Carmen (1918 film)

• Pola Negri: Carmen
• Harry Liedtke: Don José Navarro
• Leopold von Ledebur: Escamillo
• Grete Diercks: Dolores
• Paul Biensfeldt: smugglers Garcia
• Paul Conradi: smuggler Don Cairo
• Max Kronert: smugglers Remendato
• Margarete copper: Carmen's landlady
• Sophie Pagay: Don José's mother
• Magnus Stifter: Lieutenant Esteban
• Heinrich peer: English officer
• Wilhelm Diegelmann: prison guard
• Victor Janson
• Albert Venohr

Carmen is a German film directed by Ernst Lubitsch in 1918 and the first screen adaptation of the opera Carmen.

Action

The Dragoon Don José visits his mother and his bride Dolores who live somewhere in the Spanish province. There he received the order to come to Seville, as it is to be transported. In Seville he learns the cigarette factory worker Carmen know. The attractive gypsy is arrested after a brawl at the factory. Don José to guard her and Carmen can not resist approximations. He helps her to escape and is degraded again as punishment. Now as simple Guardsman he ekes out a bleak existence. Again he meets in Seville Carmen and uses him again. The guard is distracted from Carmen so that a gang of smugglers remains undetected. Don José is finally expelled from the army when he kills an officer in a duel. He is now even smugglers and Carmen can be so close. However, Don José must soon realize that the bullfighter Escamillo has won the heart of Carmen. Out of jealousy, he stabs Carmen in front of the bullring.

Background

The film had on 20 December 1918 in Berlin at the Union Theatre (UT ) on the Kurfürstendamm world premiere. 1921, the film under the title Gypsy Blood premiered in the U.S.. In the U.S., there had already been two major productions of Carmen 1915 - history. The first staged Cecil B. DeMille with opera singer Geraldine Farrar in the title role. The second version in 1915 turned Raoul Walsh with Theda Bara in the title role. 1916 appeared in the USA Parody Burlesque on Carmen Carmen by Charles Chaplin.

Reviews

• Lexicon of international film: The plot, although hardly make any progress, and the characters are poorly developed; Nevertheless, the film established the stardom of actress Pola Negri. Despite all its weaknesses, not only in film history is of great interest.