Journal articles on the topic 'Carmen (Mérimée)'

Este artículo presenta un estudio entre la novela Carmen de Mérimée y la ópera de Bizet desde una perspectiva comparatista. Ello permitirá entender el proceso de transmodalización y de mitificación, así como la diferencia de éxito entre hipotexto e hipertexto. Para ello, se analizará el tratamiento de los actantes de la ópera en comparación con los de la novela. Se incidirá sobre todo en el enriquecimiento aportado por la transmodalización. This article presents a study between the Mérimée’s novel Carmen and its Bizet’s homonym opera from a comparatist perspective, to understand the transmodalisation and mythification process, and also the difference of success between hypotext and hypertext. To that end, it analyses the treatment of the opera’s actants in comparison with the novel’s actants, but it highlights above all the enhancement brought by the transmodalisation. Cet article présente une étude entre la nouvelle Carmen de Mérimée et l'opéra homonyme de Bizet depuis une perspective comparatiste. Cela permettre de comprendre le processus de transmodalisation et de mythification, ainsi que la différence de succès entre l'hypotexte et l'hypertexte. Dans ce but, nous analyserons le traitement des actants de l'opéra en comparaison avec celui de la nouvelle. Nous démarquerons surtout l'enrichissement apporté par la transmodalisation.

Resumo: Através do estudo da obra cinematográfica de Jean-Luc Godard e de seus escritos sobre o cinema, esse texto procura colocar em relevo certos aspectos do pensamento do cineasta que constituem uma verdadeira teoria da adaptação. Privilegia-se a análise de seu filme Prénom Carmen (1983), uma adaptação livre do conto homônimo de Prosper Mérimée.Palavras-chave: adaptação literária; roteiro; imagem e texto; Godard.Abstract: This study on Jean-Luc Godard’s movies and cinematographic critical writings intends to emphasizes some aspects of the movie director’s thought that constitute a real theory of literary adaptation. We mainly analyse the film Prénom Carmen (Godard, 1983), a free adaptation of Prosper’s Mérimée novel.Keywords: litterary adaptation; screen-play; image and texte; Godard.

<p>Resumo: através do estudo da obra cinematográfica de Jean-Luc Godard e de seus escritos sobre o cinema, esse texto procura colocar em relevo certos aspectos do pensamento do cineasta que constituem uma verdadeira teoria da adaptação. Privilegia-se a análise de seu filme Prénom Carmen (1983), uma adaptação livre do conto homônimo de Prosper Mérimée.</p><p>Palavras-chave: adaptação literária, roteiro, imagem e texto, Godard</p>

Carmen was published as a novella in 1845 by Prosper Mérimée and in 1875 the composer Georges Bizet transformed it into what would become a universally known opera. It is a French myth of a Spanish Gypsy whose sensual beauty leads men to perdition. As such it makes use of recurring elements of Spanish culture which are often reduced to stereotypical images. The 1983 film directed by Carlos Saura, with choreography by Antonio Gades, questions the cliché associated with the figure of Carmen by focussing on two principal issues: the story's multi-linear structure and Gades's flamenco dance. The structure is characterised by a story within a story: a choreographer who is looking for a dancer to perform Carmen falls in love with the performer of his choice, thus following the storyline he is supposed to represent in his choreography. Gades's flamenco dance is revealed as a work in progress, reconnecting the Carmen myth with its roots and, at the same time, deconstructing it from within. In this paper I shall analyse Antonio Gades's flamenco dance in Saura's Carmen in the light of current postcolonial perspectives. As Ermanna Carmen Mandelli has observed, Gades's style was inspired by the poor people of his childhood background and in contrast with the españolada (a performance which exaggerates the Spanish character) promoted by the Francoist regime. The analysis will be concluded with a close reading of the tabacalera scene which exemplifies Gades's style and his vision of Carmen.

