Explore the Animation of Georges Bizet’s Famous Opera in the ‘Viva Carmen’ Clip from Cannes Directors’ Fortnight
In the vibrant city of Seville in 1945, teenage Salvador, an assistant to the skilled knife grinder Antonio, meets the enchanting gypsy woman, Carmen. Her remarkable beauty and fierce independence captivate the townsfolk, but Antonio’s unique ability to see the future through sharpened blades reveals a dark destiny involving a soldier named José. Determined to alter fate, Salvador rallies a group of spirited misfit street children, led by the adventurous Belén, to safeguard Carmen from her impending doom.
Director Laudenbach previously garnered attention for his animated works, The Girl Without Hands and Chicken for Linda!, which he co-directed with Chiara Malta.
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The concept of animating Bizet’s iconic opera arose when producer Pierre-Henri Léon approached Laudenbach with an intriguing idea.
“Passionate about Bizet’s work, he suggested I consider a film that would take as its starting point the children’s chorus that opens the opera with the aria ‘La Garde Montante’ and which, thereafter, plays no role in the narrative,” Laudenbach said.
“The idea of working on a work as powerful as Carmen interested me for more than one reason. Like many people, I was familiar with the work without really knowing it; I had its most famous arias in my head, and I knew the lyrics to some of them. Carmen occupies a very unique place in the history of opera: it is the most frequently performed opera in the world, even though it was a failure at the time of its premiere. It is also one of the most frequently staged and interpreted stories of femicide in art and literature.”
Viva Carmen is a Folivari production, produced by Damien Brunner, Thibaut Ruby, and Pierre-Henri Léon, with sales managed by Global Constellation.
