First Name: Carmen

1983 film by Jean-Luc Godard

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First Name: Carmen

Theatrical release poster

French| Prénom Carmen
Directed by| Jean-Luc Godard
Screenplay by| Anne-Marie Miéville
Produced by| Alain Sarde
Starring|

* Maruschka Detmers
* Jacques Bonnaffé
* Myriem Roussel
* Christophe Odent

Cinematography|

* Raoul Coutard
* Jean-Bernard Menoud

Edited by|

* Fabienne Alvarez-Giro
* Suzanne Lang-Willar

Music by| Beethoven

Production
companies

* Sara Films
* JLG Films
* Films A2

Distributed by| Parafrance [fr]

Release dates

* 8 September 1983 (1983-09-08) (Venice)
* 11 January 1984 (1984-01-11) (France)

Running time

| 85 minutes
Country| France
Language| French
Box office| $3 million[1]

First Name: Carmen (French: Prénom Carmen) is a 1983 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Loosely based on Bizet's opera Carmen, the film was written by Anne-Marie Miéville and produced by Alain Sarde, and stars Maruschka Detmers and Jacques Bonnaffé. The film won the Golden Lion at the 40th Venice International Film Festival and had 395,462 admissions in France.[1]

## Plot

[edit]

Carmen, in a voice over paired with shots of the city and the sea, introduces herself as "the girl who should not be called Carmen." Somewhere a string quartet is rehearsing the late string quartets of Beethoven. The eccentric Jeannot (played by Godard) is living in a sanitarium where the doctor threatens to throw him out if he doesn't start to show signs of real illness. Carmen comes to visit him, and it is revealed he is a washed-up filmmaker and her lecherous uncle. After getting her Uncle Jeannot to loan her his seaside apartment, Carmen and some others attempt to rob a bank.

During the mayhem of the robbery, Carmen comes face to face with Joseph, a comically inept bank guard, and the two immediately fall in love. The string quartet continues to rehearse, inflecting the scenes of the robbery, and vice versa. The narrative link is that one of the members of the quartet is Claire, who is established earlier in the film as a potential love interest for Joseph.

Carmen and Joseph retreat to Uncle Jeannot's apartment, where Carmen recalls childhood incestuous encounters. Carmen tells Joseph, quoting from Carmen Jones: "if I love you, that's the end of you." Joseph is arrested and put on trial, and Carmen escapes with Fred, the leader of her gang. In flashback, Carmen reveals to Joseph that the robbery was intended to fund a larger project, the kidnapping of "a big manufacturer" or his daughter, with a fake film directed by Uncle Jeannot meant to provide cover, a scheme that John Dillinger supposedly once perpetrated. Joseph is acquitted with the help of an impassioned public defender and Claire's moral support.

Meanwhile, Fred persuades Uncle Jeannot to direct the gang's film. After receiving a rose from her during the trial, Joseph reunites with Carmen at a hotel where the gang is staying. He plans to renew their relationship and to participate in the kidnapping, but Carmen seems increasingly uninterested in him, and the gang ostracizes Joseph. Things go from bad to worse for Joseph as Carmen toys with a young hotel attendant, Fred directs Carmen to tell Joseph it's over, and Joseph forces Carmen into an abject sexual encounter in the shower where he ejaculates on her.

The day of the kidnapping arrives, and the incident is to take place in the restaurant in the hotel where the gang has been staying. Uncle Jeannot is present to direct the film (apparently shot on video), along with the string quartet (performing in public at last) and eventually the police (who have followed Joseph). As with the bank robbery, mayhem ensues.

Joseph is determined to encounter Carmen alone; a gun goes off between them, and Carmen falls to the floor. Leaving her for dead, the police drag Joseph away. In a stupor, Carmen asks the young hotel attendant what it is called when the innocents are on one side and the guilty on the other, when everything has been lost but you are still breathing and the sun is still rising. "Daybreak," he responds.

