A filmic opera that sublimates the lyrical and dramatic strength of Georges Bizet’s masterpiece, blending music and cinema into a powerful and unforgettable experience, with a distinctly realistic and visceral approach.
The story takes place in Seville, where the brigadier Don José, a simple and devoted man, sees his life turned upside down by his encounter with Carmen, a sensual cigarette girl with overwhelming charm and an indomitable gypsy spirit. Don José falls madly in love with her and abandons everything for her: the army, his honor, and his fiancée Micaëla. But Carmen is a free creature who loves only in her own way and only as long as she desires (as she sings in the famous Habanera: “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle”). When Carmen falls in love with the bullfighter Escamillo, a popular hero and her mirror of freedom and passion, Don José’s jealousy turns into obsession. Amid dusty streets, smoky taverns, and arenas, with choral scenes directed with grandeur and attention to human detail, the narrative pulses with blood, passion, and fatality. In the tragic finale outside the arena, Carmen embraces death rather than renounce herself, and while, nearby, the bullfighter gores the bull in the arena, she is also struck: a cruel play of conceptual references, in which her sacrifice becomes an extreme act of freedom.
With Lorin Maazel’s musical direction and warm, realistic cinematography, Carmen becomes a vibrant and powerful experience where music meets drama in an unstoppable crescendo toward the tragic ending. A filmic lyric opera that pulsates with life and death, fire and freedom.

Directed by: Francesco Rosi. Story: Based on the opera of the same name by Georges Bizet (based on the story by Prosper Mérimée). Screenplay: Tonino Guerra, Francesco Rosi. Cinematography: Pasqualino De Santis. Editing: Ruggero Mastroianni, Colette Semprún. Production Design: Enrico Job, Gianni Giovagnoni, Pierre-Louis Thévenet. Costume Design: Enrico Job, Gino Persico.

Cast: Julia Migenes (Carmen), Plácido Domingo (Don José), Ruggero Raimondi (Escamillo), Faith Esham (Micaela), François Le Roux (Moralès), John-Paul Bogart (Zuniga), Susan Daniel (Mercédès), Lillian Watson (Frasquita), Gérard Garino (Remendado), Jean-Philippe Lafont (Dancaire), Julien Guiomar (Lilas Pastia), Accursio Di Leo (guide), Maria Campano (Manuelina), Cristina Hoyos (dancer), Juan Antonio Jimenez (dancer), Enrique El Cojo (innkeeper), Aurora Vargas (Carmen's friend), Carmen Vargas (Carmen's friend), Concha Vargas (Carmen's friend), Esperanza Fernandez (Carmen's friend), Lourdes Garcia (Carmen's friend), Maria Gomez (Carmen's friend), Pilar Becerra (Carmen's friend).
Production: Gaumont, Productions Marcel Dassault, Opera Film Production
Distribution: Gaumont. Year: 1984. Running time: 152 minutes