Karmen Gei: the book and the film adaptation

Karmen Gei

The story of Carmen / Karmen Gei has been told many, many times, in many different genres and contexts. The gypsy woman who is a sensual temptress and a seductress weaves a wild tale of mystery and derring-do wherever she goes. In this video (Karmen Gei) the story is moved from Spain to Africa, to Dakar, Senegal, a place where the slave traders put tens of thousands of Africans into bondage and shipped them to South America, North America, the West Indies among other places.

And so for the first time in over 50 different versions of the Carmen / Karmen myth, the Karmen is an African, and why shouldn't she be? The story has been totally turned around from the version that featured Dorothy Dandridge, or the version that Jean-Luc Godard put together in 1983.

The dance Karmen puts on at the outset of the video -- in front of the warden -- is more than slightly seductive. It is wildly suggestive, openly sexual, and hypnotic, and the warden is clearly mesmerized by the fevered sensuality of the wild undulating and flipping up of Karmen's skirt. When a tall good-looking woman sits across from another person she is attempting to seduce, and spreads her legs (open, closed, open, closed, open, closed) to show some skin and to invite some sexual reverie, it gets the attention of the person viewing the video.

In this scene, as Karmen gets closer and closer, the camera zooms in on the face of the warden, who is obviously moved by this gyrating dance. The warden's bonze face and big eyes, and the way she raises her head in unspoken appreciation for the energy that Karmen is putting into this dance, is very sexy. The warden appears to be a willing subject for Karmen's seduction.

This scene is not a community dance venue, it is a prison. And in fact it is a prison on an island near Dakar, called Goree Island, where slaves were kept until ships came to haul them to faraway places. Clearly there is a sense of doom in this place, given its history, but with Karmen's sexuality and her height and her beautiful white teeth juxtaposed by her ebony skin, she turns a dark place into a theatre of the wildly sexy and absurd.

Immediately after that wild gyrating scene, viewers are transitioned into a high-toned wedding affair, with the daughter of the chief of police getting married in a big, expensive-looking event going on. The groom (Lamine) is not as ebullient as one might suspect, since by marrying the daughter of a city official, he has likely opened the door to a nice cushy career. It is quite a merry affair notwithstanding the bored look on the groom's face.

All of a sudden a familiar tall woman appears in front of the bride and groom. But who is she and why is she there? Ah-ha! It is Karmen, whose seduction of the warden on Goree Island paid big dividends -- she was allowed to go free. Why is she at this wedding? Obviously this sexy woman who charmed her way out of incarceration has a political agenda. She is there to make fun of the big powerful political personalities, and it seems more than a little brazen that she would make an appearance at such an august affair with so many bigwigs.

By this point in the video, the audience clearly knows this is an absurd yet compelling story. The sweat on Karmen's skin, her eyes, her gyrations and jovial consciousness, are riveting but there is a sense of farce lurking throughout the story.

"You are all evil!" she shouts. "You've swallowed up our country, but we'll eat your guts. You've swallowed up our country. But it will stick in your throat." With that, she shimmies up to a young law enforcement officer, Lamine, and blows him completely away with her sensuality. In fact Lamine is so smitten by Karmen, and apparently love-starved, that she has him in the palm of her sensual hands with her mesmerizing dance. But his bride is not so easily pushed aside, and she tries to out-dance Karmen, who shoves the bride to the ground. Bad idea, and that gets Karmen arrested. Guess who takes her to prison? Yes, Lamine, and he is so taken with Karmen that he is practically ill with desire for her. He loses his bride and his commission, all because a tall sexy woman put a spell on him.

This story is really about the conflict between laws, a yearning for freedom (which is universal, not just a theme in Africa), sexual desire, and rebellion against authority. One can't help but see the linkage between the history of slaves and Goree Island and the mutinous, wild sexual scenes of rebellion that Karmen puts on. Freedom from slavery, freedom from confinement, freedom to seduce men and women -- that is what Karmen's character represents.

This isn't just about sex and seduction, although there is plenty of that. There must always be resistance when humans are in bondage, whether it is slavery or a woman's prison. When a prisoner can seduce the main symbol of authority, Angelique the warden, it is symbolic of what all those people in the world who are being held against their will can or should do to release the shackles of oppression.