Carmen
About Carmen
In Seville, Carmen works in a cigarette factory. She is arrested. She gets Don José, the soldier guarding her, to let her go. He deserts and joins the smugglers. She leaves him for the bullfighter Escamillo. His jealousy turns into the killing. Geraldine Farrar plays Carmen and Wallace Reid plays Don José. Cecil B. DeMille directed from Prosper Mérimée’s novella.
Cast & crew
More about Carmen
William C. deMille wrote the scenario. Jesse L. Lasky produced. Alvin Wyckoff photographed it. Anne Bauchens edited. Paramount distributed. Wikidata times it at 59 minutes. English Wikipedia says the prints in circulation are the re-edited 1918 re-release. Hugo Riesenfeld is credited with music.
Themes
Making
Lasky built a feature around Farrar’s name and DeMille’s direction. What survives is the 1918 recut, not a camera negative labeled 1915.
Look
Alvin Wyckoff shot Farrar and Reid in the Seville sets and the bullring story.
Music
The 1915 release was silent. Hugo Riesenfeld is the composer credited on Wikidata, for accompaniment rather than a sung Carmen.
Preservation
Surviving copies are the 1918 re-release. They are on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Farrar was a Metropolitan Opera soprano. The film is silent. The story credit is Mérimée’s novella, not Bizet’s opera.
- Pedro de Cordoba, Horace B. Carpenter, William Elmer, Raymond Hatton, and Jeanie Macpherson are in the cast.
- An Internet Archive copy is filed as CarmenCBD.
- A Commons file uses the title Carmen (1915).
Scenes
- Carmen talks Don José into releasing her.
- He joins the smugglers after deserting.
- She turns to Escamillo, and José’s jealousy ends in violence.
Influenced by
- Prosper Mérimée’s novella Carmen
Also available
- Internet Archive (CarmenCBD)
- Wikimedia Commons (Carmen (1915).webm)
