Carmen (1926)

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Movie
German title Carmen, in AT: The Whore of Seville
Original title Carmen
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 1926
length 3824 meters, at 22 fps approx. 165 minutes
Rod
Director Jacques Feyder
script Jacques Feyder after Prosper Mérimée
production Alexandre Kamenka
music Ernesto Hallfter-Escriche
camera Maurice Desfassiaux ,
Paul Parguel
cut Henriette Caire ,
Jacques Feyder
occupation

also: Arthur Duarte

Carmen is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Prosper Mérimée , which Jacques Feyder made as a silent film in 1926 with Raquel Meller , Fred Louis Lerch and Gaston Modot in the leading roles for Les Films Albatros . He wrote the screenplay himself based on the literary template from 1845. Luis Buñuel , who leans towards surrealism and who was also assistant director alongside Charles Spaak , plays a small role as a smuggler.

action

Don José, a young soldier, trapped in a passion for the gypsy Carmen, leaves everything behind and first deserted and then a smuggler just to be close to her. In order to have the woman all to himself, he kills Garcia, her lover. Carmen, a free woman, is not loyal to him and leaves him because of Lukas, a bullfighter, which drives José to madness and to murder.

“Carmen knows neither the past nor the future, she only lives in the here and now. Love means nothing to her, it's just a fleeting whim. Their main characteristic is precisely the changeability that Don José detests most. ”(Ulf Kjell Gür)

background

Carmen was a production of the company Les Films Albatros, founded in 1919 by Russian exiles around the producer Alexandre Kamenka and his production assistant Charles Barrois. It was released by Les Films Armor . Lazare Meerson created the set. Maurice Desfassiaux and Paul Parguel were responsible for the photography . Jacques Feyder, assisted by Henriette Caire, did the editing . The costumes were designed by Vasily Shukhayev and Jeanne Lanvin . The title role was played by the Spanish actress and singer Raquel Meller .

The illustration music was written by the Spanish-Mexican composer and conductor Ernesto Halffter Escriche . A student of Manuel de Falla and Maurice Ravel , he avoided the leitmotif characterization of individual figures in favor of an atmosphere in impressionistic colors.

Carmen premiered on November 5, 1926 in Paris. In Germany the film got the title “Die weisse Zigeunerin” and was announced as “a drama in 5 acts from the life of Spanish toreros, with Raquel Meller in the title role”.

Carmen also ran across Europe in Denmark, Finland, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Poland. The film was also shown overseas in the USA and Brazil.

reception

Feyder's version of Carmen was filmed on location in Spain and southern France. Nevertheless, it is far from a painterly style, rather it turned out to be “sober and tragic”.

Jacques Feyder commented on the choice of his leading actress: “ No me han pedido hacer una película sobre Carmen con Raquel Meller, sino hacer con Raquel Meller algo sobre Carmen ”.

Reviews published by:

Jean Eyre in Mon Ciné 220 of May 6, 1926, pp. 6-8.

Jean Vignaud in Ciné Miroir 111, Dec. 1, 1926, pp. 9-16.

Eva Elie in Ciné Magazine 49, Dec. 3, 1926

"I read Feyder's film more as a struggle between the directorial vision of Spanish stereotypes on the one hand, and the star's resistance to that stereotype on the other, a resistance which can be understood in the context of women's changing place in French society. The film was conceived as a star vehicle for the Spanish actress Raquel Meller by the dynamic Films Albatros, a group of Russian expatriates whose films enjoyed particular success in the 1920s due in part to great actors such as Ivan Mozzhukhin and set-designers such as Lazare Meerson. Meller was originally a popular singer; her song 'La Violetéra' had been an international success, and was eventually used by Chaplin in City Lights (1931) "(Phil Powrie: The kiss-curl and the resisting eyes)

"In the lead, Raquel Meller plays an unusual Carmen. She is not flamboyant and she clashed with the director during the shooting. She even suggested they should call the author, Prosper Mérimée (who died in 1870 ...) over the phone! "(Ann Harding)

In 1926 Carmen inspired several well-known graphic artists, including Pierre Chenal , Alain Cuny , Jean-Adrien Mercier and, in Austria, Else Czulik , to create various poster designs.

  • Restoration and re-performance:

The version by Carmen , restored by the Cinématheque Française in 1985, measured 3408 meters and had a playing time of 110 minutes.