España invirtió más de once millones de euros en financiar veinte largometrajes de ficción rodados en inglés y coproducidos junto a Reino Unido y/o Estados Unidos entre 2005 y 2019 que contaron al menos con una actriz o actor español en su reparto o una escena rodada en España. En ellos, la construcción de los personajes interpretados por españoles mediante una serie de características físicas y psicológicas concretas parece recurrir de forma frecuente a los arquetipos de la mujer fatal y del casanova a través de sus personificaciones estereotipadas a nivel nacional en los mitos de la Carmen de Mérimée y el Don Juan de Zorrilla. Queda patente, además, que tanto los espectadores británicos como los estadounidenses reconocen esta representación estereotipada de la identidad española en reseñas publicadas en abierto en IMDB.com y Amazon sobre estos veinte largometrajes, haciendo incluso menciones directas a estereotipos concretos y generalizaciones aplicables al conjunto de la población española. Los resultados de este trabajo señalan la aparente (hiper)sexualización a la que tanto actrices como actores españoles parecen estar relegados en coproducciones internacionales rodadas en inglés.

L’identité des femmes espagnoles et françaises s’est construite dans l’esprit des individus depuis la fin du dix-neuvième siècle jusqu’à nos jours sous l’influence des stéréotypes littéraires. Heureusement, la figure de Carmen créée par Prosper Mérimée et l’imaginée demi-vierge de Marcel Prévost se sont atténuées au cours du temps. Or, à certains moments de l’histoire, leur recréation conceptuelle a servi pour que les topiques aboutissent dans une idéalité picturale qui n’a rien à voir avec la réalité. Le «sérénisme littéraire», ainsi dé- nommé par Cristóbal de Castro, établit un lien entre l’identité nationale et un modèle de féminité au sein duquel le système patriarcal veut se consolider dans le but de garder son hégémonie de pouvoir. Dans la presse espagnole, la tension entre la parfaite réalité des femmes espagnoles et l’incohérent contremodèle moral des fran- çaises serait une constante jusqu’au XXe siècle, au cours duquel l’identité des unes et des autres adopterait cependant de nouvelles significations en fonction des nouveaux modèles de conduite, loin des fioritures littéraires qui ont caractérisé leurs origines.

<p>Este artigo pretende verificar a representação da mulher como objeto de voyeurismo e fetichismo através da exposição da nudez no filme Carmem de Vicente Aranda e a forma de representação da personagem na novela homônima de Prosper Mérimée, e o citado filme. Para tanto, propomos, em nossa análise, o entrelaçamento teórico entre as questões do erotismo – sexualidade e identidade – e gênero. Em se tratando das representações de Carmem, tanto no texto literário quanto no cinema, o que prevalece são as representações da mulher demônio em oposição à mulher santa. Acreditamos que essa forma de representação que coloca a personagem entre os sentimentos masculinos de atração e repulsa, é resultado da própria idealização masculina a respeito da mulher, fruto do discurso dominante sobre a mulher e o erotismo que culmina no processo de construção dos estereótipos femininos, construído e fixado ao longo da história da civilização ocidental. Nesse sentido, buscaremos fundamentar nossa pesquisa nos estudo sobre cinema, identidade e erotismo, fundamentados por teóricos(as) e estudiosos(as) como Anne Kapla, Flores Nogueira Diniz, Renato Cunha, Judith Butler, Otavio Paz, Georges Bataille, dentre outros. </p>

RÉSUMÉLes bilans sur la recherche en gérontologie sociale au Québec sont déjà nombreux. Cette nécessité de revenir constamment sur soi est un indice de l'incertitude qui règne chez les chercheurs en gérontologie sociale au Québec. Quoique les activités de recherche aient été nombreuses au cours de ces dernières années et que la recherche en gérontologie sociale possède quelques-unes des caractéristiques d'une activité scientifique institutionnalisée, l'expérience des centres de recherche en gérontologie n'a pas toujours été des plus heureuses, les chercheurs n'ont pas de lieu de travail bien défini et les publications scientifiques sortent à peine du Québec. Pourtant, de nombreux travaux de recherche méritent une diffusion canadienne et internationale, tandis que cette exposition aux courants internationaux de recherche en gérontologie sociale profiterait en retour aux chercheurs du Québec. Par ailleurs, les travaux de recherche en gérontologie sociale se concentrent trop exclusivement dans le domaine de la psycho-sociologie, tandis que le rejet presqu'idéologique des méthodes quantitatives apparaît largement injustifié. Il est impérieux que la recherche en gérontologie sociale au Québec se diversifie, mais il est tout aussi important que des chercheurs se regroupent autour des thèmes de recherche et que ces groupes reçoivent un financement adéquat des organismes subventionnaires.

