While rehearsing a flamenco ballet adaptation of Bizet's opera “Carmen”, Antonio, the choreographer, falls in love with the main dancer, Carmen, a fiercely independent woman. Antonio is slowly consumed by jealousy and possessiveness towards Carmen, just like Don José in the original opera, blurring the lines between fiction and reality.
Direction
Saura blurs rehearsal and reality until you can't tell them apart.
Score
Paco de Lucía's guitar reimagines Bizet as something dangerous.
Director
Carlos Saura
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Saura's 'Carmen' is actually the third in his flamenco trilogy with Gades—each film explores how Spanish identity is performed rather than lived.
Laura del Sol wasn't a professional dancer; she learned flamenco for the role and Gades allegedly fell for her during production, mirroring the film's plot so intensely that art and life became indistinguishable on set.
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