Carmen

This silent Carmen by-passes Bizet and goes back to the Prosper Mérimée novel, and thus differs intererestingly from versions by DeMille, Lubitsch, Peter Brook and others. Instead of femme fatale Carmen bringing ruination to an innocent soldier, you get generous, not very bright Carmen coming into the orbit of a Don Jose who combines good looks and a lethally macho temperament. Feyder adopts a naturalistic approach, and although at first one fears that Meller is going to spend the entire film striding about with her hands on her hips, she soon settles into the most low key Carmen of the lot. Among the colourful desperados roistering in Lillas Pastia's tavern, a young Luis Buñuel is eminently recognisable.