In 2001, Carmen was restored again by ZZ productions . The film is now 3824 meters long, viraged, and was broadcast on German television on June 21, 2002 by the cultural broadcaster Arte .

A recording of Ernesto Halffter's film music by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Marc Fitz-Gerald was released on CD in 2011 on the Naxos label .

literature

  • François Albera: Albatros des Russes à Paris (1919–1929). ed.Mazzotta e Cinematèque française, 1995, ISBN 88-202-1145-9 .
  • Marta García Carrión: Por un cine patrio: Cultura cinematográfica y nacionalismo español (1926–1936) . Universitat de València Publishing House, 2014, ISBN 978-84-370-9326-0 .
  • Restaurations de la Cinémathèque Française. film projetés en 1986. Cinémathèque Française, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-900596-06-8 .
  • Ann Davies, Phil Powrie: Carmen on Screen: An Annotated Filmography and Bibliography (= Research bibliographies and checklists: New series ). Verlag Tamesis Books, 2006, ISBN 1-85566-129-2 , pp. 14-15.
  • Alan Goble: The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film . Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 1999, ISBN 3-11-095194-0 , p. 705.
  • Ulrich Gregor, Enno Patalas: History of the film. Volume 1, Verlag Rowohlt, 1976, ISBN 3-499-16193-1 , p. 239.
  • Ann Harding: Albatros productions. on: nitrateville.com , Mar 28, 2012.
  • Phil Powrie: The kiss-curl and the resisting eyes: reassessing Carmen (Feyder, 1926). 2003. (PDF)
  • Phil Powrie: Carmen on Film: A Cultural History. Indiana University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-253-34888-3 , p. 295.
  • Michel Serceau: Le Mythe, le miroir et le divan: Pour lire le cinéma . Presses Univ. Septentrion, 2009, ISBN 978-2-7574-0112-5 , p. 287.
  • Winifred Woodhall: Carmen and early Cinema. The Case of Jacques Feyder (1926). In: Carmen: From Silent Film to MTV. (= Critical studies. 24). Verlag Rodopi, 2005, ISBN 90-420-1964-6 , pp. 37-60.
  • Anat Zanger: Film Remakes as Ritual and Disguise: From Carmen to Ripley. (= Film Culture in Transition Series ). Amsterdam University Press, 2006, ISBN 90-5356-784-4 , p. 147.

Web links

Illustrations

Sound document

  • La Violetéra , Scottish Español (José Padilla) from the film “Violettes impériales” (“Imperial Violets”) [France 1924, Henry Roussell]. Raquel Meller with orchestra. ODEON 184.374 (Matr. Ki 962-2). Paris, October 1926

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ at IMDb / plotsummary
  2. ↑ born on March 9, 1888 in Tarazona, Zaragoza, Aragón, died on July 26, 1962, previously played in the silent film operetta "Violettes impériales" (1924). See IMDb and findagrave.com ; the DNB's music catalog lists 49 sound recordings of her.
  3. ^ A. Harding: "... what makes the film worth investigating again is the orchestral score by Ernesto Halffter Escriche. His music recalls the impressionistic colors of Ravel. It's not a leitmotiv full score delineating each character. It's more an accompaniment creating an atmosphere throughout the film […] With the music, the film flows in spite of its length (165 min) "
  4. ↑ cf. Poster by Else Czulik (1898–1977) at imdb.com/title ; on the Austrian graphic artist cf. Heidelinde Resch: 14 graphic designers in Vienna in the 20th century: "... Exactness of drawing and color with real Viennese charm ..." (= Design in Austria. Volume 3). Verlag Birkhäuser, 2013, ISBN 978-3-99043-621-9 , p. 25.
  5. ↑ IMDb / release info
  6. ↑ A. Harding: "The film was shot mostly in Spain (around Seville) and in the South of France making the most of the breathtaking landscapes."
  7. ↑ "seca y trágica" at filmaffinity.com , cf. Ulf Kjell Gür at IMDb / plotsummary
  8. ↑ For example: "I was not asked to make a film about Carmen with RM, but something about Carmen with RM" (as at filmaffinity.com )
  9. ^ Movie poster by Pierre Chenal.
  10. ↑ movie poster of Alain Cuny.
  11. ↑ Cinema poster (couple on horse) and cinema poster (bullfight) by Jean-Adrien Mercier.
  12. ↑ Restaurations de la Cinémathèque Française. P. 27.