Carmen Khayetlitsha (2440) 122 Minutes; Fortissimo Films; Essay

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Carmen Khayetlitsha (2440) 122 minutes; Fortissimo Films; Koch-Lorber Films. Also download. 1 page http://www.eztakes./store/movie/U-Carmen-Movie-Download.jsp http://www.subs./download/subtitles/1558144/ucarmen_ekhayelitsha_(2005) 2.

Film review

U-Carmen Khayetlitsha. Directed by Mark Dornford, 2005.

U-Carmen Khayetlitsha could best be described as a cultural 'fusion' of music composition. It transposes the classic Bizet opera Carmen into a contemporary South African context. The film uses much of the original opera's music but also blends it with traditional African songs. The Cape Town cigarette worker Carmen seduces the South African policeman Jongikhaya. Completely besotted by Carmen, the officer gives up his legitimate career and instead becomes a drug dealer, analogous to becoming a bullfighter in the original Spanish context. Eventually, Carmen deserts him and he kills her, as in the original operatic version of Carmen.

The film's retelling is significant and adds weight to the romantic themes of Carmen because of weighty subject of race in South Africa. Carmen's blackness takes on additional significance which it does not in the original. In the original, Carmen attracts the moralistic officer out of a desire to bring him low, but in the film his Bible-reading is more understandable, given that Jongikhaya wants to project a holy image to a white society that usually demonizes blacks.

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Carmen's initial attraction for the officer seems more understandable, given the degree to which she has suffered oppression in South Africa and wants 'out' of her current situation, although she is not sure how to find it. But ultimately, what Carmen wants is simply to be free.

There is a great deal of dignity and respect conveyed to the culture of the tribes of the film by using traditional folk songs. Also, instead of bullfighting, a cow is killed as part of a ritual honoring Jongikhaya's rival Nomakhaya, who is the son of an anti-apartheid activist. Although Carmen's heart cannot be tamed, she is a more likeable character than the mysterious, fickle gypsy of the opera….....

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