Don José, an officer of the law, is seduced by the gypsy girl Carmen, in order to facilitate her clan's smuggling endeavors. Don José becomes obsessed, turning to violent crime himself in order to keep her attention.
DeMille had intended to film a musical version of Georges Bizet's opera Carmen; however, its libretto was under copyright, so DeMille instructed his screenwriter brother William to base his scenario on the public domain novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée. The novella's Carmen was more wilful and manipulative than the opera version. For instance, William included a cigarette factory fight scene from the book which was not found in the opera.[6][7]
Composer Hugo Riesenfeld arranged the orchestral score, his first of many for film, which was based on that of Bizet's opera. It was performed at the premiere and other prestigious screenings.[8] There have been two restorations of Riesenfeld's score: the first was by Gillian Anderson, recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1996.[8]Timothy Brock recorded the second in 1997 with the Olympia Chamber Orchestra. Both recordings have accompanied various releases of the restored film on home video.[9]
Reception
Carmen was praised as a "triumph of superb acting and magnificent scenery" in Motion Picture Magazine. "No small share of this artistic success is due to Mr. Wallace Reid's sympathetic interpretation of Don José," they added.[10] "The 'Carmen' film will, in its own way, stand alongside 'The Birth of a Nation' as an epochmaker," Photoplay said in their review. One of their few complaints was on the film's faithfulness to Carmen's character of the Mérimée story.[11]
The New-York Tribune described it as "The most interesting example of the new art of the photoplay. Miss Farrar's personality is admirably suited to the screen, and her facial expression was excellent."[12] "Geraldine Farrar's 'Carmen' makes as dramatic an appeal to the eye as her voice ever did to the ear," said The San Francisco Call & Post, "The resolution of Geraldine Farrar, the beautiful and gifted star, to employ her talents in the attaining of success in the films is one of the greatest steps in advancing the dignity of the motion pictures. Miss Farrar's 'Carmen' in the films is the greatest triumph the motion picture has yet achieved over the speaking stage."[12]
The film was released during the early years of World War I when allied countries, including the British Commonwealth, were at war with Germany. Biographer and film critic Edward Wagenknecht reports that a contretemps briefly clouded Farrar’s screen debut in Carmen. Farrar, while in Canada—a Commonwealth country—had made public comments that were interpreted by some Canadians as pro-German. Farrar, an American by birth and a Bostonian by upbringing, had forged many personal and professional friendships on the continent of Europe during her operatic career. Among her intimate admirers were members of the German imperial family. The United States was not at war with Germany, and as such “Farrar did not think it necessary to join in the crusade of hate then raging.”[14]
Paramount movie producer Jesse L. Lasky, alarmed at the prospect of losing market shares among nationalistic movie patrons in Canada, took steps to correct it. Wagenknecht writes:
Lasky gravely assured his Canadian customers that Farrar had been paid outright for her work in Carmen and would receive no profits from [ticket sales], after which, one may hope, they could view it with a clear conscience…[15]
^Higashi, Sumiko (1994). Cecil B. DeMille and American Culture: The Silent Era (University of California Press), p. 217. ISBN0-520-08557-4. Anne Bauchens' credit as a co-editor on this film is consistent with a 1918 release date for a re-edited version. After Carmen, Bauchens' next editing credit was the 1918 film We Can't Have Everything. The absence of editing credits for Bauchens on DeMille's 1916 and 1917 films would be surprising if the version of Carmen that she edited had been released in 1915.
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