Based on everything you know about him and have seen by him, you would think Ernst Lubitsch to the perfect director to give a modern spin to the classic siren-story of "Carmen". Even in his early years, Lubitsch was a filmmaker known for his progressive sarcasm and frivolous flirting, but this film does not have either. Instead, it's one of his dullest films. The narrative being so familiar from operas, films and plays, it would require a thorough remodeling to be interesting. Lubitsch's "Carmen" feels rushed and avoid of imagination. Then again it was made in Germany right before the end of World War I, so perhaps the time wasn't the best for well-thought-out, carefully executed masterpieces.
The film tells the story of a Spanish soldier (Harry Liedke) who gets promoted and leaves his family to travel to another town. There he meets Carmen (Pola Negri) a gypsy-sinner-woman, who lures him away from the righteous path. There is no return, but never fear, it is the woman whom the society blames for the man's sexual appetite. Strangely, the whole thing is framed as a campfire story in the version that was distributed in the US.
Though Lubitsch was by 1918 well-rehearsed to direct character driven films, this one looks like an American historical spectacle from the same era, albeit smaller. There are not that many close-ups of the actors, which really hurts the film's chances to develop an erotic feel to it. This is not romantic, not emotional, not anything. Lubitsch would later make his historical films work by giving them an individualistic spin (like Anna Boleyn, 1920), but in "Carmen" the characters get lost in the epoch. The actors can't make anything of the material, and whenever there is a close-up of Pola Negri, you kinda feel that she has been too overtly made up to resemble the ethnicity of the part. It's a bit cringy.