RÉSUMÉCe livre nous présente un inventaire des substances retrouvées dans l'environnement qui ont un impact sur le processus de vieillissement. Il nous offre également un aperçu des études de recherches fondamentales présentement en cours analysant les mécanismes à la base des réactions produites par ces substances. Cet ouvrage représente une source concise d'information. En tant qu'outil politique, il ne critique pas assez sévèrement les opinions actuellement répandues, mais il réussit néanmoins à souligner le besoin urgent d'explorer systématiquement le processus de vieillissement aux niveaux individuel et collectif. Ce livre mérite d'être confié aux législateurs canadiens qui s'occupent du domaine des sciences. Il servira également d'avant-propos aux hommes de sciences et aux médecins qui désirent s'aventurer dans des études de recherches au domaine de la gérontologie.

RÉSUMÉLe principal mérite de cet initiation à la sociologie du vieillissement est entre autres l'adhésion à une orientation théorique, soit celle de l'economie politique du vieillissement. L'ouvrage, divisé en cinq chapitres, s'adresse aux sujets suivants: (a) signification des aspects psycho-sociaux du vieillissement, (b) conditions démographiques du vieillissement de la population canadienne, (c) évolution du statut de la personne âgée, (d) politiques sociales du vieillissement, et (e) place de la population âgée dans la société future. Le texte est rehaussé de photographies provenant des archives publiques et d'articles de journaux abordant des thèmes tels que le vieillissement du corps professoral, les soins palliatifs, les pensions pour la femme au foyer, l'indexation des pensions et les victimes de la maladie Alzheimer.L'auteur a réussi à couvrir les différents aspects des politiques touchant le vieillissement dans un texte compact, d'un style vivant, tout particulièrement adapté aux lecteurs cherchant une introduction à la gérontologie. En conséquence, ce texte trouvera une place de choix dans l'enseignement introductif à la gérontologie tout en convenant également, avec d'autres lectures appropriées, aux cours avancés. Il est à noter en outre que ce texte constitue une contribution supplémentaire et intéressante aux récentes publications canadiennes portant sur la gérontologie.

O presente artigo realiza uma análise acerca da representação que o narrador-protagonista de Carmen (1845), Don José, faz da mulher amada, Carmen, com o intuito de desnudar a forma unilateral pela qual a constituição do sujeito feminino é desenvolvida na narrativa, procurando detectar também as práticas discursivas e socioculturais que o narrador veicula. Este conto, do escritor francês Prosper Mérimée, possibilita um estudo a respeito do estabelecimento de questionamentos relativos à sociedade patriarcal e às convenções que regem os padrões comportamentais ligados à mulher, visto que na linguagem de Don José estão implícitas práticas e valores da ordem social falocêntrica. Esta investigação é fundamentada pelas teorias dos estudos culturais e dos estudos de gênero, focalizando o discurso e as práticas socioculturais na abordagem teórica.

Neste artigo, examinamos o modo de representação da personagem Carmen, originária da narrativa de Prosper Mérimée, a partir da análise das configurações do narrador e dos aspectos que caracterizam a personagem, a fim de observar a presença do discurso da misoginia, diluído entre outros discursos, na constituição da personagem sob o estereótipo da mulher-demônio, em comparação com as formas de representação mitológicas das deusas lunares, principalmente na forma da Lua Negra, que pode corresponder a Lilith, Circe, e Diana, dentre outras. Também observamos a presença simultânea dos dois polos de representação da mulher (santa e demônio), constatada em comparação às representações das deusas lunares e de Carmen. Para tanto, partimos do exame da narrativa de Mérimée, levando em consideração os contextos histórico e literário, que podem ter influenciado o autor na produção da obra, bem como os aspectos que colaboraram para a cristalização dos estereótipos e a transformação da personagem em demônio, “monstrualizada” em consequência da alteridade e da sexualidade. Para fundamentar nossa discussão, lançamos mão dos estudos de Roberto Sicutere, Jerome Cohen, Angela Arruda, Margarete Rago, Jean Delumeal e Hoaward Bloch, dentre outros.

