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4.0 out of 5 stars
Godard under-rated, 15 Jan 2010
'Prenom Carmen' is not considered by most film-goers as one of Godard's must-see films. The story is rather slapdash (a group of amateurish terrorists who masquerade as film-makers in order to carry out their proposed attack) but nevertheless it proves to be quite hypnotic. Godard plays the role of a mentally-challenged, disillusioned film-maker (perhaps a cruel joke aimed at those who advertised his demise in the 1970's) but the plaudits go to Marushka Detmers who puts in the performance of her life as a moody, unhinged woman, smouldering with absolute sex-appeal whenever she appears on screen. Like many Godard films the music (here Beethoven rather than Bizet) plays an integal role. One of the many films of Godard that repay repeated viewings.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
surprisingly fresh after 27 years, 19 Feb 2011
I saw this movie back in 1983 when it came out and haven't seen it since, so I couldn't remember much except very vaguely that I kind of liked it at the time. (Oh, and that it had Maruschka Detmers, who also appeared in La pirate and Diable au corps.) Returning to it after a 27-year interval I am surprised how well it has kept. With its wanton randomness, Godard's self-caricature, and the scattered rants about bankers, it could almost be a comment on the present day.
The Carmen theme is only a scaffold on which the story is built - both the title, suggesting that Carmen just happens to be the protagonist's first name, and the prominent use of music that has nothing to do with Bizet, seems to undermine any attempts to read this as an interpretation of the Carmen story.
As for the DVD, it doesn't offer many perks, just a few photos and subtitles in eight different languages. Considering this, it's stupid that the option to switch the subtitles off doesn't seem to exist (or maybe I just didn't find the right button).
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Come on Carmen, 1 Jun 2009
This film works. It's the process of making a film. It's the story of Carmen using Beethoven rather than Bizet.It's a documentary which is a fiction. A washed up director,Godard, is visited by his niece in a mental hospital.She wants to make a film and wants to loan his video cameras and apartment by the sea.She turns bank robber with the terrorist group to fund their activities .They aim to kidnap an industrialist or his daughter Everything is done in comic book style.She falls in love and out with the guard at the bank.Their love affair is shot in the apartment and in a hotel.We have comic book betrayal,jealousy and passion.Her uncle leaves hospital and helps in the making of the film: his every corrosive quote is documented by his amenuensis.
The film uses several framing devices:the sight and sound of rolling waves,a string quartet rehearsing Beethoven whose. mistakes show the difficulty of film making, the mad director, the crazy bank robbery.It somehow works. The coming together of several elements makes individual progress difficult. And not surprisingly capitalism gets slated. The violinist is the remote figure loved by the guard but who is not his girlfriend: it is suggested she is day-dreaming the whole thing up. There are multiple frames of reference in a multi-tiered story.The narrative of Carmen a mere peg to be ignored.Picture making is akin to crime: stealing life, since film as a medium is an end in itself,a Brechtian tool for deconstruction.Godard does the wholething with such wit and panache, interweaving music and image and sends himself up in the process. The waves even recall New Wave.
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