Desire Ltd: Romanies, Women, and Other Smugglers in Carmen

Author(s): Anat Zanger

Source: Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, Vol. 44, No. 2, Cinematic Images of
Romanies (FALL 2003), pp. 81-93
Published by: Wayne State University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41552371
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Ltd:

Desire
Women,
Smugglers
Anat

Romanies,
and

Other
in

Carmen

Zanger

or permanently.
A fetish
maskstheabsencebutnothermetically
HamidNaficy(1993,97)
'She was lying,seor, as she alwayslied. I wonder whetherthatgirl ever
spoke one word of truthin her life' (1963 [1845, 24]). Withthesewords,
Antonio (Antonio Gades) who plays the directorin Carlos Saura's 1983
filmCarmen
, presentsCarmen- one of the mostfamousRomani figuresin
the world to his dance troupe. By quoting Don Jos's words from
Mrime,Antonio also createsan analogybetween the old storyand the
new.Time has passed and yetCarmen the Gypsyis stilldepicted bya man,
in thiscase one man quotinganother.
In thisversion,Carmen,the dancer,chosen to be Carmen in the show,
and Antonio,who willbe Don Jos,play the lead roles both on stage and
off.Step bystep,Antonio examines the myth,but as he triesto change it,
he is, in fact,repeatingit.The confluenceof repetitionand differenceis a
strategyused in Saura's version,as in numerousother filmicvariationsof
Carmen
, to mobilizean old storyfora new configuration.However,it is the
dialecticbetweenthe 'old' and the 'new' thatkeeps producingadditional
of Carmenis part of a cultural
versions.In thissense, the re-signification
which also
process of assimilation,appropriation and transformation,
includes the act of reading itself.1Thus, fromthe present (and limited)

Framework
Fall2003Vol.44,No. 2, pp. 81-93
2003WayneStateUniversity
Press,Detroit,
Michigan48201-1309
Copyright

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Framework:The Journal of Cinema & Media 44.2