THE MOST POETIC SUBJECT IN THE WORLD: OBSERVATIONS ON DEATH, (BEAUTIFUL) WOMEN AND REPRESENTATION IN BLADE RUNNER WESTERN culture has a long tradition of associating death with femininity and sex. Whether it is Snow White or Bluebeard's wives, Clarissa or Madame Bovary, Carmen or Madame Butterfly, representations of dead and dying women fascinate and disturb. A Greek motto from Palladas states that "Every woman is as bitter as gall; but she has two good moments, one in bed, the other at her death" (quoted by Mérimée, 181). According to Edgar Allan Poe, "the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetic subject in the world" (19). Thomas de Quincey acknowledges ". . . with the love that burns in depths of admiration . . . that you [sister woman] can do one thing as well as the best of us men -- a greater thing than even...

Costuma-se relacionar o interesse e a admiração de Nietzsche pela ópera “Carmem”, exclusivamente ao compositor George Bizet. Neste artigo, procuro mostrar a importância de Prosper Mérimée, o autor do livro que deu origem à ópera, para a reflexão de Nietzsche sobre as paixões, em especial sobre o amor. A leitura de Mérimée pode também ser bastante instrutiva para entendermos alguns dos motivos que levaram Nietzsche a se separar de Wagner, como, por exemplo, o tratamento dado ao tema das paixões, em conexão com Stendhal. Mesmo sem ter lido “Carmem” – ele apenas assistiu à ópera e conhecia muito bem a partitura – Nietzsche pode certamente reencontrar na obra de Bizet os ecos de sua admiração pelo escritor Mérimée.

