Carmen

France

1926

165 Min

Black and White

1.33:1

Silent

Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

SCR Jacques Feyder, Prosper Mérimée

DP Maurice Desfassiaux, Roger Forster, Paul Parguel

CAST Raquel Meller, Fred Louis Lerch, Gaston Modot, Jean Murat, Victor Vina, Guerrero de Xandoval, Charles Barrois, Georges Lampin, Raymond Guérin-Catelain, Andrée Canti, Luis Buñuel, Pedro de Hidalgo, Arthur Duarte, Charles Morat, Joaquim Peindo, Hernando Vines, Roy Wood

ED Henriette Caire, Jacques Feyder

MUSIC Ernesto Hallfer-Escriche

Synopsis

Having killed a man in a duel, Don José Lizzarabengoa is forced to flee his home in Navarre. Arriving in Castille, he enlists in the army and soon becomes a sergeant in the regiment at Almanza. It is here that his life takes an even more dramatic turn, when he encounters a Spanish gypsy girl named Carmen. When he allows the girl to escape after she has been arrested for causing a brawl in the cigarette factory where she works, Don José is demoted. Later, after killing an officer in a fight, he takes refuge in the mountains, joining up with a band of smugglers who are known to Carmen. Don José now realises that he is infatuated with the gypsy girl, but then discovers she is already married and is planning to help her husband, “le Borgne”, the former leader of the band of smugglers, to escape from prison… —filmsdefrance.com

Director

Jacques Feyder

A French film-maker of Belgian origins, born under the name of Jacques Frédérix in 1885. His family intended him to follow a military career, but he changed his name and chose first, the theater, and then the cinema in 1912. He debuted as a director with Gaumont in 1915. L’Atlantide brought him international fame in 1921. Thus started a cosmopolitan career with many ups and downs and films made in the studios of Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Los Angeles and London.

Returning to Paris from a disappointing stay in Hollywood, he found new inspiration with a series of films starring his talented wife, Françoise Rosay : Le Grand jeu (1934), Pension Mimosas and the famous Carnival in Flanders (1935). He died in Switzerland in 1948. —Octuor de France