Viva Carmen Review: Laudenbach's Expressionistic Animation Reimagines Bizet's Opera
By
David Ehrlich
11d ago· 7 min readenReview
100/100
Golden Brown
Bagelometer↗
Toasted golden, schmeared with insight. Top of the rack.
Score100TypereviewSentimentpositive
Summary
Sébastien Laudenbach's 'Viva Carmen' is an expressionistic animated adaptation of Bizet's tragic opera Carmen. The review highlights Laudenbach's distinctive, hand-drawn animation style that contrasts with the polished, hyper-detailed approach of modern feature animation. The film reimagines the classic opera through a minimalist, fluid visual language that invites audience participation and imagination, staying true to Laudenbach's signature artistic approach seen in his previous work 'Chicken for Linda!'.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledFeature-length animation has largely become a merciless and exacting thing, every frame invested with such a fortune's worth of pre-determined purpose that there often isn't any room left over for the audience to move around the images for themselves.
These films used to implore our imaginations to fill the space between each cel, but the ones they make now are as seamless and inviting as the blades of a helicopter — watch from a safe distance, keep your hands to yourself, and try to enjoy the ride.
And then are the films of French animator Sébastien Laudenbach, whose expressionistic linework...
'Chicken for Linda!' director Sébastien Laudenbach returns with 'Viva Carmen,' another singularly gorgeous work of animation.
