Choreographer Jiří Kylián and director Boris Paval Conen made the film on location at coal mine int the Czech Republic, where Kylián choreographed the piece for four dancers on the spot. The Dutch composer Han Otten arranged Bizet’s original score and olso integrated additional music specially composed for the film. The trial of strength between the eternal temptress Carmen, the infatuated Don José, the womanizer Escamillo and the kind-hearted Samaritan Micaëla climaexes in a lively race in cars made from abandoned scrap.
Artistic direction / Conception : Boris Paval Conen et Jiři Kylián
Choreography : Jiři Kylián
Interpretation : The Nederlands Dans Theater
Original music : Han Otten
Production / Coproduction of the video work : Production NPS / Coproduction ARTE, Ceská Televiz Soutien Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Fund and CoBo Fund
For at least 2 years, I have planned to take part in making of a short film (30 min?) on the theme of ‘’Carmen” with the dancers of NDT III (I call them: dancers between 40 years and death..!)
I think, that it is not difficult to explain why the theme of ‘’Carmen” has attracted scores of creative people over decades to attempt to make new interpretations of this eternal theme, or at least shed some different light on it!
Because this story is timeless and because this story has already happened to the protagonists, and because it is re-lived and reinterpreted now – and because the film, which we want to make, will still live after we all (creators) are dead, because of all of this, we have decided that not much in the film will be seen in real time, or speed. All sequences will be either speeded-up or slowed-down, and they will happen in the “past” or in the “future”. By doing so, we want the spectators to be painfully aware of the torrent of time passing through them in every moment of their existence!
We felt that the ideal site for this film would be a place which is partly destroyed by human beings – a land, which is totally devastated, and because of this, it is the perfect arena for some very essential emotions of the interpreters. We have found this ideal place in the north of the Czech Republic, on the destroyed landscape of the surface coal mines….
Sincerely, Jirí Kylián