moment,we may identify
point of viewof thisspecifichistorical-cultural
Carmenas an emblematicculturalobject thatreflectsthe need to redefine
the 4 and the 'other' vis--vis
law and desire.
Ever since the publicationof ProsperMrime's novella in 1845, and
the productionof Georges Bizet's opera in 1875, Carmenhas had a lasting
presencein opera, theater,dance, in dozens of films,and recentlyeven in
computer games.2 By repeating the storyagain and again- either la
Mrimeor la Bizet or, as in mostversions,as a combinationof the two,
- culturehas kept the mythcircuwithinterpolationsand extrapolations
latingin society'sbloodstream,signalingitscontinuedrelevance.
Over fortyfilmversionsof the storyhave been produced to date,
, U.S., 1915), Charlie Chaplin
includingfilmsbyCecil B. De Mille ( Carmen
Blood, GerErnst
Lubitsch
Carmen
U.S.,
,
{Carmen/
( Burlesque
1916),
Gypsy
of
Nesna
Een
Carmen
Van
HetNoorMaurits
H.
and
Hans
(
1918),
Binger
many,
den/ACarmenof theNorth
, Netherlands,1919), Jacques Feyder ( Carmen
,
, U.S.,
, U.S., 1915; TheLovesofCarmen
France,1926), Raoul Walsh ( Carmen
, Germany,
, U.K., 1931), LotteReiniger( Carmen
1927), Cecil Lewis ( Carmen
The
Blonde
Carmen
Die
Blonde
Victor
Carmen/
, Ger1933),
Janson (
Carmen
Carmen
Chris
Anson
,
U.K.,
,
1936),
tian-Jaque(
many,1935),
Dyer (
, Spain, 1943), Charles Vidor
France, 1942), Luis Cesar Amadori ( Carmen
Ni kaeru/
, U.S., 1948) , KeiskeKinoshita( KarumenKokyo
( TheLovesofCarmen
CarmenComesHome, Japan, 1951), Otto Preminger {CarmenJones
, U.S.,
Granade
Demaicheli
Carmen
de
Ronda
Tulio
,
/Carmen
1954),
{La
from
Spain,
, Spain, 1983), Jean-LucGodard {PrnomCar1959), Carlos Saura ( Carmen
deCarmen/
FirstName:Carmen
men/
, France,1983), PeterBrook {La Tragdie
Francesco
Rosi
Carmen
Carmen's
, Italy,1984),
, U.K./France,1984),
(
Tragedy
Makoto Sato and AkiraSugiura {Carmen,
Japan, 1989), and, mostrecently,
, 2001, Senegal & France) and
Joseph Ga Ramaka {KarrnenGei/Carmen
RobertTownsend'sMTV Carmen:A Hip-Hopera(U.S., 2001).3
In thispaper I willdiscussthe textualproceduresthatenable the cinematicinstitutionto 'eternalize' Carmen.Like the socio-culturalsystemsof
literatureand opera beforeit,cinema uses a numberof devicesto deliver,
a highlyselectiverepresentationof Carmen, of the Gypsies,
persistently,
and ofRomani culture.Amongthemare a borrowed,'objective'discourse,
the 'fluid' ethnicidentityof the
a preferenceforindirectcharacterization,
betweenlegal and illeand
the
of
a
dialectic
movement
'other,'
production
that
as
soon
as the 'other' can
Baudrillard
has
(1983)
suggested
gal space.
be represented,it can be appropriatedand controlled (in Young 1990,
143). And mtonymierepresentationis a wayof controllingthe stereotype.
It is my contentionthat the corpus of the Carmenstoryis nurturedby
dreams,desire,fearand fantasiesof freedomand control.
I will argue that the Carmen figure,as Gypsyand woman, functions
bothas a sourceofattractionand dread to society.This is,in fact,themotor
