text: There have been approximately 60 different films & Television plays,besides the classic Opera of this tale of a sex mad girl and her hapless soldier lover. This story has been done so many times, in various ways.<br /><br />Vicente Aranda directs Joaquin Jorda's screenplay adaptation of Prosper Merimee's classic novel & play.<br /><br />This is the story ONLY of Bizet's opera Carmen<br /><br />Pas Vega is an exciting Carmen,full of passion & the ability to drive simple men to do terrible tragic things. Leonardo Sbaraglio is the hapless soldier who is ensnared into Carmen's poisonous web & led to doing bad things.<br /><br />Jay Benedict is the author Prosper who tells this tale.<br /><br />There is not much action, BUT there are some very hot sex scenes.<br /><br />In fact this is almost an NC-17 film.<br /><br />since I have seen this tale so often in so many guises I was not overly impressed.<br /><br />It is a very well made film & will be of interest to those that may not know of it,<br /><br />My not overly enthusiastic review also could be that I miss the fantastic Opera score by Bizet.<br /><br />See this as you may like it more than I did.<br /><br />Ratings *** (out of 4) 82 points (out of 100) IMDb 7 (out of 10)