Text Box: NEXXICE SENIOR FREE PROGRAM 2009-2010   CARLOS SAURA'S CARMEN Directed in 1984 by Spanish director, writer, actor, award winning film producer, Carlos Saura. Carlos Saura's film Carmen is a mezmerizing model of flamenco artistry.  Its hypnotic powers emanate from the piercing eyes and the graceful but oh-so-well-controlled bodies of the dancers.  We cannot help but be drawn into their web, more tightly, perhaps, with each viewing.  Master artists glide through their art, working hard, but never laboring. The mystery and the challenge of Carmen lies in its symbolic treatment of flamenco dance as source of, and solution to, the political problems of the day.  In Saura's hands, flamenco plays on both sides of the fence -  oppression and resistance; a promising danger and a dangerous promise. Flamenco music harbors a multitude of voices, often singing against one another. Carmen, Carlos Saura's second musical that was made with Antonio Gades, is inspired by Georges Bizet's opera.  It is an adaptation of Bizet's Carmen to the world of flamenco.  It is a timeless story of love and falling out of love. It tells the story of Antonio, the director of a dance company who is working on the staging of Bizet's Carmen. When he finds the ideal protagonist, he begins an obsessive relationship with her that reproduces the libretto of the opera. It received the award for the best artistic contribution at the Cannes Festival, and was nominated for an Oscar in 1984. The Program The team is Carmen ... much more complex than a vamp.  She is strong, confident and will not be confined by anyone.  Even in her death, she remains defiant and strong ... refusing to compromise or to be controlled. Click here for photos