which generates the plethora of remakes.4In this respect, everynew
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Desire Ltd
remake arouses the same apprehension:will the new versionsucceed in
treadingthatsame thinline thatallows us to see Carmen and her Gypsy
band withboth dread and delight?If,as Lacan suggests(1977), repetition
demands the new,can the newversionsucceed in maintainingthe balance
so farachieved,one thatenables us to both accept and rejectthe Carmen
story?
Beforeturningto the textsthemselves,I would like to discussin some
detail the role of stereotypeand fetishso prevalentin the cinematicversions of Carmen.In the contextof the endless chain of Carmenrewrites,I
willuse Bhabha's readingof Said (1979) on dualismat the heartof Orientalism:
Itis,on theone hand,a topicoflearning,
on theother,it
discovery,
practice;
is thesiteofdreams,images,fantasies,
obsessions
and requirements.
myths,
It is a staticsystem
of "synchronic
of "signifiers
of
essentialism,"
knowledge
such
as
the
and
the
this
site
However,
stability,"
lexicographic
encyclopedic.
is continually
underthreatfromdiachronic
formsofhistory
and narrative,
(1990 [1986],77).
'signsofinstability'
The chain of Carmenversionsand adaptationsseems to exemplifythe
way in which cinematic discourse embraces the tensions between the
secure synchronicimages of the 'other'- includingdreams,desires,fears,
and obsessions- and the dangerous changes,potentiallyencapsulated by
newerversionsyetto come. The presence of Carmenin its variousreprein Westernculture,is framedand constrainedby'sigsentations,primarily
nifiersof stability,'generated by repetitivepracticesof transparencythat
obfuscatethe colonialistdiscourseof Carmen's textualenunciation,ensuring the transmissionof the Gypsyfromone versionto anotheras an object
withoutnarrativeor history.This is accomplished throughencyclopedias,
synopsesand programnotesthatrehashthedesiredcontents,and through
the stereotypicalrepresentationstransmittedfromone filmto the next.
The reading of these various versionsone against the other, however,
potentiallyprovidesus withthe abilityto expose narrativefeaturesdrawn
fromthatotherstore- the 'signsof instability.'
As a culturalsign Carmenseems to have at leasttwooptionsforsurvival.
The firstis to develop a historyand a narrative.The second is to be transformedintoa repetitiousstereotype,
which'arrestsin timeand space a certain configurationof knowledge about the fetishobject, the colonized'
(Naficy,1993, 98). As a formof multipleand contradictorybeliefs,the
fetishor stereotypegivesus access to an 'identity'whichis based as much
on masteryand pleasureas itis on anxietyand defense(Bhabha 1990,202) .
Withinthisrepetitiveritual,Carmen's heritageand culturalenvironment
are concealed and denied, not least because mostversionsof Carmenwere
produced bywhitemales.
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Framework:The Journal of Cinema & Media 44.2

