Dir. Mark Dornford-May, 2004, South Africa, 120 mins
Cast: Pauline Malefane, Andries Mbali, Andile Tshoni, Andiswa Kedama
Review by Peter Fraser
‘Bizet is dead, and carried to the tomb the cruel uncertainly of doubt. He did not enjoy the consolation of applause heard from beyond the frontiers; he perished before Carmen began the triumphal progress which, at last, made us open our eyes.’ So wrote an early reviewer of Georges Bizet’s immortal opera Carmen, first performed in Paris to thunderous indifference on March 3, 1875. Since that underwhelming premiere, Carmen has become perhaps the most popular opera, performed all over the world and inspiring - count them - at least fifty movies. It’s a lesson to reviewers and audiences everywhere not to be too conservative toward bold aesthetic innovations lest history sweep reactionaries and their scorn aside.
That said, the self-same reviewer proclaimed ‘I place little value on the opinion of Paris regarding new works’ so perhaps it was just the French after all. Whatever it was, Carmen has endured precisely because of universal themes of love, jealousy and revenge espoused through passionate music that seem to translate to any culture. U-Carmen eKhayelitsha by no means bucks this trend. Another new spin on the old story, U-Carmen takes place in the South African township of Khayelitsha (the title means ‘Carmen in Khayelitsha’) where policeman Jongikhaya becomes besotted with Pauline Malefane’s Carmen, forsaking his profession only to be rejected, and then tragically take his bloody revenge. The music is sung in Xhosa, the local language, with traditional South African songs added to unpretentious, occasionally witty choreography that on the whole heightens authenticity and lends verisimilitude to the locale.
Somewhat dizzying to be an Englishman watching a French opera set in Spain transferred to South Africa and translated from Italian to Xhosa, but it just goes to show there’s no chaste prelapsarian purity here. This mongrel opera has always been down and dirty, European rather than national, and in the age of globalisation truly international, the social milieu of Khayelitsha comparable to the original’s Seville. Its success triumphantly proclaims a common human condition above borders and accessible to art. That’s not to say that the changes in U-Carmen are purely superficial. Like other recent South African releases, it touches upon tradition, community, poverty and crime in a country still struggling under the shadow of apartheid. Present in the original opera, these themes acquire renewed piquancy in a new setting.
Indeed, the value of such a hybrid is partly the way in which it makes the viewer reconsider perceptions of both South Africa and Carmen itself, reinvigorating elements of the opera long taken for granted and revealing fresh nuances that are equally signs of how times have changed. Performed through the ages, Carmen has become not only a record of the society that Bizet captured in 1875 but equally an index of our changing social mores – in this case reflected by Malefane’s feisty portrayal of Carmen as a woman who knows her mind and refuses to be beholden to men. Such a potentially complex character was never simply an egoistic temptress or femme fatale, but today it seems that she might be considered a role model for empowered women or simply those ‘free spirits’, let’s say liberals, who refuse to be possessed.
A vibrant debut from Dornford-May, imbued with the vigour of his Dimpho Di Kopane theatre collective, U-Carmen doesn’t quite scale the tragic heights. Ultimately, there is little catharsis, and arguably Malefane overshadows the other players, but it is an arresting and, dare one say it, original movie.
Trailer links –
Quicktime
Lo-Res
Med-Res
Hi-Res
Windows Media Player
Lo-Res
Med-Res
Hi-Res
Real Player
Lo-Res
Med-Res
Hi-Res
Tartan Video have announced the UK DVD release of U-Carmen for 24th July 2006 priced at £19.99.
Features include:
- Anamorphic Widescreen
- DD2.0, DD5.1 & DTS 5.1 Surround
- Tartan exclusive interviews with director Mark Dornford-May and lead actress Pauline Malefane
- Interview with Andiswa Kedama (assistant director/translator)
- ‘Making of’ featurette
- Trailer
|
