MAN, PRIDE AND VENGEANCE: “Carmen” as a Spaghetti Western

Man, Pride and Vengeance is one of only five feature films directed by Bazzoni – but it’s just as remarkable as his later Footprints on the Moon. Spain, early 19th century. Sergeant José, a young officer in the Spanish army, meets a beautiful Romani woman named Carmen, who works in a workshop located within a military garrison. He falls in love with her at first sight – and it seems the feeling is mutual. One day, José is ordered by his superiors to arrest Carmen and escort her to prison after she tries to stab a fellow worker. However, the cunning Carmen manages to escape, and José is punished by being demoted to a private and assigned to night duty at a fortress. José becomes increasingly obsessed with Carmen, and when he catches her in flagrante with another officer, he kills the man in a fit of jealous rage. Forced to desert, José flees with Carmen to a Romani smuggler camp; together, they plan to escape to America aboard a ship. But the camp is soon visited by Lieutenant Garcia, newly released from prison – and revealed to be Carmen’s husband. Prosper Mérimée published his novella Carmen in the cultural magazine Revue des Deux Mondes in 1845; a year later, an expanded version with a fourth part appeared in book form. Mérimée claimed the plot was inspired by a story told to him by Countess Montijo during his 1830 trip to Spain – a tale of a rogue from Málaga who murdered his wanton lover. Since the French writer had a deep interest in Romani culture, he made a Romani woman the central character of his work (likely drawing influence from Alexander Pushkin’s gypsy-themed works and George Borrow’s The Zincali). Carmen proved popular with readers, and its fame was further cemented by Georges Bizet’s groundbreaking 1875 opera (with libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy) – initially met with a lukewarm reception, but now considered a classic and possibly the most popular opera of all time.

Unlike Bizet’s opera – which drew mainly from the third part of Mérimée’s novella and omitted many elements (such as Carmen’s husband) to better suit the stage – Luigi Bazzoni’s film is a rather faithful adaptation of the original story. Man, Pride and Vengeance (from a screenplay by Bazzoni and Suso Cecchi d’Amico) is primarily a grand melodrama filled with intense emotions: passion, love, eroticism, jealousy, and betrayal.

José is almost a textbook tragic hero: a fundamentally good and upright man, yet unable to overcome his inner desire to possess Carmen. She, in turn, is a kind of archetype as well – a free spirit and cunning manipulator who effortlessly controls the men who fall for her. In short: a classic femme fatale. Carmen dances only to the rhythm of her own drum, and she’s quite good at it – but, naturally, such manipulation of the hot-blooded José can only lead to tragedy. The entire drama plays out in a Western-like setting.

What’s more, Man, Pride and Vengeance is one of the rare Westerns set in Europe – and this alone sets Bazzoni’s film apart from the hundreds of 1960s and 70s Westerns shot in Italy, Spain, and Germany posing as North America. This isn’t some cheap B-movie, but a brilliantly crafted production with stunning cinematography by Camillo Bazzoni (the director’s brother), a soaring score by Carlo Rustichelli, and a stellar cast including Franco Nero, Tina Aumont, and Klaus Kinski.

Nero, as the doomed José, breaks away from his macho image (he even cries in one scene!) – and pulls it off impressively. Tina Aumont, as Carmen, is beautiful, seductive, and mysterious enough to make her dangerous allure utterly believable. Kinski brings a vital element of menace to the film, and his scenes with Nero crackle with intense tension. Now this is cinema!