Yesterday, I went to a special screening of Jacques Feyder's
Carmen (1926) with Raquel Meller. The film was presented with a piano accompaniment based on the original orchestral score by Spanish composer, Ernesto Halffter Escriche (a disciple of Manuel de Falla).
The film was a huge production (9 months shooting) shot on locations in Andalucia and in studios. The print presented was a beautiful restoration recreating the original tinting.
Feyder didn't try to adapt Georges Bizet's opera at all, he went back to its original source, a short story by French writer Prosper Mérimé. We follow the destiny of a young man from Navarre, Don José. After killing accidentally a friend, he has to leave forever his native city. He arrives in Seville where he joins the army. His meeting with the gipsy Carmen will change his life forever. He becomes a smuggler and a murderer....
In the title role, the Spanish actress Raquel Meller was beautifully attired in some stunning Jeanne Lanvin dresses but lacked somehow fire and personality at times. That said, the film has some of the most stunning landscape cinematography I have ever seen of Spain: fortified cities, sierra, mountains, deserts and long sweeping wheat fields. Like in
L'Atlantide (1922), I feel that Feyder overdid it a bit in terms of length. The film would have gained dramatically by being shorter than its 166 min. But some scenes were pretty incredible visually: the smugglers being ambushed by the custom's officers in a western-like landscape, a real corrida filmed in the arena of the city of Ronda, all the set decoration by Lazare Meerson are just incredibly faithful and beautiful.
This is the 6th Feyder silent I have seen. It's not as good as
Crainquebille (1922),
Visages D'Enfants (1923)
Gribiche (1925) and
Les Nouveaux Messieurs (1929). But, if you are a fan of Jacques Feyder silents, I have some great news for you! I learned yesterday that the French cinémathèque is going to release a DVD boxset of Silent Feyders before the end of the year containing:
Gribiche,
Les Nouveaux Messieurs and
Carmen!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)