1. Borrowing Objective Discourse

In TheRomantic
, Mario Praz discussesCarmen as one of the many
Agony
because
of 'her diabolical femininefascination'brings
who,
femmes
fatales
about a 'violence of passion thatmakes the man lose regardforhis own
social position' (1970 [1951], 207, quoted in Furman1988, 171). NellyFurman, however,suggeststhatthe storycould just as well be told fromCarmen's perspective(1988, 170).
But,as Spivakremarks,'the subalterncannotspeak' (1985, 129) . Thus,
the tale of a Gypsywoman who has been loved and murderedby a white
man is enshrouded in 'objectivediscourse,'a practicewhich assignsto a
certaindiscoursethe aura of 'truth,'found in the variousversionsof the
story(in encyclopedias,synopses,or programnotes), as well as in those
Carmen textsthatare in circulationsin the contextof folklore,tourism,
geography,and linguistics.
CharlesVidor's 1948 filmTheLovesofCarmen
, forexample, illustrates
the 'objectivediscourse' used in the representationof Romanies. In two
consecutivesequences, the Gypsiesare shot fromwhatmightseem at first
sighttwodifferent
perspectives:the 'spectacular' and the 'ethnographic.'
The firstsequence presentsthe colorfully-dressed
Gypsiesand Carmen
at
herself
of
Romani
(Rita Hayworth,
origin) dancing Lillas Pastia's tavern
to the musicof the Seguidila.In thisscene, takenfromBizet and recurring
timeand again in the cinematicversionsof Carmen,the Gypsies,withCarmen in the center,are participatingin a spectacleforthe visualentertainmentof the whitemale. The nextscene is a parallel representationof the
Romanies,thistimein theirown encampment.Outside,near the bonfire,
theystartdancing 'spontaneously.'A young girl is singing,encouraged
bythe others- untilCarmen arrivesand joins in. A fewminuteslater,the
toreadorappears,singing,and the crowdfollowshim. In thisextra-textual
however,no wordsare spoken and nothingis added
'staged authenticity,'
to what we already know. This 'ethnographic'sequence is presented as
an oppositionto the 'touristicspectacle.'But actually,as a formofobjective
discourse both sequences create another 'signifierof stability'for the
Gypsies.
2. The Traveler's Gaze : Indirect Characterization
MrimecitesPalladas in his epigraph: 'Everywoman is bitterand is only
good twice- once in bed and once in death.' This 'ancient wisdom' has
been reflectedin manycinematicversions.Carmen has become not only
an eroticobjectforthevoyeuristic
gaze ofboth thespectatorsand themale
protagonists(Mulvey,1975) but has also been murdered over and over
again.5
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Desire Ltd
Accordingto the penetratinglogic of the conqueror,Mrime posits
at the center of his novella an archeologist,scientifically
equipped to
beneath
the
visible
ones.
He
meets
Don
the
Jos and
deep layers
expose
Carmen and, via a flashback,arrivesat the core of the storywhere he
exposes the 'true nature' of Carmen and the Gypsiesas the 'black continent' of his mission.6Whereas the narratorfunctionsas the centerof consciousnessin most of the story,thisfunctionis givenover to Don Jos, a
whiteman fromNavarre,during his confession.Carmen herselfhas no
access to unmediated or directspeech. Nor do membersof the Romani
band withwhomshe livesand worksincludingCarmen'shusband,theoneeyed Garcia, Dancaire and Lillas Pastia. Neither are their thoughtsand
dreamseverrepresentedin the novella,a traditionfollowedbycinema.
In the filmversions of De Mille, Lubitsch,Walsh, Christian-Jaque,
as she dances, seduces,
Vidor,and Rosi, Carmen is gazed at voyeuristically
cheats,betrays,and is ultimatelymurdered.Around her,alwaysas secondare the Gypsies:theirfunctionality
is 'attenuated,unilateral,
ary catalysts,
to
with
the
main
events
and
actions,to use Barthesterms
parasitic'
regard
and
(1977 [1966], 94). Playingcards, cheating
smuggling,the Romanies
are repeatedlyframedwithcolorful,coined kerchiefs,vestsand outsized
earrings,oftenappearingas culturalhybrids.
In Mrime,Donjos's lastwordsare: 'Poor girl!It is the Cal who are
to be blamed for havingreared her as theydid' (1963 [1845], 66). The
novella concludes witha didacticepilogue about the Gypsies,thusshifting
the focus of responsibility
fromDon Jos's characterto them,as if Carmen's fatewereinevitable,bound to the Gypsies'darkhair,darkeyes,their
wildexpression,and theirlivesspentin filth,fortune-telling,
and cheating.
not
as
Mrime's
'observations'
trickle
down subThough
expressed such,
- ethinto
almost
all
film
versions.
This
attitude
toward
minorities
liminally
nic or gender- is inscribedin thevariationson the ethnic'other' as wellas
in the productionof space whichis structuredaround the dialecticof legal
and illegal.
3. Placing and Re-Placing Ethnicity
The ethnicvariationsat play in the cinematicversionsof Carmenconfirm
Teshome Gabriel's observationthat 'the screen is like the painted mask
and betweenrep[...], in both thereis exchange betweenabsent-present
resentable-unrepresentable'(1990, 505). Not onlydo Gypsiesand whites
appear on screen,but so do Japanese,Senegalese and Americanblacks.
The firstethnic twistin Carmens carnivalof masksis found in Bizet's
opera: Temporal,spatial,musicaland castingdevicesassistedBizetin transmittingCarmenstereotypesas 'signifiersof stability,'all suitable for the
operatic medium and easilyadapted in turnby cinema. Bizet's 'non-exis85