## Cast

[edit]

* Maruschka Detmers as Carmen X
* Jacques Bonnaffé as Joseph Bonnaffé
* Myriem Roussel as Claire
* Christophe Odent [fr] as the chef
* Hippolyte Girardot as Fred

Isabelle Adjani was originally cast in the title role, but she left the set after a few days of filming to be with her dying father.[2] It was producer Alain Sarde who brought Maruschka Detmers, a 20-year-old Dutch girl, to the attention of Godard, just out of an acting class and without any film experience behind her. Godard accepted, persuaded both by the perfectly fitting physical type to give life to the sensual and melancholy Carmen, and by the ease with which she faced, during an audition, a nude scene in the presence of the male protagonist.[3]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Prénom Carmen (1984)". JP Box-Office (in French). Retrieved 5 December 2016.
2. ^ Lalanne, Jean-Marc (17 July 2018). "Son enfance, Despentes, Metoo, les rumeurs : en 2018, Isabelle Adjani se racontait dans une longue interview". Les Inrockuptibles (in French). Retrieved 25 August 2023.
3. ^ Jean-Luc Godard, p. 205, at Google Books

## External links

[edit]

* First Name: Carmen at IMDb
* First Name: Carmen at AlloCiné (in French)

* v
* t
* e

Georges Bizet's Carmen

Source|

* Carmen (novella)

Stage works|

* Carmen Jones (1943 musical)
* Carmen (1949 ballet)
* Carmen Suite (1967 ballet)
* Carmen, Carmen (1988 musical)
* Carmen (2008 musical)

Music|

* Discography
* Carmen Fantasy (Sarasate)
* Carmen Fantasie (Waxman)
* Habanera
* Toreador Song
* Carmen: Duets & Arias
* Carmen Suites
* Carmen Variations

Film adaptations|

* Carmen (1915 DeMille)
* Carmen (1915 Walsh)
* A Burlesque on Carmen (1915)
* Carmen (1918)
* Carmen (1926)
* The Loves of Carmen (1927)
* Carmen (1931)
* Nights in Andalusia (1938)
* Carmen, la de Triana (1938)
* Carmen (1942)
* The Loves of Carmen (1948)
* Carmen Jones (1954)
* Carmen di Trastevere (1962)
* Man, Pride and Vengeance (1968)
* Carmen, la que contaba 16 años (1978)
* First Name: Carmen (1983)
* Carmen (1983)
* Carmen (1984)
* Carmen on Ice (1990)
* Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001)
* Carmen (Russia, 2003)
* Carmen (France, 2003)
* U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (2005)
* Carmen's Kiss (2011)
* Carmen (2022)

Related|

* Carmen up to Data
* G.I. Carmen
* "Carmen Brasilia"
* The Car Man
* Battle of the Carmens
* Seguidilla
* Carmen Get It! (1962)
* "Nxde"

* v
* t
* e

Jean-Luc Godard

Filmography

Feature|

* Breathless (1960)
* A Woman Is a Woman (1961)
* Vivre sa vie (1962)
* Le petit soldat (1963)
* The Carabineers (1963)
* Contempt (1963)
* Bande à part (1964)
* A Married Woman (1964)
* Alphaville (1965)
* Pierrot le Fou (1965)
* Masculin Féminin (1966)
* Made in U.S.A. (1966)
* Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1967)
* La Chinoise (1967)
* Weekend (1967)
* One Plus One (Sympathy for the Devil) (1968)
* Joy of Learning (1969)
* British Sounds (1969)
* Tout Va Bien (1972)
* Number Two (1975)
* Every Man for Himself (1980)
* Passion (1982)
* First Name: Carmen (1983)
* Hail Mary (1985)
* Détective (1985)
* King Lear (1987)
* Keep Your Right Up (1987)
* Nouvelle Vague (1990)
* Germany Year 90 Nine Zero (1991)
* Hélas pour moi (1993)
* Les Enfants jouent à la Russie (1993)
* JLG/JLG – Self-Portrait in December (1995)
* For Ever Mozart (1996)
* In Praise of Love (2001)
* Notre musique (2004)
* Film Socialisme (2010)
* Goodbye to Language (2014)
* The Image Book (2018)

