Movie Night: Carmen Jones
Carmen Jones was an adaptation of Georges Bizet's opera, Carmen, that Oscar Hammerstein wrote the book and lyrics for (Bizet did the music) and produced on Broadway in 1943. Otto Preminger made the film in CinemaScope in 1954.
Bizet's Carmen is about a gypsy girl (they are always gypsies) who rolls cigars in Seville for her day job and lives the life of a TV Reality Star by night as she works her way (she is a working girl) through the Seville garrison soldiers. She seduces one soldier, José, who takes things for real and who deserts and runs off with Carmen. But José is the clingy type so Carmen dumps him for a Toreador, and one day, in the Bull Fighting Ring, things get messy.
Carmen Jones occurs during the second world war, in the deep south, where José is Joe who is in training to be a fly boy for the US Army. His hometown girlfriend, Cindy Lou---my movie viewing companion brijeana called her Cindy Lou Who?
but she's not that one. ↑ She is this one. ↓
comes to visit Joe at Training camp and maybe marry him. She is adorable in her gingham dress and straw hat. She has a daisy pin at her Peter Pan collar neck. This girl is in for Trouble. Notice the MPs? They will be the Agents of Fate in this movie. They are there at the beginning and they will be there at the End.
See the marching soldier boys in the background? See the marching boys playing soldier in the foreground? And the Red Cross in the back? This movie is very visually witty.
Mr. Preminger, the director and producer, is a master of filling his very large CinemaScope screen. He fills it beautifully with his actors and the scenery and deepens the movie with visual puns and metaphors. The screen is never empty and yet it never overwhelms the actors and the action. Mr. Preminger keeps his stationary (no handheld cameras here) camera moving fluidly and his takes are long and roving. The camera is moving or the actors are moving within the frame. There is little cutting, Mr. Preminger just moves the camera and lets the action unfold organically. The camera never distracts the viewer and yet there are always clues and visual comments on the action to capture the viewer's attention during the first view, and they open up the movie even further on subsequent viewing. Mr. Preminger is very, very good.
Harry Belafonte plays the thankless role of Joe. But he is the prettiest thing this side of Tom Welling.
I told my movie viewing companion that this movie was like a CW show. The pretty cast is so very pretty.
Let us look at him and his smile again. Oh, and there at his side is the luscious Dorothy Dandridge. She is prettier than Kristen Kruek (and Halle Berry). Be jealous, CW, be very jealous.
Our lovely and rebellious, Carmen, spots Joe in the cafeteria when she is hungry. And she decides to make a meal of him.
Poor Cindy Lou. Cindy Lou Who? Cindy Lou in gingham. Everyone is going to eat their fill but her. Love is going to taste like ashes in her mouth.
Carmen makes sure that Joe knows that she is available.
She leaves him the Rose of Invitation (and Doooom). Poor Cindy Lou, pass the salt and sprinkle it liberally on your broken, wounded, bleeding heart. Actually, Cindy Lou, pick up the plate and whack Joe on the head with it. It will save everyone some heartache. But Cindy Lou does not make a move. On to Tragedy!
Carmen is off at her day job which is packing parachutes for the fly boys and punching co-workers who annoy her.
Watch her earrings. She never loses her earrings no matter how many fights that she is in or whom she is fighting.
Carmen is a Fighter in Life and she wins! Joe is a wannabe fighter and fly boy, but we will see that he is no Match for Carmen. Look at the parachutes Hanging from the ceiling. We will see a lot of visual hanging in this move. It will lead to the End.
The parachutes also look like the skirts of women. This is a movie where the Power of Women is very real and very dominant. Look at all the men and soldiers below the skirts of the parachutes. And Carmen is on Top.
But not for long. Carmen slides down Joe
and Joe begins his fly boy fall for her.
Joe has to take Carmen to the civilian authorities to punish her for fighting at work and being so damn fine and sexy and threatening the Male Hierarchy. But Joe and Carmen never make it to the civilian authorities because Carmen has other plans. And Carmen runs this Show.
Joe and Carmen stop by her home town to pick up some food to eat. Because Carmen likes to Eat.
PEACHES!!!! Yes, they mean something.
And Chicken.
Look at those scrawny, plucked wingless and featherless birds, Hanging behind Carmen. Could this be the future for our pretty fly boy?
And then, while my movie viewing companion and I speculated on the virginity of our pretty fly boy (He is a Virgin. Cindy Lou isn't giving anything up until the Wedding Night.).
Carmen made Joe a MAN!
A little stroking, a little assuming the position, notice the bed at the right of the frame, and some bites of peaches, and we have a Man.
This is something that the US Army should note. Because they couldn't make Joe a fly boy, but Carmen could make him a Man.
Joe goes back to the US Army without Carmen and ends up in the stockade. When Joe gets out of the stockade, he goes straight for Carmen. Gotta try some of her Peach Cobbler.
Carmen is nightclubbing to get over her yearning for Joe with Pearl Bailey and yes, on the right, is Diahann Carroll! Nineteen years old and slender as a willow branch, but wearing the clothes.
See those Hanging lanterns in the nightclub? A Hanging Offense will occur here.