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Framework:The Journal of Cinema & Media 44.2

tentSpain' (Biancolli,1953, 75) is mediatedthroughan exoticmlange of
Gypsiesand toreador figures,and a repertoireof 'ready-made'musical
motifssuch as the Habaneraand the 'Toreador Song.' Bizet has not only
eliminatedthe figureof the archaeologist-narrator,
but also that of Carmen's Romanihusband,Garcia. On theotherhand, he has added Micala,
Don Jos's mother'smessenger,a whitefemale antipode, to Carmen. By
reshuffling
gender and ethnic hierarchy,Bizet seems to emphasize the
interactionbetween the two minorities,the feminineand the Romani.
Micala, in contrastto Carmen, is not only 'the virginversusthe whore'
(Furman,1988,173),but also the fairversusthe dark.Micala, whiteand a
woman,simultaneouslyconstitutesboth 'center' and 'periphery,'identity
and alterity.7
Later,PremingermakesCarmen,Don Josand Micala black
(USA,1954), as does Townsend in his 'Hip-Hopera' (U.S., 2001), starring
Destiny Child's Beyonce Knowles. Kinoshita (Japan, 1951) and Sato
(Japan, 1989) make them Japanese. Chaplin (USA, 1916), Godard
(France, 1983), and Brook (UK & France, 1984) make thembothwhite.
Instead of threemen romanticallyinvolvedwithone Romani woman,
as in Mrime,Bizet'sCarmenhas a rivaland Don Joshas anotherromantic option. Alas, Don Jos chooses the wrongwoman and the wrongside
and is penalized for thischoice. There is yetanother layerto this transgression.From the outset,gender roles are inverted.Don Jos penetrates
the cigarfactory,
whichno man is allowed to enter. (Maingueneau, 1984;
Furman,1988). Carmen,on the otherhand, uses a knife,thusexhibiting
supposedlymasculinebehavior.Clment'sobservationsregardingCarmen
are also pertinenthere: 'She threwdown the flower[. . .] the wayknights
she takesthe
used to throwdown a glove. The gypsy'sfirsttransgression:
in lovemaking'(1989 [1986] , 50) . For thisshe mustbe punished.8
initiative
Carmen as the subalternby gender, ethnicityand class has to be redifferent
fromthatof Don Jos.Formulated
inscribedin a subject-position
in
Mrime
and
this
Bizet,
already
principleis repeated 'inaccurately'in
filmsunder specificsocial restrictions,
prohibitionsand taboos in a ritual
thatboth examinesand constitutesthe norms.
De Mille's and Preminger's'inaccuraterepetitions'(to use JudithButler's term, 1993) might serve here as an example of the devious ways
in whichthecinematicinstitution
imprintsitschangingscale ofpreferences
in the reconstructionof minorities.De Mille's version (1915) revolves
around the famousdiva,GeraldineFarrar,who had played Carmen at the
Met. On the one hand, De Mille exploitsFarrar'sfame,as well as the highbrow culturalstatusof opera art (Higashi, 1994, 23). On the other,De
oftheGypsy'ssenMille'sgaze photographsFarrar'swhitebodyas a mimicry
a feelingof dread and attraction
sual body,thusexpressingsimultaneously
forthe 'newwoman' who challengesVictoriandefinitionsoffemininity.
In Carmen
Jones(1954), Premingerre-locatesthe plot in the United
Statesof the 1950s and replaces the originallibrettowithan adaptationby
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Desire Ltd
Oscar HammersteinII in whichthe boxing ringbecomes the corrida.Preminger's intertextis the genre of theAmericanmusical- but also the segregationcode that had been approved by the AmericanSupreme Court
thatsame year.9By substituting
one minorityforanother,Premingerhas
shiftedthewhitecolonial gaze fromtheGypsiesas Europe's 'interiorother'
to America's notable 'other.' Thus, the 'spontaneous' singingscenes of
'Dat's love,' or 'Stan up to fight'are reminiscentofVidor's 'ethnographic'
scene, thistimewithAmericanblacks.10
Worth mentioningin this context is the recent MTV Hip-Hoperain
whichblackAmericandirectorTownsendsuggeststhehip-hopas themusical registerfor Carmen Brown. Thus these three Americanversions,all
made bymales, twowhiteand one black,conceal the inter-racialrelationship between the main protagonists.In De Mille, 'racial cross-dressing'
takesplace betweenthemanifestand actual levelofcasting.Premingerand
Townsend, in monochromatic versions, express ambivalence towards
minorities,first,by replacingone minoritywithanother and, second, by
textualpracticesthatdenythe imaginedsubjectstheirown voice. In these
versions,whitemen are no longer 'savingbrownwomenfrombrownmen'
(Spivak1985,in Young 1995,152). The struggleof 'whiteness'overauthority,however,leaves its tracesindirectlywhen gender and/or class replace
racial differences.
This is also the case in thefreeadaptationsofKinoshita,Chaplin (himself of Romani origin), Reiniger,Amadori, Godard and Ramaka, where
RomaniesbecomeJapanese,white,or Senegalese. Bypositioningthe main
protagonistson the same East/Westaxis as the owner of the gaze (= the
camera, the director), the gap betweencolonizer and colonized seems to
be reduced. Is it possible that'West' and 'East' no longerneed the 'other'
in order to definethemselves?11
on interracialrelations,the dialecticbetween
Despite the restrictions
desire and law is stillmaintainedand inscribedat variousenunciationlevels. Thus, in Godard's version,class replaces race and the lower-classDonto measureup to an educated Carmen.FurJos (=Joseph)findsitdifficult
Godard
commentson the centerof consciousness
thermore,
symbolically
of the storywhen he replaces Mrime's narratorwithCarmen's lustful
director(played by Godard ) who has hospitalized
uncle, a dysfunctional
himselfin a mental institution.Anotheroption on the gender scale was
recentlysuggestedby MathewBourne in the English ballet version,CarMan. Here, Carmen's body is used as the site of both attractionand distractionfor homo-eroticdesire. In the French-Senegaleseversionby Gai
Ramaka, Carmen is attractedto a woman. But here too the celebrationof
desireends withthe usual denouement,thatis, death.
In one ofthefewCarmen
filmsmade bya woman,LotteReiniger(1933)
uses black silhouettesin her shortblack-and-white
cut-outanimation.This
allows
her
not
to
avoid
verytechnique
only
dealing withthe inter-racial
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Framework:The Journal of Cinema & Media 44.2

