Due to a French class, I've been forced to watch this film. Check that, it isn't a film, it's a movie- films have some sort of artistry. Forget the overacting (even more than needed in an opera), the vast armpit hair on Carmen, or the pitiful English subtitles. The camera work in this version of "Carmen" is atrocious. There are over a dozen points throughout the movie when a character is singing, but the camera is on either the cheap scenery (with no actors present in the shot) or a character who is not singing or speaking. The acting isn't awful, but it certainly isn't good. Placido Domingo holds his own as Don José, but the rest of the cast is replaceable. There were few good qualities of this movie, and even if the acting had been better (I can't comment on the script, since the movie did a good job of staying true to the original opera), the cinematography and sound were bad enough to destroy it.
Review of Carmen
