Carmen
1918 · Germany · 80 min
- Director
- Ernst Lubitsch
- Screenplay
- Norbert Falk, Grete Diercks, Hanns Kräly
- Producer
- Paul Davidson
- Music
- Artur Vieregg
- Cinematography
- Alfred Hansen
- Production company
- UFA, PAGU
- Based on
- Carmen
Cast
What it is about
Don José, a dragoon sergeant in Seville, falls madly in love with Carmen, a beautiful Romani woman. For her, he gives up his fiancée and his army career, and his life takes a lawless turn. Soon the relationship changes course, and the story follows the consequences of that passion.
How it was made
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, the film adapts only the third part of Prosper Mérimée's novella, as Bizet's opera does, and reshapes Don José: instead of a fugitive bandit, he becomes an honest man in love with his childhood sweetheart. The screenplay is by Norbert Falk, Grete Diercks and Hanns Kräly. Produced by Paul Davidson for Universum Film AG and PAGU, it stars Pola Negri, Harry Liedtke and Leopold von Ledebur, with music by Artur Vieregg and cinematography by Alfred Hansen.
Reception and legacy
Reliable details about its initial critical reception are scarce. Its 1921 release in the United States, with English intertitles under the title Gypsy Blood, shows how far it circulated. Today it is of interest mainly as one of Lubitsch's early works and as an example of German silent cinema of its era.
Stills
Full film
Trivia
American title
In the United States it was released in 1921 with English intertitles under the alternative title Gypsy Blood.
A different Don José
Unlike the novella, the protagonist does not start as a fugitive bandit but as an honest man with a childhood sweetheart waiting for him.
More films by Ernst Lubitsch
Ninotchka
To Be or Not to Be
The Love Parade
The Shop Around the Corner
The Patriot
Trouble in ParadiseOriginal Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.