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Reviews Counted:19
Fresh:18
Rotten:1
Average Rating:7.4/10
Theatrical Release:Mar 28, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: Acclaimed opera CARMEN is given a contemporary update in this film from director Mark Dornford-May.
Starring: Pauline Malefane, Andile Tshoni, Lungelwa Blou, Zweilungile Sidloyi
Director: Mark Dornford-May
Central to an expression of new female South African pride, is the lovely Pauline Malefane as Carmen, whose astonishing vocal power embodies both feminine grace and charm, along with bold, militant proletarian fire.
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Top CriticCarmen finds a new home in a South African shantytown, lending the nation her powerful voice for the new freedoms of the post-apartheid era.
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[Director] Dornford-May's straightforward filmmaking neither glamorizes Khayelitsha and its residents nor plays up the contrast between the silky score and their hardscrabble lives.
[Director] Dornford-May deftly balances the details of his setting with the universality of his themes, exploring every dusty corner of a village thrumming with tension between patriarchal leaders and strong-willed women.
Top CriticU-Carmen is brash, often strident, yet in the end it is not cathartic.
No one can know whether Bizet would have approved of the movie musical U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha. But you suspect that he would have admired the filmmakers' gall.
Top CriticA vivacious film that is a treat for eyes and ears.
Top CriticThis was basically the best idea ever.
Top CriticSet in locales ostensibly picked without concern for cinematic pretense, this crowd-pleaser conveys a sense of everyday life in South Africa while simultaneously serving up an endearing variation of a magical opera for the ages. Bravo!
Though not the best film version of Bizet's famous opera Carmen, Mark Dornford-May's Berlin Bear-winner from 2005 may be among the most loyal.
[Dornford-May] and his cast take the familiar strains of one of the world's best-known works of opera and, by blending it with the sights and ambient sounds of South Africa, transform it into something that is both as old as pain and as new as hope.
A fiery fusion of low-budget cinema and stately opera, street life and high art . . . offers a refreshing portrayal of female sexuality as voluptuous, bawdy, exuberant and unconquerable.
Does it work? Absolutely brilliantly!
Performances and singing are both on the money, and the film's organic, realistic feel seems to have been bolstered by the translation contribution that thesps Malefane and Andiswa Kedama made to the screenplay.
Top CriticThe main attraction is the performance of Carmen by the magnificent Pauline Malefane, who also translated the libretto into Xhosa.
Top CriticU-Carmen hits the bull’s eye, 'Toreador’s or not.
No prior knowledge of the original opera is required to enjoy U-Carmen, with the filmmakers successfully breaking free of the story's stage origins to create a dynamically cinematic work.
Bizet's music is superb, the township setting ambitious and the performances boldly vibrant. But the action doesn't always escape its stage origins and occasionally feels static and self-conscious.
March 29, 2007:
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