A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Carmen (1984) Based On: Carmen, an 1875 opera by Georges Bizet. Libretto by Henri Meilhac & Ludovic Halévy based on  Carmen, a novella by Prosper Mérimée Adapted by: Francesco Rosi and Tonino Guerra Directed by: Francesco Rosi Starring; Placido Domingo, Julia Migenes-Johnson, Ruggero Raimondi, Faith Esham, John-Paul Bogart, Susan Daniel Theatrical release poster for Carmen. © 1984 Gaumont and Opera Film Produzione On September 20, 1984, six months and six days after its premiere in France, U.S. audiences first saw director Francesco Rosi's adaptation of Carmen, the classic opera by Georges Bizet, Henri Meilhac, and Ludovic Halévy (which was based on the eponymous novel by Prosper Mérimée). Starring Placido Domingo as Don Jose and Julia Migenes-Johnson as Carmen, the film is, as the late Roger Ebert wrote in his contemporary review , "the Raiders of the Lost Ark of opera films." Filmed entirely in Andalusia, Spain and set in 1875-era Sevilla (Sev...

Portrait of the Screenwriter As a Young Man, circa 1986. (Photo Credit: Peter C. Townsend) Hello, there, Constant Reader, and welcome once again to Bloggin' On, the blog-within-a-blog section of A Certain Point of View where I don't "do" reviews or the occasional bit of political commentary. It's Wednesday, January 22, 2020, although because it was a three-day weekend due to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, it feels oddly like it's Tuesday...and a spectacularly cold Tuesday at that. Right now (it's mid-morning as I write this) the temperature outside is 36℉ (3℃) under sunny skies, although the wind chill lowers the feels-like temperature to the freezing point. The temperature will rise a bit as the hours pass; the forecast calls for a high of 60℉ (16℃) and some cloudiness, but overall, by Florida standards, it's going to be  c-c-c-cold out there. Yesterday I got (via text) an update on our comedy film project from actor-director Juan Car...