U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha

Name: U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha
Genre: Drama, Romance, Musical
Released: March 28, 2007
Duration: 122 min
Rating: 74

2007

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 5 Ratings

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7.8

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7.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 5 Ratings

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U-Carmen

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Movie Details & Credits

Koch Lorber Films | Release Date: March 28, 2007

Summary: Based on Bizet's opera "Carmen," this film is sung and spoken in Xhosa, one of South Africa's eleven official languages.

Director: Mark Dornford-May

Genre(s): Drama, Romance, Musical

Runtime: 122 min

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Metascore

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Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Elizabeth Weitzman

Riveting update of George Bizet's "Carmen." Read full review

Matt Zoller Seitz

Mr. Hazlewood’s strategy also draws attention to the lack of psychological detail in the central love triangle, which isn’t good. But the music still pierces, the blood still flows, and the overall conception is so original that even when the movie falters in the moment, it dazzles in the memory. Read full review

Julia Wallace

This was basically the best idea ever. The setting brims over with the same wicked froth of danger, exoticism, and passion that 19th-century Seville must have had before it got stylized into oblivion. Read full review

V.A. Musetto

A vivacious film that is a treat for eyes and ears. Read full review

Richard M. Porton

The film is never dull and often rousing, but this is essentially a conventional version of a classic opera--the attempt to transform it into a critique of macho hubris comes off as an afterthought, and the poverty is just a backdrop. Read full review

Russell Edwards

This version of Georges Bizet's frequently reinterpreted "Carmen" is spoken and sung in the click-punctuated African lingo of Xhosa and adapted to fit yarn's shift south, with a semi-cinema verite style cleverly disguising the artifice of the work's legit origins. Read full review

Kirk Honeycutt

Brilliantly sung by an extremely talented lyric theater company in Cape Town called Dimpho Di Kopane. Whether this all works will be a matter of opinion -- mine is that it does not -- but the experiment is fascinating. Read full review

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User Reviews

KatH

Jun 20, 2008

Excellent version of Carmen. It was refreshing to see it from another cultural experience.

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BrianO.

Apr 21, 2007

I saw this at the Indianapolis International Film Festival last year and the director and star were there - maybe I was star-struck, but I thought it was magnificent and Malefane has a truly lovely voice. May require being an opera fan for some, but I'm not terribly into opera and I I saw this at the Indianapolis International Film Festival last year and the director and star were there - maybe I was star-struck, but I thought it was magnificent and Malefane has a truly lovely voice. May require being an opera fan for some, but I'm not terribly into opera and I loved it. A unique movie-going experience.… Expand

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