Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

MARIO GAUCI This is one of a number of Saura efforts celebrating various types of Latin dances (of which I own 5!), but only the first I have checked out. Nominated for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar, it details the vicissitudes behind a flamenco dance company's staging of Georges Bizet's famous opera "Carmen" based on the Prosper Merimee' novel. For the record, I own as many as 9(!) adaptations of the source material – of which the 1920 (by Ernst Lubitsch), 1948 (Charles Vidor), 1954 (Otto Preminger), 1962 (Carmine Gallone) and 1984 (Francesco Rosi) are still unwatched.Needless to say, being no fan of either opera or dance, I can only stick with them when briefly incorporated into a movie narrative – or, as happens to be the case here, are presented in the manner of the tried-and-true "putting-on-a-show" formula. In that respect, it adheres to pretty much all of the established tropes of the sub-genre: the girl cast in the title role on the strength of her ideal temperament is a non-starter at first and, naturally, incurs the jealousy of the company's star attraction (past her prime and basically relegated to being a co-choreographer with the director/male lead, himself not so young anymore!); the latter, then, has a turbulent relationship with his new protégé (married to an estranged drug dealer just out of prison and an unrepentant wanton to boot!) – which threatens the production and, ultimately, brings about his personal downfall.Clearly the film's mainstay for the casual viewer is the way the plot line being 'dramatized' becomes mirrored in reality: apart from the male lead's afore-mentioned double-duty, rather unsubtly, the female protagonist shares her name with that of the character she is 'interpreting' – making this turn-of-events somewhat predictable. Having said that, the occasionally exhilarating dance sequences and the protagonists' charisma eventually save the day.

vitachiel Carlos Saura's Carmen is a tense and surreal story of a director who falls in love with the lead actress he has chosen for his stage version of Bizet's Carmen. The acting performances are very good: Antonio Gades as the perfectionist, passionate and contemplative director Antonio and Laura del Sol as Carmen, the epitome of the femme fatale. Their liaison is radiant though doomed to fail.The foundation for the fatalistic way in which Antonio falls for Carmen lies in the fact that she perfectly fits the persona that he had in mind when searching for his lead actress. Saura cleverly uses the switching between reality, play and a combination of both, which adds to the surreal feel of the film. As a bonus we get an insider's look at the contagious Spanish fervor and joie de vivre. True craftsmanship.

Michael Cassady (sadpanic) In Carmen, Saura once again seeks to establish a dynamic rapport between reality and fiction, between the actual passions of the personalities in a dance company preparing the choreography for the dance portions of the opera Carmen and the scripted passions from the story of the fictional Carmen, the famous fatal mix of a free spirit (read disregard for fidelity) and her ability to drive men mad with desire. Saura used this same vehicle fiction/reality in an earlier black-and-white film, Bodes de Sangre (Blood Wedding). But, whereas the tensions between the dancers rehearsing Blood Wedding showed to advantage how they evolved into the fictional characters of the story to be performed through directing their emotions into their roles, in Carmen, the parallel between the petty, libidinal urges of the dancers of the troop during rehearsals and the spirit forging to do with the mythic Carmen never comes even close to being believable. It remains a gadget, and, for that reason, a bothersome distraction. One really needs to see Blood Wedding next to Carmen to appreciate the comparison. However, it hardly matters, the melodrama Saura tries to impose upon his Carmen, because the Flamenco dancing and guitar music of the rehearsals_ which are 95% of the film _by some of the best known Flamenco dancers and musicians, more than repays the price of entry. A flawed film, and a wonder: perfect for doing a drill in Keats's 'negative capacity', perhaps?

spenfriend I've seen this film at least 4 times since '84 and it's still great every time I see it. It's a very compelling version of the opera Carmen, with amazing Flamenco dancing, bare bones sets, and, of course, wonderful music. This telling of Carmen is a story within a story, with each paralleling the other, until the doubly tragic ending. Obviously a low budget Spanish production, the film contains dancing by some of Spain's premier Flamenco dancers. The combination of the soaring opera music and the sound of the dancers boots on the wooden stage, makes the telling of the story even more powerful.It's independent movie making at it's best and probably my all time favorite foreign film.