Director Jean-Luc Godard has taken a less than reverent approach to the famed opera Carmen. Godard chose to depart substantially from the original Merimee novel and, to the horror of Bizet fans, replaced the composer's score with Beethoven string quartets and a ballad called "Ruby's
Arms" by the gruff-voiced Tom Waits.
Here Carmen (Maruschka Detmers) is a femme fatale who concocts a daring plan to rob a bank while pretending to shoot a movie. Luckily she has an uncle (Godard) who was once a brilliant movie director and is now a resident at the local mental hospital. He jumps at the chance to "direct" Carmen's
film of the robbery. While staging the robbery, she is nearly apprehended by a police officer (Jacques Bonnaffe), but the two fall in love instead. It appears that Carmen is in complete control of the relationship.
Not only is FIRST NAME: CARMEN optimistic, it is also relatively linear in its narrative structure, making it perhaps Godard's most accessible film. What's more, FIRST NAME: CARMEN is Godard's first comedy, although not in the customary sense. This comes as no surprise as his gangster films, war
movies, musicals and dramas are hardly typical of their genres. Godard's films have always had their funny moments but this is his first step in the direction of the great comedians. The film is spiced with passion, philosophy, eroticism, and technical innovation, and while its ideas are
relatively accessible, they still do not make for "easy" viewing. leave a comment