dimensionbut also withthe stereotypeor 'typicalencapsulation' of the
Romanies (in Said's terminology,1979, 58). Furthermore,her Carmen
charmsthe bull witha flower,winsthe toreadorand leaves the arena smiling. Three yearslater,in 1936, Anson Dyer produced an animated short
whichcan be seen as a replyto Reiniger.In thismasculineversionCarmen
is charmedbyDon Jos who succeeds in overcomingthe bull and the bullyingtoreador.Both versions,made in Europe between the wars,follow
Carmen'sfantasyoffreedomwithoutpunishingher.Yet in Dyer'sfilm,Carmen's freedomis eventuallycurbed byloyaltyto her soldier.
The re-signification
processin the Carmencorpusis dominatedbyconcealment,displacementand condensation in which gender and ethnic
or class,are
minoritiesmaskone another.The bordersofgender,ethnicity
the
which
but
the
redefined,
story
movingis
keeps
engine
constantly
being
thedesireforthatunfamiliar,'petit'object,whichthe 'other' seems to possess. The identityof this 'other' may change, but not the mechanismof
desireitself.
4. Space and Smuggling
The spatialdimensionin cinematicversionslike those of De Mille, Christian-Jacque,Vidor, Kinoshita,Rosi and Brook reflectsa certain social
order.12Takingtheircue fromBizet'sspatialconception,thesefilmslocate
theactionbetweencultureand nature,betweenlegal and illegal.According
Don Josand Carmen'slovemayexistonly
to thespatiallanguageof Carmen,
outside the law. In the firstpart,Micala comes fromDon Jos's village
(equated withchildhood innocence) to seek him among the soldiersstaand less innocentsocio-economic
tionedin town(equated witha different
all womenhave 'blue skirtsand
that
not
has
learned
Don
.
Here
order)
Jos
shoulders'
their
over
(Mrime,1963[1845] ,35). The tavlong plaitsfalling
is
a
liminal
in
second
the
ern,
settingwherethe worldof the soldiers
part,
and thatof the Gypsiesmeet and where civilordersencounterthe savage
orderofthe 'other'.13The thirdpart,in themountains,iswheretheGypsies
liveoutsidethe law.The lastpartreinstatesthe town,now reflectinga conflictbetween order and disorder. The crowded square symbolizesthe
borrowedtimeof carnival,and the arena, wherethe toreadorarriveswith
Carmen,the realmof exile to whichDon Joswillnow belong (see Maingueneau, 1984.) Thus, the cyclicmovementof equilibrium,itsviolationand
is produced bythe 'timelessspace' (Said, 1979) of manyopera
restoration,
productionsand thosecinematicversionsbased on theopera.
Withinthiscontext,I would liketo pointto thesmugglingscene as one
thatgains a keysignificancein cinema. This is the momentwhen Carmen
offersto use her femininepowersin order to charmDon Jos and make it
possible forthe Gypsiesto smugglein theirgoods. It can be found as far
back as 1915 in De Mille's version,wherea soldierguardsa gate in a brick
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Desire Ltd
wall in the middle of nowhere.Carmen firstmeetsDon Jos there,charms
him and triesto persuade him to let her Romani friendspass. She kisses
himand he letsthemthroughwiththeirmerchandise.As a manifestrewriting of De Mille, Chaplin's Burlesqueon Carmenincludes the smuggling
and Rosi's versions.Withor
scene, as do Dyer's,Vidor's, Christian-Jaque's
withouta convoyof donkeys,the Romanies are regularlyshownin endless
circulation,carryingbundles, boxes and basketsthroughthe gate under
Don Jos's nose.14We neverlearn what the merchandiseis or where the
gate leads. Sometimesitis near the sea, sometimesin the mountains;but it
is alwayspoliced. Access is denied or permittedaccording to the reading
and interpretation
of the guard: Who is allowed to pass through?What is
theiridentity?How does it relate to myinterests?And, finally,what does
thisborderlinestandfor?
The vaguenessof the bordersand the merchandisesuggeststhatthere
may be a differentkind of 'smuggling' going on here. Carmenbrings
social order.The
togethertwokindsofspace, each belongingto a different
wall and the guarded gate existin order to separatethe orderlyand structuredworldfromthe nomadic lifeand open spaces of the Romanies.The
tensionbetween the two is expressed in the opposition between the uniformedsoldiers,marchingin formationagainst the crowd of subversive
Gypsies.The clash betweenthe twoworldsis seen in the robberies,looting
and killingexecuted by the Gypsieswhen theyambush convoysof citizens
moving through the unprotected areas from one place to another. In
accordance withnomadic principles,as describedbyDeleuze and Guattari
(1987 [1980]), the survivalof the nomads is dependent upon theirability
to scatterover the open spaces and settleforshortperiods of time,anywhere conducive to eking out a living- in the mountains,the desert,the
wilderness.When theyrun into a settled area that restrainsthem, they
attack.It is not onlythe physicalattack,however,whichis so menacingto
the settledpopulation,but the customsand beliefsthatthe Gypsies'smuggle' in withthem.Because whatis reallydisturbingabout these 'others' is
thewaytheyorganizetheirpleasures:theirexcess of desire,theirexaggerated enjoyment,theirdancing and singing,theirstrangehabits,and their
relationto work (Ziek,1993). In this respect,'the Gitana, cigarettegirl,
thief,tramp,seducer and victim'(in Starkie'swords,[n.d.], 1) is emblematic of the Romani 'other.'
Ifthepoliticalfunctionofbordersis to regulate'civilized'societyin the
faceofthose'others,'itis no wonderthatwallsare erectedbetweenthetwo.
Liminal areas referto the transitionalzones withinwhichboundaries are
drawn(Prescott,1987). They create a kind of 'thirdspace' (Bhabha), special in thatit belongs to neitherside but is an 'in-between'space between
two polar positions,in which unexpected thingshappen and sparksare
of thisin-betweenspace is the element
ignited.One of the characteristics
of surprise,the momentwhen somethingroutineis interrupted
and some89

