Synopsis
A fragment of a 1913 Italian-Spanish production of the story of "Carmen", minus the ending, and partly in poor condition, thus probably only of interest to "Carmen" enthusiasts. Although an opening title declares the film to be: "The famous work of PROSPER MÉRIMÉE faithfully brought to the screen from the book", like Carmen herself the film's faithfulness is questionable. It actually closely follows the opera's adaptation, even quoting lyrics of the musical numbers. There is one important exception: the opera portrayed José as an upright soldier dragged to disgrace and dishonor by the charms of Carmen. This film retains the backstory of José given in the book: he joined the military to escape arrest after a bloody quarrel. So José used a military uniform to cover a roguish past, and his acts of violent rage began long before he met Carmen. That alone might make this film fragment notable to "Carmen" enthusiasts. They include some bracketed comments to clarify the confusion caused by missing elements.
Uploader's description on archive.org
Details
- Running time
- 37 minutes
Subjects on the Internet Archive
- silent film
- Bizet's Carmen