Screen version of Bizet's opera updated for an all-black cast. Striking in its use of colour and the newly-introduced CinemaScope process, Dorothy Dandridge's performance as the siren who lures GI Joe from his sweetheart also secured the first Oscar nomination for a black actress.
Not even Maria Callas, with her magnificent voice, superb acting ability and looks to match, could out-Carmen Dorothy Dandridge's unsurpassable performance in Otto Pre... more >
Not even Maria Callas, with her magnificent voice, superb acting ability and looks to match, could out-Carmen Dorothy Dandridge's unsurpassable performance in Otto Preminger's shamefully neglected film. Taking Oscar Hammerstein's updating and relocation to an all-black south in the USA, Preminger lit a fire with Dandrige which set most males' hearts ablaze.
Bizet's original take on Prosper Merimee's then-scandalous heroine, sent Paris into shock: opera heroines were not meant to be predatory and die, not of some vague wasting disease, but at the hand of her rejected lover. The use of CinemaScope, then in its infancy, by Preminger was a revelation. And his use of colour and framing had not been equalled up to then. Later masters of cinema would expand on what Preminger did in "Carmen Jones", but in its new incarnation on DVD the film remains unsurpassed.
Dandridge, the first black artist to win an Oscar nomination as "best actress" sent shockwaves through Hollywood, which only came to fruition when Halle Berry did the impossible and won the statuette for "Monster's Ball".
"Carmen Jones" could well have been made this year. It has not dated whatsoever and the performances of Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Peal Bailey and Olga James ensure that it never will!
A film to treasure. Nothing like it had been seen before 1954 - more than half a century ago. And no movie of the opera, including Francesco Rosi's acclaimed retelling of the story, will ever equal what Preminger and Dandridge achieved.
Definitely a "must have" movie for film buffs, who are also lovers of opera and drama. Go out there and buy it!
< less