“In the performing arts the very absence of a complete score, i.e., of a complete duplicate, enables music, dances and plays to survive. The tension created by the adaptation of a work of yesterday to the style of today is an essential part of the history of the art in progress” (Rudolf Arnheim, “On Duplication”). In his essay “On Duplication”, Rudolf Arnheim proposes the idea that a close look at the life of adaptations indicates that change is not only necessary and inevitable, but also increases our understanding of the adapted work. To Arnheim, the most fruitful approach to adaptations is therefore to investigate the ways in which the various re-interpretations partake of the (initial) work and concretise latent aspects in a new historical and cultural context. This article analyzes how, and to what ends, the re-contextualising of Georges Bizet’s Carmen in other media—flamenco dance and film – changes, distorts and subverts our perception of the opera’s music. The text under analysis is Carlos Saura’s 1983 movie about a flamenco transposition of Bizet’s Carmen. I discuss this film in terms of how flamenco music and dance, on the one hand, and the film camera, on the other hand, gradually demystify the fascinating power of Bizet’s music, as well as its clichéd associations. Although these forms displace and defamiliarise music in many ways, the main argument of the analysis centers on how flamenco dance and the film image foreground the artificiality of the exotic sections from Bizet’s opera, as well as their inadequacy in the Spanish context, and also on how the film translates and self-reflexively comments on the absence of an embodied voice for Carmen. “C’est la Carmen! Non, ce n’est pas celle-là!” As the credits from Carlos Saura’s Carmen are displayed against the backdrop of Gustave Doré’s drawings, we can hear the chorus of the cigarières from Bizet’s opera singing “C’est la Carmen! Non, ce n’est pas celle-là!”. Why did the director choose this particular section of Bizet’s Carmen with which to begin his film? Moreover, what is the significance of combining Doré’s drawings with these words? In a way, we can say that the reality/illusion polarity signified by the sung words informs and gives a preview of one of the movie’s main themes—the futility of an adapter’s attempt at finding a “true” Carmen. The music’s juxtaposition with Doré’s drawings of nineteenth-century espagnolades adds to the idea of artifice and inauthenticity: Saura seems to be dismissing Bizet’s music by pairing it with the work of another one of the creators of a stereotyped (and false) image of Spain. Demystifying the untrue image that foreigners have created of Spain is one of the film director’s main concerns in his adaptation of both Bizet and Mérimée’s Carmen. The movie’s production history reinforces this idea. In his book on the films of Carlos Saura, Marvin D’Lugo notes that in 1981 the French company Gaumont had approached Saura with the project of making a filmed version of Bizet’s Carmen, “with a maximum of fidelity to the original text” (202), an idea which the director clearly rejected. Another important aspect related to the production history is the fact that Antonio Gadés, the film’s choreographer and actor for Don José’s part, had previously created a ballet version of Bizet’s Carmen, based solely on the second act of the opera. The 1983 film production is then the result of Carlos Saura—the film director attempting to reframe the French opera in the Spanish context—and Antonio Gadés—the flamenco troupe director—collaborating to create a Spanish dance version of Carmen. The film’s constant superimposition of its two diegetic levels—the fictional level, consisting in the rehearsal scenes, and the actual level, which coincides with the characters’ lives outside of and in-between rehearsals—and the constant blurring of the lines separating these two worlds, have been the cause of a plethora of varying interpretations. Susan McClary sees the movie as “a brilliant commentary on ‘exoticism’: on the distance between actual ethnic music and the mock-ups Bizet and others produced for their own ideological purposes” (137); to D’Lugo, the film is an illustration and critique of how “the Spaniards, having come under the spell of the foreign, imposter impression of Spain, find themselves seduced by the falsification of their own cultural past” (203). Other notable interpretations come from Marshall H. Leicester, who sees the film as a comment on the fact that Carmen has become a discourse and a cultural artifact, and from Linda M. Willem, who interprets the movie as a metafictional mise en abyme. I will discuss the movie from a somewhat different perspective, bearing in mind, however, McClary and D’Lugo’s readings. Saura’s Carmen is also a story about adaptation, constantly commenting on the failed attempts at perfect fidelity to the source text(s), by the intradiegetic adapter (Antonio) and, at the same time, self-reflexively embedding hints to the presence of the extradiegetic adapter: the filmmaker Saura. On the one hand, as juxtaposed with flamenco music and dance, the opera’s music is made to appear artificial and inadequate; we are presented with an adaptation in the making, in which many of the oddities and difficulties of transposing opera music to flamenco dance are problematised. On the other hand, the film camera, by constantly foregrounding the movie’s materiality—the possibility to cut and edit the images and the soundtrack, its refusal to maintain a realist illusion—displaces and re-codifies music in other contexts, thus bringing to light dormant interpretations of particular sections of Bizet’s opera, or completely altering their significance. One of the film’s most significant departures from Bizet’s opera is the problematised absence of a suitable Carmen character. Bizet’s opera, however revolves around Carmen: it is very hard, if not impossible, to dissociate the opera from the fascinating Carmen personage. Her transgressive nature, her “otherness” and exoticism, are translated in her singing, dancing and bodily presence on the stage, all these leading to the creation of a character that cannot be neglected. The songs that Bizet adapted from the cabaret numéros in order to add exotic flavor to the music, as well as the provocative dances accompanying the Habaňera and the Seguidilla help create this dimension of Carmen’s fascinating power. It is through her singing and dancing that she becomes a true enchantress, inflicting madness or unreason on the ones she chooses to charm. Saura’s Carmen has very few of the charming attributes of her operatic predecessor. Antonio, however, becomes obsessed with her because she is close to his idea of Carmen. The film foregrounds the immense gap between the operatic Carmen and the character interpreted by Laura del Sol. This double instantiation of Carmen has usually been interpreted as a sign of the demystification of the stereotyped and inauthentic image of Bizet’s character. Another way to interpret it could be as a comment on one of the inevitable losses in the transposition of opera to dance: the separation of the body from the voice. Significantly, the recorded music of Bizet’s opera accompanies more the scenes between rehearsals than the flamenco dance sections, which are mostly performed on traditional Spanish music. The re-codification of the music reinforces the gap between Saura and Gadés’ Carmen and Bizet’s character. The character interpreted by Laura del Sol is not a particularly gifted dancer; therefore, her dance translation of the operatic voice fails to convey the charm and self-assuredness that Carmen’s voice and the sung words fully express. Moreover, the musical and dance re-insertion in a Spanish context completely removes the character’s exoticism and alterity. We could say, rather, that in Saura’s movie it is the operatic Carmen who is becoming exotic and distant. In one of the movie’s first scenes, we are shown an image of Paco de Lucia and a group of flamenco singers as they play and sing a traditional Spanish song. This scene is abruptly interrupted by Bizet’s Seguidilla; immediately after, the camera zooms in on Antonio, completely absorbed by the opera, which he is playing on the tape-recorder. The contrast between the live performance of