be a musical, a modern dance recital, a drama about ptsd and romance, and an art house forward film. The end result as you can imagine is a slow, bloated mess.

The positives are the performances from Melissa and Paul. This isn't an easy film to act in due to the nature of the story, but they both commit to their roles and deserved a better director.

Outside of the cinematography which accurately captured the mood of the story, there's nothing else to praise. Benjamin Millepied's cinematic vision is pretentious and dreadful. His eye for directing is better suited for the stage, not film.

It uses the short story of Prosper Merimee, the opera by Georges Bizet as pretext for an impressive show.

This is the first feeling seeing it and it is not just wrong; only not enough.

It is a large puzzle the border immigration, the old myths, music and, especialy dance, the lights are used almost with volupty.

Nice job of Melissa Barrera, fair work of Paul Mescal ( one of main motives, for me, to see the film ) and useful performance of Rossy de Palma.

A provocative remind of essential pieces defining life, from tradition, love, freedom to sacrifice offering staight to each of them.

The sin - the powerful feeling , to the second part of it, to be only an inconsistent improvisation, the dialogue using, too easy, pathetic cliches, the dance being the only matter thing, the sensation to see a puzzle with pieces from many others.

In essence, for me, entire film can be reduced at the dance of Marina Tamayo, reminding more Garcia Lorca than Prosper Merimee or Georges Bizet. For this dance, indeed, Carmen deserves to be seen. So, a two hours ( almost ) film being just beautiful for only three minutes. And this is all.

Carmen (2022) directed by Benjamin Millepied, retakes the original 1845 French novel plus references 1954 Carmen Jones film, and not the opera narrative. Dance forms becomes the centrepiece of an unsure love story.

It takes liberty to reinterpret the original setting to the U. S./Mexico border, supposed to be set in the Northern Mexican states. Actually it's Oz, the Australian landscape passing for Mexican desert scenery.

Although the film's intent to depict borderlands culture via Oz's landscape, there's odd cultural references like a repeated image of the Chilean Virgin Mary (Lady of Grace), in place of the Mexican Virgen de Guadalupe icon.

Carmen, helmed by Mexican actor, Melissa Barrera and Aidan helmed by Irish actor, Paul Mescal meet under certain circumstances: undocumented crossings (Carmen entering the U. S.) and paramilitary border patrolling (Aidan, retired Marine as a patrol volunteer). Their climatic interaction begins there as they flee together to "ciudad de los angeles" (L. A.).

Many scenes can suggest magical realism or surreal situations. There's some weak writing, with a contribution by Broadway's Alexander Dinelaris, but its strength is the dancing.

Millepied's background as a dancer, support the beautiful choreography that's a lot superior than the noted film, "La La Land". Unlike the prior, Carmen references the social reality of U. S. immigration policies and urban decay.

Dance scenes are breathtaking and employ Iberian and Latin American traditions from Flamenco to Tango. There's even a nod to L. A. contemporary urban dance forms like "Crumping".

The presence of Rossy de Palma, from Spanish cinematic royalty, cements a mystical creature as Carmen's aunt. She is a storyteller, recording Carmen's struggles as well as her love for Aidan.

At the end of the film, viewers navigate through muddled, slow burning action but it's worth it for the dancing and de Palma's acting. Its soundtrack has original compositions by Mexican musicians like Julieta Venegas and historic borderland ballads by Lydia Mendoza!

Yes once again the "history" misused .. well sort of. So no pun intended - we get Carmen - but maybe not as we imagine her. Maybe not even how she imagines herself - kidding again. Great cast - Melissa may have become too political for some (agree or disagree with her stance, I think she is on the right side of history), she is a really good actress and I hope she can continue showcasing her craft - on a bigger scale.

That said, I am not sure if this is based on a novel that deconstructs our image of Carmen ... but it is well told and you get more than a picture of someone doing everything for art ... (not the clown - sorry couldn't resist, if you didn't get that, don't worry: an inside horror movie joke) and she succeeds in a way too - well you be the judge of that of course.

Drama baby - and well edited and choreographed one as well ... good sound design too.