''Carmen'' is a 2022 musical

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 ...

directed by

Benjamin Millepied Benjamin Millepied (; born 10 June 1977) is a French dancer and choreographer, who has lived and worked in the United States since joining the New York City Ballet in 1995, where he became a soloist in 1998 and a principal in 2002. He has also ...

in his feature directorial debut from a screenplay by

Alexander Dinelaris Jr. Alexander Dinelaris Jr. is a screenwriter. He is one of four who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the 2014 film '' Birdman'' at the 87th Academy Awards in 2015. Dinelaris also wrote the book for the Broadway musical '' On You ...

, and Millepied from a screen story by Millepied and Barrère. The film stars

Melissa Barrera Melissa Barrera Martínez (born 4 July 1990) is a Mexican actress and singer. In Mexico, she is known for roles in the telenovelas ''Siempre tuya Acapulco'' (2013), '' Tanto amor'' (2015), and the Netflix series '' Club de Cuervos'' (2017). Out ...

Paul Mescal Paul Mescal (; born 2 February 1996) is an Irish actor. Born in Maynooth, he studied acting at The Lir Academy and subsequently performed in plays in Dublin theatres. Mescal rose to fame with his role in the miniseries '' Normal People'' (2020), ...

Rossy de Palma Rosa Elena García Echave (born 16 September 1964), known professionally as Rossy de Palma, is a Spanish actress and model. She is well known for her roles in films by Pedro Almodóvar such as ''Law of Desire'', ''Women on the Verge of a Nervou ...

and

The D.O.C. Tracy Lynn Curry (born June 10, 1968), better known as The D.O.C., is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. In addition to a solo career, he was a member of the Southern hip hop group Fila Fresh Crew and later collaborated with ga ...

. Though described as Millepied's take on Bizet's opera of the same name, it is "a complete re-imagining" that ignores the opera's plot and setting; all that remains are "selected lyrics" from the opera's libretto sung in the original French by a choir as background to one scene between the two leads. The film features an original score composed by

Nicholas Britell Nicholas Britell (born October 17, 1980) is an American film composer. He has scored both of Barry Jenkins's studio films, ''Moonlight'' (2016) and ''If Beale Street Could Talk'' (2018), both of which received nominations for Best Original Sco ...

with songs written and composed by Brittell, Taura Stinson, Julieta Venegas and Curry. The film premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

on 11 September 2022. It was released in the United States on 21 April 2023 by

Sony Pictures Classics Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produce ...

, in France on 14 June 2023 by

Pathé Distribution Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipment ...

, and in Australia on 13 July by Madman Films.

Premise

Carmen flees the Mexican desert, is rescued by Aidan, and together they struggle to evade the authorities as they head for

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

Cast

as Carmen *

as Aidan *

as Masilda * Tracy "The DOC" Curry as Referee *

Nicole da Silva Nicole da Silva (born 18 September 1981) is an Australian actress, best known for her roles as Stella Dagostino in the series '' Rush'' (2008–2011), and as Franky Doyle in the show ''Wentworth'' (2013–2018, 2019). She has made appearance ...

as Julieanne * Benedict Hardie as Mike *

Elsa Pataky Elsa Lafuente Medianu (; born 18 July 1976), known professionally as Elsa Pataky, is a Spanish-Australian model and actress. Pataky is known for her role as Elena Neves in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise. She has appeared in the films '' Snake ...

as Gabrielle *

Tara Morice Tara Morice (born 23 June 1964) is an Australian actress. Background Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Morice also lived in Sydney, Alice Springs and Adelaide as a child. She is a fifth-generation Australian and is of English, Irish, Scottish, Latvia ...

as Marie * Marina Tamayo II as Zilah

Production

In May 2017,

was set to make his feature film directorial debut with the film version of ''Carmen'' for Chapter 2, originally conceived as "a modern-day reimagining of one of the world's most celebrated operas". Once completed, Millepied recognized his film was less an adaptation than "a version of Bizet's tragedy from a parallel universe". and Millepied will write the script. In May 2019,

acquired distribution rights for the film and

Nilo Cruz Nilo Cruz is a Cuban-American playwright and pedagogue. With his award of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play '' Anna in the Tropics'', he became the second Latino so honored, after Nicholas Dante. Biography Early years Cruz was bor ...

would write the script. In November 2020,

was revealed to have co-written the script with Millepied and Loïc Barrère.

Casting

In May 2019, it was announced that

and

Jamie Dornan James Peter Maxwell Dornan (; born 1 May 1982) is an actor, model and musician from Northern Ireland. Formerly a character actor, he often portrays solemn, steady characters. The recipient of two Irish Film and Television Awards, he has been n ...

were cast as Carmen and Aidan, respectively. In November 2020,

replaced Dornan and

was cast in the film.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

commenced on 18 January 2021 in Australia with Jörg Widmer as the cinematographer, and wrapped in early March 2021.

Music

composed the score and co-wrote the songs with Julieta Venegas, Taura Stinson and Tracy "The DOC" Curry. Lynn Fainchtein served as music producer and music supervisor.

Release

''Carmen'' had its world premiere at the

on 11 September 2022. It had a

limited theatrical release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

in the United States on 21 April 2023 by

, and was released theatrically in France on 14 June 2023 by

and in Australia on 13 July by Madman Films. The film was released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

, and digital download on 11 July 2023.

Reception

Accolades

References

Additional sources *

External links

* {{IMDb title 2022 films 2022 drama films 2020s Australian films 2020s English-language films 2020s French films 2020s musical drama films 2020s Spanish-language films Australian musical drama films English-language French films Films based on Carmen Films based on novellas Films based on poems Films scored by Nicholas Britell Films shot in Australia French musical drama films Sony Pictures Classics films Spanish-language French films