the Spanish song and the recorded Carmen opera reflects the artificiality of the latter. The Seguidilla is also one of the opera’s sections that Bizet adapted so that it would sound authentically exotic, but which was as far from authentic traditional Spanish music as any of the songs that were being played in the cabarets of Paris in the nineteenth century. The contrast between the authentic sound of traditional Spanish music, as played on the guitar by Paco de Lucia, and Bizet’s own version makes us aware, more than ever, of the act of fabrication underlying the opera’s composition. Most of the rehearsal scenes in the movie are interpreted on original flamenco music, Bizet’s opera appearing mostly in the scenes associated with Antonio, to punctuate the evolution of his love for Carmen and to reinforce the impossibility of transposing Bizet’s music to flamenco dance without making significant modifications. This also signifies the mesmerising power the operatic music has on Antonio’s imagination, gradually transposing him in a universe of understanding completely different from that of his troupe, a world in which he becomes unable to distinguish reality from illusion. With Antonio’s delusion, we are reminded of the luring powers of the operatic fabrication. One of the scenes which foregrounds the opera’s charm is when Antonio watches the dancers led by Cristina rehearse some flamenco movements. While watching their bodies reflected in the mirror, Antonio is dissatisfied with their appearance—he doesn’t see any of them as Carmen. The scene ends with an explosion of Bizet’s music heard from off-screen—probably as Antonio keeps hearing it in his head—dramatically symbolising the great distance between flamenco dance and opera music. One of the rehearsal scenes in which Bizet’s music is heard as an accompaniment to the dance is the scene in which the operatic Carmen performs the castaňet dance for Don José. In the Antonio-Carmen interpretation the music that we hear is the Habaňera and not the seductive song that Bizet’s Carmen is singing at this point in the opera. According to Mary Blackwood Collier, the Habaňera song in the opera has the function to define Carmen’s personality as strong, independent, free and enthralling at the same time (119). The purely instrumental Habaňera, combined with the lyrical and tender dance duo of Antonio/José and Carmen in Saura’s film, transforms the former into a sweet love theme. In the opera, this is one of the arias that centralise the image of Carmen in our perception. The dance transposition as a love pas de deux diminishes the impression of freedom and independence connoted by the song’s words and displaces the centrality of Carmen. Our perception of the opera’s music is significantly reshaped by the film camera too. In her book The Hollywood Musical Jane Feuer contends that the use of multiple diegesis in the backstage musical has the function to “mirror within the film the relationship of the spectator to the film. Multiple diegesis in this sense parallels the use of an internal audience” (68). Carlos Saura’s movie preserves and foregrounds this function. The mirrors in which the dancers often reflect themselves hint to an external plane of observation (the audience). The artificial collapse of the boundaries between off-stage and on-stage scenes acts as a reminder of the film’s capacity to compress and distort temporality and chronology. Saura’s film makes full use of its capacity to cut and edit the image and the soundtracks. This allows for the mise-en-scène of meaningful displacements of Bizet’s music, which can be given new significations by the association with unexpected images. One of the sections of Bizet’s opera in the movie is the entr’acte music at the beginning of Act III. Whereas in the opera this part acts as a filler, in Saura’s Carmen it becomes a love motif and is heard several times in the movie. The choice of this particular part as a musical leitmotif in the movie is interesting if we consider the minimal use of Bizet’s music in Saura’s Carmen. Quite significantly however, this tune appears both in association with the rehearsal scenes and the off-stage scenes. It appears at the end of the Tabacalera rehearsal, when Antonio/Don José comes to arrest Carmen; we can hear it again when Carmen arrives at Antonio’s house the night when they make love for the first time and also after the second off-stage love scene, when Antonio gives money to Carmen. In general, this song is used to connote Antonio’s love for Carmen, both on and off stage. This musical bit, which had no particular significance in the opera, is now highlighted and made significant in its association with specific film images. Another one of the operatic themes that recur in the movie is the fate motif which is heard in the opening scene and also at the moment of Carmen’s death. We can also hear it when Carmen visits her husband in prison, immediately after she accepts the money Antonio offers her and when Antonio finds her making love to Tauro. This re-contextualisation alters the significance of the theme. As Mary Blackwood Collier remarks, this motif highlights Carmen’s infidelity rather than her fatality in the movie (120). The repetition of this motif also foregrounds the music’s artificiality in the context of the adaptation; the filmmaker, we are reminded, can cut and edit the soundtrack as he pleases, putting music in the service of his own artistic designs. In Saura’s Carmen, Bizet’s opera appears in the context of flamenco music and dance. This leads to the deconstruction and demystification of the opera’s pretense of exoticism and authenticity. The adaptation of opera to flamenco music and dance also implies a number of necessary alterations in the musical structure that the adapter has to perform so that the music will harmonise with flamenco dance. Saura’s Carmen, if read as an adaptation in the making, foregrounds many of the technical difficulties of translating opera to dance. The second dimension of music re-interpretation is added by the film camera. The embedded camera and the film’s self-reflexivity displace music from its original contexts, thus adding or creating new meanings to the ways in which we perceive it. This way of reframing the music from Bizet’s Carmen adds new dimensions to our perception of the opera. In many of the off-stage scenes, the music seems to appear from nowhere and, then, to inform other sequences than the ones with which it is usually associated in the opera. This produces a momentary disruption in the way we hear Bizet’s music. We could say that it is a very rapid process of de-signification and re-signification—that is, of adaptation—that we undergo almost automatically. Carlos Saura’s adaptation of Carmen self-reflexively puts into play the changes that Bizet’s music has to go through in order to become a flamenco dance and movie. In this process, dance and the film image make us aware of new meanings that we come to associate with Bizet’s score. References Arnheim, Rudolf. “On Duplication”. New Essays on the Psychology of Art. Berkeley: U of California P, 1986: 274-85. Blackwood Collier, Mary. La Carmen Essentielle et sa Réalisation au Spectacle. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1994. D’Lugo, Marvin. The Films of Carlos Saura: The Practice of Seeing. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1991. Feuer, Jane. “Dream Worlds and Dream Stages”. The Hollywood Musical. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP, 1993: 67-87. Leicester, Marshall H. Jr. “Discourse and the Film Text: Four Readings of ‘Carmen’”. Cambridge Opera Journal 4.3 (1994): 245-82. McClary, Susan. “Carlos Saura: A Flamenco Carmen”. Georges Bizet: Carmen. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992: 135-7. Willem, Linda M. “Metafictional Mise en Abyme in Saura’s Carmen”. Literature/Film Quarterly 24.3 (1996): 267-73. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Furnica, Ioana. "Subverting the “Good, Old Tune”: Carlos Saura’s Carmen." M/C Journal 10.2 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0705/10-furnica.php>. APA Style Furnica, I. (May 2007) "Subverting the “Good, Old Tune”: Carlos Saura’s Carmen," M/C Journal, 10(2). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0705/10-furnica.php>.

