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Carmen (2023)

Carmen (2023)

7.5

Though not without its flaws, this ambitious fuse of cinema and dance is an electric watch

Movie

Australia, France
English, Portuguese, Spanish
Drama, Music
2023
imdb
rt
wiki

TLDR

Acting, singing, dancing — what can’t Paul Mescal do?

What it's about

A retelling of the opera Carmen that follows the fraught journey of a young woman fleeing violence in Mexico across the border and to an LA nightclub.

The take

Renowned choreographer Benjamin Millepied brings an 1875 opera leaping into the 21st century with this modern retelling — through dance and drama — of Carmen. The plot is reimagined along the US border and recenters the titular character (Melissa Barrera), a newly orphaned refugee from Mexico making her way to her godmother (a fabulous Rossy de Palma) in LA. In places, Carmen recalls Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet: aided by Nicholas Britell’s operatic score, it embraces its grand origins to evoke a star-crossed sense of looming tragedy over the romance that blossoms when reluctant border patrol guard Aidan (Paul Mescal) saves Carmen’s life and flees with her to California. 

Where Carmen really soars is in its translation of drama into dance. It’s an inspired move, pairing this almost mythical story with such a primal medium — but, while the movie achieves visceral emotion that words would struggle to produce in its choreographed scenes, there’s something lacking in the moments where dialogue is crucial. The conversations never move as fluidly as the dancing bodies do, and the passion and the fury falter as a result. That being said, this is largely still a boldly inventive filmmaking experiment, one that spotlights the thrilling potency of pure movement as a storytelling medium.

What stands out

Carmen’s standout moments are its dance scenes. From the movie’s opening moments — a tense stand-off conducted via furious, wordless flamenco — to the romantic crescendos delivered balletically by Mescal and Barrera and the climactic fight scene, Millepied’s choreography conveys a world of emotion unadulterated by language. It’s in moments like these where his vision burns the brightest.

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