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Prénom Carmen
First Name: Carmen
Carmen de Godard / Vorname Carmen
France/Switzerland 1983
produced by Alain Sarde for JLG Films, Sara Films, Films A2
directed by Jean-Luc Godard
starring Maruschka Detmers, Jacques Bonnaffé, Myriem Roussel, Jean-Luc Godard, Christophe Odent, Pierre-Alain Chapuis, Bertrand Lievert, Alain Bastien-Thiry, Hippolyde Girardot, Odile Roire, Valérie Dréville, Christine Pignet, Jean-Michel Denis, Jacques Villeret, Quatuor Prat (= Jacques Prat, Laurent Dangalec, Bruno Pasquier, Michel Strauss), Eloise Beaune, Jean-Pierre Mocky
screenplay by Anne-Marie Miéville, based on Carmen by Prosper Mérimée
Carmen
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Carmen (Maruschka Detmers) is a member of a terrorist gang who rob a
bank trying to secure funds for further operations. But something goes
wrong when Joseph (Jacques Bonnaffé), an over-eager but not essentially
particularly bright bank guard, corners Carmen, and to get out of a
squeeze, she seduces him on the spot and persuades him to accompany him to
her hideout, the beach house of her uncle Jeannot (Jean-Luc Godard) - who
at this point is still hiding from the world in a hospital, but later he
will follow the exploits of Carmen and gang in a parallel story as a
celebrated but underfunded movie director. In the beach house, Carmen
and Joseph spend a few days of carnal sin, then he is captured for what's
essentially her crime (though it ultimately looked as if he had kidnapped
her). He gets off with a light sentence though, also thanks to his rich
girlfriend Claire (Myriem Roussel), who also gets him a job once he's out
... but he prefers to return to Carmen and joins her gang - even though he
shares none of their ideals and the other gangmembers mock him for his
naivity. Carmen too grows more and more distant and tries to ditch him,
who she never loved, again and again, but he just won't go. Ultimately,
when a restaurant shoot-out goes terribly wrong and the two are cornered
by the police, he shoots her in a blind rage ... Today mostly
remembered for its many nude scenes by Maruschka Detmers and many very
sexual allusions, Prénom Carmen is actually one of Jean-Luc
Godard's more accessible films and in many ways reminiscent of his best
films of the 1960's, as it's full of genre references as well as political
jibes, it does keep its tongue firmly in cheek and manages to weave
different levels of narration together but remain entertaining all the
same. But at the same time, it already shows Godard losing himself in
over-intellectualized allusions that alienate quite some of his audience
and made many of his later films so brash, inaccessible and also, I'm
afraid to say, uninteresting - best example in this one is the frequent
shots of a string quartet practizing Beethoven popping up in the film
without rhyme or reason or even all that much charm (though there is a
certain pun to accompany a Carmen-adaptation with music by
Beethoven, I give him that). That said, still one of the best Godards
from the 1980's, and well worth a look.
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