But first we meet the other man in Carmen's love life, Husky Miller, the Fighter.
He sings the best song about a Bell and softens his baritone to a tenor when he sees Carmen. He wants her. He wants her to come to Chicago with him. He will treat her Right while he fights for the title.
He sends his minions and managers to tempt Carmen to Chicago. But Carmen declines until Joe shows up and kills his sergeant who is trying to keep him from his Woman. Remember those Hanging Lanterns.
Carmen goes to Chicago, but not with Husky, she goes with Joe who is on the run because of her. Again.
The Agents of Fate and the US Army, the MPs, make it to Chicago, too.
Carmen and Joe are stuck in a dingy one room apartment with just each other for entertainment. And they do find ways to entertain themselves. They play a lot of footsie.
Joe can't leave the apartment because of those Agents of Fate and the US Army, but that is not keeping Carmen from her rounds of visitation.
See how Mr. Preminger fills his huge CinemaScope screen with just one person, but gives the viewer the full feeling of desolation and ennui that being trapped in that room can bring. And those Zebra pants are hot. Ze Bra---Ze Pants, Hahaha!
While Joe plays footsie with himself, Carmen visits her Gal Pals at Husky Miller's gym where he trains. Oh what a surprise! Husky is there too!
And look at those diamonds on Pearl! And Look at that outfit that Diahann is wearing. I think that Pearl bathes in those diamonds and that the costume designer went wild with what can we put on Diahann? Because she can wear anything! Pink and polka dots? Pshaw! We can do better!
Let us put Diahann in Violets and White Mink! Oh and Pearl in her diamonds. Look at Carmen. See that black design on the shoulder of her dress? That is the Hand of Fate. Pearl is reading the cards for Carmen and Carmen draws the nine of spades. She says that that is the death card, but the five of spades is the Death Card. Oh well, different reading for the movie.
Carmen decides to keep on doing what she does best. Living it Up before she lies down Dead.
Carmen embraces Life and Her Fighter. And why not? Carmen is a Fighter! Husky is a Fighter! It's Fate! It's a Fighter's Match.
Because Joe is weak and plucked. Carmen dumps him like a Bad Luck Chicken Foot.
Carmen is living the fighter's life. Getting the rub downs and massages and company from her entourage, when Cindy Lou shows up. Cindy Lou wants Joe back. And Cindy Lou can have him if she can find him, because Carmen threw Joe out with the last of her foot cream.
Poor Cindy Lou! See how Mr. Preminger frames her in the widescreen to bring her loneliness and abandonment to the front for the viewer? She has Nothing and it shows.
Joe has gone Feral in his Abandonment by Carmen. He is trapped and the cage that he lives in is getting smaller. He has to bust free.
He escapes the prison of his apartment and goes to look for Carmen.
Look at the Hanging clothes on the line. Look at the bars that Joe lurks behind. The fire escape has a long flight of stairs to the ground. Reminds me of the Gallows. What a beautiful visual embodiment of Joe's psychological state.
Joe goes to Husky's title fight. He hides in a phone booth to escape the Agents of Fate and the US Army. But look at the celtic design on the walls. Looks like a maze to me. And Joe is not good at getting out of mazes. Look at the shadow on the stairs to the right. The Agents of Fate and the US Army might have missed him this time, but the portents are NOT good. And Harry Belafonte might be as pretty as Clark Kent but when he comes out of the phone booth, he will not be a better man.
The Ladies' Fight Club are cheering their Man on!
Carmen looks like an Angel. Pearl has her Diamonds. And oh my Gosh! Diahann has giant cotton balls on her head, but she looks fabulous! And look at that woman in Black in the back. Portents.
Husky wins his Title! Husky is a Fighter, Carmen is a Fighter, and from one Fighter to another---the Kiss of Triumph and Bravery!
Don't need NO Peach Juice for that! And look who is wearing the Red Cape!
After the Fight, pusillanimous Joe shows up and stalks Carmen and pulls her into a Janitor's Room. Joe thinks that he is going to clean up this mess. Joe thinks that Carmen will come back to him. He just has to bully her and call her a whore and threaten her with physical violence because women just love that kind of behavior from a psycho stalker. And especially Carmen, who has proved herself to be such a WEAK Woman.
Carmen is Strong and she goes with the Strong. And you Joe, are pathetic.
And Joe takes the coward's way out, he strangles the magnificent Carmen in a Janitor's Room.
And Joe is truly trapped and captured by the Agents of Fate and the US Army. Joe is going to his Hanging. Well deserved.
This is a cap that I found on the internets and I am including it here to show just how well Mr. Preminger composes his shots in the widescreen.
This has been cut from the wide screen cap. You'll notice that I kept the wide screen when I made my screen caps because they were just so beautifully done. I didn't crop or cut out any of the picture. This cap makes the story sordid and tawdry and small. And Carmen was never Small. She was Huge!! And Epic!!!
This movie is well made and very well done. I recommend it to all.
Here it is on You Tube. Embedding has been disabled.
And here is an interview with Miss Diahann Carroll on the movie.
Click to viewOh, and the Music was Pretty Good too.