RÉSUMÉNotre ouvrage America's Misunderstood Welfare State contre-attaque les mythes américains sur la sécurité sociale. Ce symposium, qui réunit des contributions en provenance de l'Ontario, de Montréal et de Paris, représente un effort international de compréhension de nos intentions. Lesemann a compris le but du livre et résume adéquatement notre argument. Les critiques de Birch nous semblent non-méritées. En effet, il n'estpas difficile de comprendre pourquoi les programmes sociaux destinés aux personnes âgées ont survécu au Reaganisme. Par ailleurs, ses critiques du système de santé ca-nadien émergent d'un perfectionnisme utopique. Bungener introduit un nou-vel élément dans sa critique de notre livre, soit celui de la génèse et de la reproduction de l'État-Providence. Cet argument est au-delà de l'intention de notre livre, mais il serait intéressant de le poursuivre. Birch et Lesemann soulignent la pertinence du livre pour le Canada et souhaitent que des études semblables éclairent le débat canadien. Ils sont convaincus des différences fondamentales entre Canada et États-Unis. Elles nous semblent moins grandes qu 'il n 'y paraît. Le développement de la médecine a été remarqua-blement similaire dans ces deux pays, jusqu'en 1970. À cette époque, le mode de paiement des soins médicaux au Canada est modifié profondément. Ce qui démontre que le mode de paiement a une influence majeure sur la façon de distribuer les services médicaux.