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Framework:The Journal of Cinema & Media 44.2

(in the Freudiansense), resultingfrom
thingnew emerges- a displacement
the impossibilityof the encounter (Bhabha, 1994, 454). It is at such a
momentthatCarmen- as an agent of dissolution- firstemerges,heraldand limitationson the Law.
ing the cancellationof restrictions
5. Conclusion or 'Will the Marvelous , Beautiful Storyof Carmen
Live Forever V (Chaplin)
The traveler'sgaze, the 'pseudo-objectivediscourse,'the indirectand parthesimultaneousfearand fascinationof
tialrepresentations
bystereotypes,
the 'other,'and thedenial- all are componentsof theritualof Carmen
repetitions.Drivenby a fantasyof control,the repeated portrayalof Carmen
in twoparallelpractices:first,
and theGypsieson screenis intriguing
bythe
of
Carmen
and
the
ethnic
identities
Gypsiesand, second,bythe
alternating
smugglingepisode.
As faras the firstis concerned,Carmen doesn't have to be a Gypsyin
orderto be a 'demonicfemme
fatale,' 'a slaveof her ownwill' (forwhichshe
is punished), so no wondershe oftenbecomes black,whiteor Asian. The
disregardforher ethnicidentityfunctionsas a shiftin the center/peripherydynamicin a waythatredefinesthe ultimateborder between 'white'
and 'colored.'
As forthe 'gestureof smuggling,'it seems to functionas a pocket of
resistanceto hegemony.However,byincludingthesmugglingact as wellas
the punishmentof those involved in it, cinema reassures us of what
Emmanuel Lvinas has termed 'imperialismof the same' (1969 [1961],
87) . Hence, those who tell the storylargelyappropriatethe act of 'smuggling.'
in the murderof
Both aspectscan be foundin Mrime's novella,first,
Carmenwhichoccursin theabsence of the narrator,as ifthe murdercommitteditself,and, second,in theanxietyarisingfromthereportsofcultural
contagionbyMrimein his epilogue.15He reportsnot onlyon thevarious
sources of the Romani languages but also on the various Romani words
used byFrenchthieves.At lastwe have it! The 'contagious' qualityof alien
contactscannot be fullycontrolled.The 'germs' have alreadybeen 'smuggled' into Westernculture.We can now finally'see' the murdersof Carmen,of Garcia,the officerof the dragoons,and the deathsof the toreador
and Don Jos as acts of 'disinfection'
as a traveloguewhichleavesa trailof
One can retellthestoryof Carmen
'goods' along the borderlinesofWesternand
smuggled/unacknowledged
non-Westernidentity.Smugglingin the Carmencorpus has come to symbolize the attitudeof thosewho keep retellingthe storytowardsthe Romanurturedbydesireand fearinto
nies.Bysmugglingfetishesand stereotypes
and performershave maintainedthe forceof
Carmen
, variousinterpreters
90