Short and
segment|

* Operation Concrete (1955)
* Une femme coquette (1955)
* All the Boys Are Called Patrick (1957)
* A Story of Water (1958)
* Charlotte and Her Boyfriend (1958)
* "Sloth" in The Seven Deadly Sins (1962)
* "The New World" in Ro.Go.Pa.G. (1962)
* "Le Grand escroc" in Les plus belles escroqueries du monde (1963)
* "Montparnasse-Levallois" in Paris vu par (1964)
* "Anticipation, ou: l'amour en l'an 2000" in The Oldest Profession (1965)
* "Caméra-oeil" in Far from Vietnam (1967)
* "L'Amore" in Amore e rabbia (1969)
* Letter to Jane (1972)
* Here and Elsewhere (1976)
* How's it going
* A Letter to Freddy Buache (1982)
* Soft and Hard (1985)
* Meetin' WA (1986)
* "Armide" in Aria (1987)
* "Le Dernier mot" in The French as Seen by... (1988)
* Histoire(s) du cinéma (1998)
* "Dans le noir du temps" in Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (2002)
* Tribute to Eric Rohmer (2010)
* "Les Trois Désastres" in 3X3D (2013)
* "The Bridge of Sighs" in Bridges of Sarajevo (2014)
* Letter in Motion to Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux (2014)
* Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist: "Phony Wars" (2023)

Related|

* Paparazzi (1963 documentary)
* Le Parti des choses (1964 documentary)
* Two in the Wave (2010 documentary)
* One P.M. (1972 documentary)
* Redoubtable (2017 biopic)
* Groupe Dziga Vertov
* Bibliography

* v
* t
* e

Venice Film Festival Golden Lion

1946–1968|

* The Southerner (1946)
* The Strike (1947)
* Hamlet (1948)
* Manon (1949)
* Justice Is Done (1950)
* Rashomon (1951)
* Forbidden Games (1952)
* Romeo and Juliet (1954)
* Ordet (1955)
* Aparajito (1957)
* Rickshaw Man (1958)
* General Della Rovere (1959)
* The Great War (1959)
* Tomorrow Is My Turn (1960)
* Last Year at Marienbad (1961)
* Family Diary (1962)
* Ivan's Childhood (1962)
* Hands over the City (1963)
* Red Desert (1964)
* Sandra (1965)
* The Battle of Algiers (1966)
* Belle de Jour (1967)
* Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed (1968)

1980–2000|

* Atlantic City (1980)
* Gloria (1980)
* Marianne and Juliane (1981)
* The State of Things (1982)
* First Name: Carmen (1983)
* A Year of the Quiet Sun (1984)
* Vagabond (1985)
* The Green Ray (1986)
* Au revoir les enfants (1987)
* The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988)
* A City of Sadness (1989)
* Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
* Close to Eden (1991)
* The Story of Qiu Ju (1992)
* Short Cuts (1993)
* Three Colours: Blue (1993)
* Before the Rain (1994)
* Vive l'amour (1994)
* Cyclo (1995)
* Michael Collins (1996)
* Hana-bi (1997)
* The Way We Laughed (1998)
* Not One Less (1999)
* The Circle (2000)

2001–present|

* Monsoon Wedding (2001)
* The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
* The Return (2003)
* Vera Drake (2004)
* Brokeback Mountain (2005)
* Still Life (2006)
* Lust, Caution (2007)
* The Wrestler (2008)
* Lebanon (2009)
* Somewhere (2010)
* Faust (2011)
* Pietà (2012)
* Sacro GRA (2013)
* A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014)
* From Afar (2015)
* The Woman Who Left (2016)
* The Shape of Water (2017)
* Roma (2018)
* Joker (2019)
* Nomadland (2020)
* Happening (2021)
* All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)
* Poor Things (2023)
* The Room Next Door (2024)

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Germany
* France
* BnF data
* Catalonia

Other|

* IdRef

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