''Carmen, Baby'' is a 1967 American-German-Yugoslav romantic

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Radley Metzger Radley Metzger (also known as Radley Henry Metzger, Radley H. Metzger and by the pseudonyms, "Jake Barnes", "Erich Farina" and "Henry Paris") (January 21, 1929 – March 31, 2017) was an American pioneering filmmaker and film distributor, most ...

, based on the novella ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...

'' by

Prosper Mérimée Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, and one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, and a ...

(which also inspired

Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', which has become on ...

popular opera, ''

'').

Plot

A liberated woman tempts a local police officer into a romantic entanglement with unpleasant consequences.

Cast

Uta Levka Uta Levka (born 1942) is a former German film and television actress active during the 1960s and early 1970s. She was discovered by the actress Maria Schell while working at the Bavaria Studios in Munich and appeared in a succession of glamorous ...

as Carmen * Claus Ringer as Jose *

Carl Möhner Carl Martin Rudolf Möhner (11 August 1921 – 14 January 2005) was an Austrian film actor, director, screenwriter and painter. He appeared in more than 40 films between 1949 and 1976. His most famous roles were as Jo "le Suédois" in the 19 ...

as Medicio *

Barbara Valentin Barbara Valentin (born Ursula Ledersteger; 15 December 1940 – 22 February 2002) was an Austrian actress. She worked in film, often with Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Biography Valentin was born in 1940 as Ursula Ledersteger in Vienna, Austria. He ...

as Dolores * Walter Wilz as Baby Lucas *

Christiane Rücker Christiane Rücker (born June 12 1944) is a German actress.Gerhardt & Abel p.138 Selected filmography * '' Holiday in St. Tropez'' (1964) * ''How to Seduce a Playboy'' (1966) * '' The Blood Demon'' (1967) * '' Carmen, Baby'' (1967) * '' Take Off ...

as Misty *

Arthur Brauss Arthur Brauss (born 24 July 1936) is a German actor, perhaps best known for his work in Sam Peckinpah's ''Cross of Iron''. Brauss was born in Augsburg, Germany. Partial filmography * '' Stop Train 349'' (1963, directed by Rolf Hädrich), as I. ...

as Garcia * Doris Arden as Darcy * Michael Münzer as Magistrate

Reception

The film ''Carmen, Baby'', according to one reviewer, was the beginning of Metzger's successful style in his later films: that is, adapting "a literary classic in a gorgeous European locale with high polish and a goodly helping of sophisticated sex and seduction." Film critic Jesse Vogel noted that the film is an example of Metzger's signature style, "cool, classy, distant, with a distinctively European sensibility". According to film reviewer Gary Morris, ''Carmen'' was "well played" by Uta Levka; lighting and camerawork by

Hans Jura Hans Jura (21 March 1921 in Vienna – 25 November 1996 in Bad Ischl) was an Austrian cinematographer, most famous for his collaborations with the erotic film director Radley Metzger. In the 1940s, Jura trained in photography and film. After ...

was "first-rate". Another reviewer wrote that the film had "a rather classy look" and that the performers were "attractive" and the setting "beautiful".

Legal issues

In the case of ''

Rabe v. Washington ''Rabe v. Washington'', 405 U.S. 313 (1972), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court involving the application of obscenity laws and criminal procedure to the states. On 29 August 1968, William Rabe, the manager of a drive-in movie thea ...

'', 405 U.S. 313 (1972), the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

decided that the manager of a

drive-in movie theater A drive-in theater or drive-in cinema is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand, and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movie ...

could not be charged with

obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be use ...

for showing the film which was not wholly determined to be obscene, but only parts were, holding that the citizens of Washington State had no notice under the Sixth Amendment that the place where a film was shown was an element of the offense.

Popular culture

Wally Lamb Wally Lamb (born October 17, 1950) is an American author known as the writer of the novels '' She's Come Undone'' and ''I Know This Much Is True'', both of which were selected for Oprah's Book Club. He was the director of the Writing Center at N ...

mentioned the bottle dance scene from ''Carmen, Baby'' in his 2016 book ''I'll Take You There''.

Notes

According to one

film reviewer Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outlets ...

, Radley Metzger's films, including those made during the

Golden Age of Porn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Spam-whitelist/Archives/2018/01#Another_Worthy_Journal_Article_on_Wordpress ---> The term "Golden Age of Porn", or "porno chic", refers to a 15-year period (1969–1984) in commercial American porno ...

(1969–1984), are noted for their "lavish design, witty

screenplay ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...

s, and a

penchant In psychology, economics and philosophy, preference is a technical term usually used in relation to choosing between alternatives. For example, someone prefers A over B if they would rather choose A than B. Preferences are central to decision theo ...

for the unusual

camera angle The camera angle marks the specific location at which the movie camera or video camera is placed to take a shot. A scene may be shot from several camera angles simultaneously. This will give a different experience and sometimes emotion. The diffe ...

". Another reviewer noted that his films were "highly artistic — and often cerebral ... and often featured gorgeous

cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...

". Film and audio works by Metzger have been added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.

References

External links

*
''Carmen, Baby''
at

MUBI Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; The Auteurs before 2010) is a global curated film streaming platform, production company and film distributor. Mubi produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusivel ...

{{Portal bar, Film, Society, United States American erotic drama films Erotic romance films Films based on Carmen Films directed by Radley Metzger German erotic drama films 1967 films 1960s erotic drama films West German films Works subject to a lawsuit Yugoslav drama films 1960s English-language films English-language German films English-language Yugoslav films 1960s American films 1960s German films