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Desire Ltd
the myth.The gestureof smuggling,germane to the story,is whatsets in
motionboth scenariosoffreedomand control.Could itbe thatthisgesture
seduces us emotionallyto consume yetanotherversionof Carmen
?
The desireforhermeticand impermeablebordersrepeatsitselfin various waysat the enunciationlevelof the cinematicversions,but Carmen,as
a displacement
of Gypsyculture,is alwaysknockingat the gate. Maybe the
nextversionwillpresenta cinematicwritingof the 'other' story,thistime
bya Romani woman?16
AnatZanger teaches
infilmand television
at TelAvivUniversity
where
shereceived
herPh.D. in CulturalStudies.Shehaspublished
on issuesofcinematic
,
landscape
trailers
and gender,
and is completing
a bookon cinematic
, remakes,
mythology,
repetitions.
tau..il
zanger@post.
Notes
1 Spacelimits
thepossibility
ofexpanding
thediscussion
ofcompeting
historical
and cultural
explanations.
modifications
of Carmen
includePablo Picasso's38
2 Importantnon-filmic
in
Paris
in
Roland
Petite
's ballet(TV3 France,
1949,
engravings,
published
SanDiego(1991,USA),LaurieAnder1980),thecomputer
gameseriesCarmen
son's shortvideo (1992, USA), and Car-Man,
a balletby MatthewBourne
(2001,UK).
3 The numbergivenin electronic
sources(IMDb,Cinemania,and BFI index,
to theUK-basedCarmenProject,thereareat
2001) is evenhigher.According
least77 versions,
of the opera, [http://www.ncl/
includingfilmrecordings
ac/uk/crif/carlist]
4 On Carmen
see Zanger,1993,2001.
remakes,
5 ExceptChaplin's,Reiniger's,
versions.
Janson's,
Dyer'sandAmadori's
6 See Freudon theroleofthepsychoanalyst
as archeologist
in Gradiva(1907);
see alsoShohat(1993,57).
7 Western
womenexistin relations
ofsubordination
toWestern
menbutdominatenon-Western
menandwomen(Shohat1993,63).
8 See Bronfen1996(1992) on Carmen'sdeath.
9 Asbrought
to myattention
byLindaDittmar.
10 JeremyTamblingremarksthat Carmen
the ambivalent
Jonesmythologizes
natureofmixedracewomen(1987,31).
11 Thesehistorical
and cultural
dimensions
wouldbenefit
froma moreextended
I
which
cannot
undertake
here
to
due
limitations.
study
space
1991(1974)
12 On spaceas socialordersee Lefebvre
13 In Andalusia,a carmen
is a villa,locatedbetweentown(culture)and country
(nature)(Furman1988,174).
14 See Rogoff(2000,37) on luegasre.
15 The epiloguewasan addendumbyMrimein 1847,notincludedin all editions.
16 I wouldliketothankLindaDittmar
andtheanonymous
readersofthisvolume
fortheirhelpfulremarks,
Dina Iordanovaforher patienceand encourageofthispaper.
ment,and ChayaAmirforhercarefulcopy-editing
91

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Framework:The Journal of Cinema & Media 44.2

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