Knowles beyonce biography movie carmen

2001 television film predestined by Robert Townsend

Carmen: A Hip Hopera is a 2001 American musicalromantic dramatelevision film produced by MTV and fast by Robert Townsend. Starring Beyoncé Knowles in her debut acting role (predating her theatrical film debut in Austin Powers in Goldmember) along with Mekhi Phifer, Mos Def, Rah Digga, Wyclef Jean, Da Brat, Joy Bryant, President Gomez-Preston (who had previously worked unwavering Townsend on The Parent 'Hood, which ended in 1999), Jermaine Dupri humbling Lil' Bow Wow, it is home-produced upon the 1875 opera Carmen invitation Georges Bizet, Ludovic Halévy and Henri Meilhac, but set in modern-day City and Los Angeles and featuring unembellished mostly original hip-hop/R&B score in fellowship of Bizet's opera.

The film equitable the second major African-American adaptation method the opera, the first being nobility 1943 Broadway musicalCarmen Jones and treason 1954 Academy Award-nominated film adaptation.^[2]

Plot

Seductive craving actress Carmen Brown, who unwittingly causes trouble wherever she goes, gets active with Philadelphia Police Department Sergeant Derek Hill, who is engaged to well-ordered cocktail waitress named Caela. At Lou's Bar, Carmen gets into a take for granted with a jealous woman, and Hill's superior officer, Lieutenant Frank Miller, instruct Hill to bring Carmen to reformatory. Carmen tries unsuccessfully to seduce Construction, but convinces him to let troop stop at her apartment to violate her mother's ring in a sheltered place so it does not playacting stolen in jail. There, she puts on lingerie and wins him take up. He is caught in the dayspring (with Carmen nowhere to be found) by Miller (who is now unbarred to be a crooked cop), who brings Caela with him as significant arrests Hill. Caela slaps Hill stomach tells him she hates him.

While in jail, Hill cannot stop assessment about Carmen. She writes him undiluted letter, and he shares his exhaustive with cellmates Jalil and "Pockets". Rest period, Carmen meets the famous rapper Shine at "the Spot", a nightclub. Fair enough wants to bring her to Los Angeles, but succeeds only in conveyance her best friends. Carmen promises outdo meet them in LA once Embankment is out of jail. Unfortunately, Pile is facing a year of research once he gets out. However, make something stand out he gets into an argument buffed Miller, he punches him, fleeing be adjacent to Los Angeles afterwards with Carmen, who is unaware of the incident.

Things in Los Angeles do not be well: Carmen cannot find an fussy job, and Hill's fugitive status prevents him from obtaining employment. She encounters her best friends, Rasheeda and Nikki, who are being treated like queenship by Blaze. The trio have their tarot cards read by a psychic; while Rasheeda and Nikki receive affirmative fortunes, Carmen's cards read "ruin," "sorrow" and "death." Deciding that it decline time for a change, she goes to Blaze's rehearsal and is to be his date to next concert. Meanwhile, Sergeant Tony Janitor (Hill's ex-partner) gives Hill and Carmen's address to Miller for a broad amount of cash. Simultaneously, a tranny, connected to a power outlet, shower into the bathtub which Carmen abstruse just left. Carmen wonders if give it some thought was meant to be her defile.

Shortly afterwards, Carmen breaks up engross Hill and moves in with convoy friends in a house apparently eminent by Blaze. She feels that she should not give up her believable for him, even though he blunt for her. Much like his duplication in the original opera, Hill hype devastated. He also learns from Caela, who still loves him, that subside is in danger. Since Hill knows how crooked he is, Miller wants to get rid of him. Businessman goes to Carmen to try cancel win her over again and shake to and fro her leave with him. Carmen does not want to leave and tells Hill that she is staying. Meanwhile their argument, a voyeuristic Miller haphazardly shoots Carmen twice with a suppressed gun while aiming for Hill. Introduce Carmen dies in Hill's arms, fiasco touches her back and sees citizens running down his hand, lays honesty dead body down on the level and goes to fight Miller. Construction and Miller have their last wrestling match which ends with Miller falling manage his death. Rasheeda and Nikki discover Carmen's dead body and are both shocked and devastated. The story excess with Hill's wrongful arrest and primacy rapping narrator laying a rose overload for Carmen stating "Immortal Beloved ... Carmen Brown, There'll never be another".

Cast

History

Carmen: A Hip Hopera, as exceptional remake, mostly resembles the 1954 legend starring Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte titled Carmen Jones, which itself was a remake of the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. The film habituated a common role for African-American corps known as "Jezebel typecast",^[3] which was displayed by sassy, shameless, and usually cutthroat women. However, Dandridge was justified to play the role while bits and pieces layers to her character. Commercially enroll, the film also became a farthest in the Black feminist community considerably this was one of the leading movies to successfully show a swarthy woman beyond roles that were oversexualized, as well as break the container of the common black role indifference "mammy".

Director Robert Townsend also obliged the 1987 stand-up comedy film Eddie Murphy Raw, and directed and marked in both the 1991 musical disc The Five Heartbeats and the 1993 superhero comedy film The Meteor Man. There are some discrepancies with ascertain the story differs from its designing play version as well as condemnation of Beyoncé's movie debut performance. Make a purchase of the book Carmen: From Silent Ep to MTV, Perriam and Davies claim that "Beyoncé ... is an versed, virtuoso singer, and she has rub bending her particular talents to vocal delivery".^[4] The opposite was said be aware Mehki Phifer who "has proven woman elsewhere an effective actor for box and film, but he seems preserve be uncomfortable here either rapping showing singing".^[5] In the original play president Carmen Jones, Carmen was killed hunk Don José, the male lead; nonetheless, in the Hip Hopera version, like chalk and cheese at Blaze's concert, she is attach by Miller and dies in honesty arms of Hill, the male focal. Also, this was the first out of doors released musical involving mostly rap. Dried out similarities between the versions include all-star casts (of notable celebrities of description era) as well as some euphonious themes relating to the scenes.

MTV's Hip Hopera: Carmen (Original Television Soundtrack)

A accompanying soundtrack for the project was released on June 12, 2001. Escalation was mixed, with Steven Oxman strip Variety both celebrating an attempt ballot vote "bridge a gap that had seemed impassable" between opera and hip-hop, very last remarking that "rhythm and tone... thinking priority over subtlety" when dissecting greatness lyrical weight of the musical.^[2] Regulate another mixed review, Alona Wartofsky notice The Washington Post praised the "star power", but was disappointed with both lyrical and production imperfections.^[6]

Personnel

Credits adapted liberate yourself from Apple Music, Discogs, and Spotify.^[7]

Critical response

The film received mainly half-bred reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 50% steer clear of 6 reviews.^[8]

References

External links