First Name: Carmen
| First Name: Carmen | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Jean-Luc Godard |
| Produced by | Alain Sarde |
| Written by | Anne-Marie Miéville |
| Starring |
Maruschka Detmers, Jacques Bonnaffé |
| Distributed by | Parafrance Films |
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Release date
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September 1983 (premiere at VFF) 11 January 1984 (France) 3 August 1984 (New York City) |
|
Running time
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85 min. |
| Language | French |
| Box office | $3 million |
First Name: Carmen (French: Prénom Carmen) is a 1983 film by Jean-Luc Godard. It is very loosely based on Bizet's opera Carmen. The film won the Golden Lion at the 1983 Venice Film Festival and had 395,462 Admissions in France.
Carmen, in a voice over paired with shots of the city and the sea, introduces herself as "the girl who should not be called Carmen." Somewhere a string quartet is rehearsing the late string quartets of Beethoven. The eccentric Jeannot (played by Godard himself) is living in a sanitarium where the doctor threatens to throw him out if he doesn't start to show signs of real illness. Carmen comes to visit him, and it is revealed he is a washed up filmmaker and her lecherous uncle. After getting her Uncle Jeannot to loan her his seaside apartment, Carmen and some others attempt to rob a bank. During the mayhem of the robbery, Carmen comes face to face with Joseph, a comically inept bank guard, and the two immediately fall in love. The string quartet continues to rehearse, inflecting the scenes of the robbery, and vice versa. The narrative link is that one of the members of the quartet is Claire, who is established earlier in the film as a potential love interest for Joseph.
Carmen and Joseph retreat to Uncle Jeannot's apartment, where Carmen recalls childhood incestuous encounters. Carmen tells Joseph, quoting from Carmen Jones, "if I love you, that's the end of you." Joseph is arrested and put on trial, while Carmen escapes with Fred, the leader of her gang. In flashback, Carmen reveals to Joseph that the robbery was intended to fund a larger project, the kidnapping of "a big manufacturer," or his daughter, with a fake film directed by Uncle Jeannot meant to provide cover, a scheme that John Dillinger supposedly once perpetrated. Joseph is acquitted with the help of an impassioned public defender and Claire's moral support. Meanwhile, Fred persuades Uncle Jeannot to direct the gang's film. After receiving a rose from her during the trial, Joseph reunites with Carmen at a hotel where the gang is staying. He plans to renew their relationship and to participate in the kidnapping, but Carmen seems increasingly uninterested in him and the gang ostracizes Joseph. Things go from bad to worse for Joseph as Carmen toys with a young hotel attendant, Fred directs Carmen to tell Joseph it's over, and Joseph forces Carmen into an abject sexual encounter in the shower where he masturbates on her.
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