CARMEN, the second in Carlos Saura's flamenco dance trilogy, which also includes BLOOD WEDDING and EL AMOR BRUJO, is staged as an opera within an opera. To counter what many Spaniards feel are the ineffectual cliches and cultural trappings of CARMEN--the fans and knives and the roses between the teeth--Saura and dancer-choreographer Antonio Gades have integrated into the original story a parallel subplot about love, jealousy, and violence in the lives of the dancers performing the ballet. This contemporary love affair between Antonio (Antonio Gades) and Carmen (Laura del Sol) clearly follows the plot of the opera. The entire subplot takes place in rehearsals, and includes a delightful scene of the entire troop spontaneously bursting into a parody of the campy March of the Toreadors.
Saura adds scenes that depict the fantasies of the characters, which is an element that the director uses in many of his films. He blends the emotions of the dancers in their real lives into their dancing in the performance, which brings to life--in a powerful and vivid fashion--the overly familiar characters of Georges Bizet's opera.