{"id":1081,"date":"2026-05-31T20:41:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T20:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1081"},"modified":"2026-05-31T20:41:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T20:41:20","slug":"viva-carmen-review-the-visuals-do-the-singing-in-a-ravishing-animated-riff-on-bizets-opera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1081","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Viva Carmen\u2019 Review: The Visuals Do the Singing in a Ravishing Animated Riff on Bizet\u2019s Opera"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tAs with most operas, the story was never the primary selling point of \u201cCarmen,\u201d so to adapt it with the music heavily downplayed in favor of the narrative is an audacious move; refashioning this tale of murderous, hot-blooded amour fou <\/em>as a children\u2019s film, doubly so. But Georges Bizet\u2019s 1875 opera has always been an versatile text on film, withstanding interpretations ranging from Jean-Luc Godard\u2019s postmodern \u201cFirst Name: Carmen\u201d to the South African township musical \u201cuCarmen-eKhayelitsha\u201d to a Beyonc\u00e9-starring \u201chip-hopera.\u201d So the French animated feature \u201cViva Carmen\u201d follows in a proud, elastic tradition \u2014 and if S\u00e9bastien Laudenbach\u2019s film isn\u2019t the hottest \u201cCarmen\u201d ever to hit the screen, it\u2019s certainly the most blazingly bright.<\/p>\n

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\n\tA veritable triumph of movement, design and, above all, color, \u201cViva Carmen\u201d is a film for any fanciful children (or former children) inclined to memorize the names of every Crayola shade in the box, and to make up others besides. For no existing term feels entirely suitable for certain intensely burnt hues of apricot, magenta and aubergine that Laudenbach (in collaboration with graphic designer Cyril Pedrosa) liberally splashes across the screen here. With a palette selected to evoke the high temperatures and high passions of 19th-century Andalusia, and fluidly shifting as the action moves from day to night, from searing sun to blessed shade, this is the most extravagantly painterly animated feature in recent memory, thanks also to Laudenbach\u2019s distinctively minimalist, bold-brushstroke line work and character design \u2014 immediately recognizable to anybody who saw his 2023 breakout film \u201cChicken for Linda!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat film, co-directed with his partner Chiara Malta, connected with audiences as much for the gentle, community-minded warmth of its mother-daughter tale as for its strikingly color-blocked visuals. Though it filters Bizet\u2019s original tragedy through a child\u2019s-eye perspective \u2014 taking as its jumping-off point the youthful chorus that opens the opera \u2014 \u201cViva Carmen\u201d is a less emotionally affecting work, but its sensory dazzle is its selling point: Not just gorgeous on a frame-by-frame basis, the film\u2019s swooping, kinetic rhythm gives it the sense of being invisibly, spontaneously drawn before our eyes. Following festival dates at Cannes and Annecy, it should at least match the global profile of its predecessor, which was distributed Stateside by GKIDS.<\/p>\n

\n\tBuilding on a concept devised by the director and producer Pierre-Henri L\u00e9on, Santiago Otheguy\u2019s script plays fast and loose with Bizet\u2019s opera and the Prosper M\u00e9rim\u00e9e novella that inspired it \u2014 to the point of inventing an entirely new protagonist. That would be Salvador (voiced by young \u201cAnatomy of a Fall\u201d star Milo Machado-Graner), a teenage orphan living by his wits on the mean streets of 19th-century Seville, under the tutelage of Antonio (Paul Minthe), a blind knife-sharpener with an eerie knack for catching visions of the future in his gleaming blades. When Salvador encounters the seductive, wild-spirited Romani woman Carmen (Cam\u00e9lia Jordana), he is, like many of the city\u2019s older menfolk, entranced; when Antonio\u2019s blades foretell her death at the hands of her lover, the dashing soldier Jos\u00e9 (Carl Malapa), Salvador enlists the help of fellow urchin Bel\u00e9n (Soumaye Bocoum) to disrupt destiny.<\/p>\n

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\n\tIt\u2019s an ostensibly feminist reframing of the original story that might not altogether rescue Carmen from violent patriarchal impulse, but instead makes Bel\u00e9n something of a community leader \u2014 ending not with a grim crime of passion, but a call for solidarity among women and other disenfranchised groups. Salvador remains an odd choice of character to place at the center of this all, notwithstanding Machado-Graner\u2019s winning voice work; the film\u2019s focus occasionally feels a degree or two removed from what it\u2019s really about, caught between the adult melodrama of the source and the plucky childhood adventure bracketing it. (Some young viewers might be a little perplexed by the former, though \u201cViva Carmen\u201d does itself thoughtfully portray the reality of children absorbing the grownup world at their own pace.) <\/p>\n

\n\tAny lapses in attention or understanding, however, should be covered by the sheer enchantment of the animation, immersing viewers in the chaotic bustle and unyielding climate of this scorched city with stark ribbons of ink and those saturated pools of Gauguin-esque color. The score by Amine Bouhafa and Isabelle Laudenbach \u2014 the director\u2019s sister, and also an accomplished flamenco guitarist \u2014 deftly interpolates scraps and strains of Bizet\u2019s original compositions, stripped of operatic excess and given a folky lilt. \u201cViva Carmen\u201d makes the barest of concessions to purists, but doesn\u2019t strain for modernity either, pursuing instead a kind of handmade storybook wonder.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\u2018Viva Carmen\u2019 Review: The Visuals Do the Singing in a Ravishing Animated Riff on Bizet\u2019s Opera<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n

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\t\tReviewed at Soho Screening Rooms, London, April 29, 2026. In Cannes Film Festival (Directors’ Fortnight). Running time: 90 MIN.<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n

    \n
  • \nProduction:<\/strong>
    \n(Animated \u2014 France) A Folivari production in co-production with France 3 Cinema, Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne Alpes Cinema,, La Garde Montante Films. (World sales: Global Constellation, London.) Producers: Damien Brunner, Thibaut Ruby, Pierre-Henri L\u00e9on. Executive producer: S\u00e9bastien Laudenbach.\t\t\t<\/li>\n
  • \nCrew:<\/strong>
    \nDirector: S\u00e9bastian Laudenbach. Screenplay: Santiago Otheguy, based on an original idea by Laudenbach, Pierre-Henri L\u00e9on, based on the opera ‘Carmen’ by Georges Bizet, based on the novella by Prosper M\u00e9rim\u00e9e. Graphic designer: Cyril Pedrosa. Editor: Catherine Aladenise. Music: Amine Bouhafa, Isabelle Laudenbach.\t\t\t<\/li>\n
  • \nWith:<\/strong>
    \nCam\u00e9lia Jordana, Milo Machado-Graner, Soumaye Bocoum, Carl Malapa. \t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    An imaginatively designed, iridescently hued family film from ‘Chicken for Linda!’ director S\u00e9bastien Laudenbach, ‘Viva Carmen’ is a vibrant delight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,452,453],"class_list":["post-1081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-sebastian-laudenbach","tag-viva-carmen"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Viva Carmen\u2019 Review: The Visuals Do the Singing in a Ravishing Animated Riff on Bizet\u2019s Opera - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1081\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Viva Carmen\u2019 Review: The Visuals Do the Singing in a Ravishing Animated Riff on Bizet\u2019s Opera - 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