First Name: Carmen

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First Name: Carmen
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Produced by Alain Sarde
Written by Anne-Marie Miéville,
Starring Maruschka Detmers,
Jacques Bonnaffé
Distributed by Parafrance Films
Release date(s) Flag of Italy September 1983 (premiere at VFF)
Flag of France 11 January 1984
Flag of the United States 3 August 1984 (NYC)
Running time 85 min.
Language French
IMDb profile

First Name: Carmen (French: Prénom Carmen) is a 1983 film by Jean-Luc Godard. It is very loosely based on Bizet's opera Carmen.

The protagonist is Carmen X (Maruschka Detmers), a female member of a terrorist gang. She asks her uncle Jean, a washed-up film director (played by Jean-Luc Godard himself) if she can borrow his beachside house to make a film with some friends, but they are in fact planning to rob a bank. During the robbery she falls in love with a security guard. The film intercuts between Carmen's escape with the guard, her uncle's attempt to make a comeback film, and a string quartet attempting to perform Beethoven.

The film won the Golden Lion at the 1983 Venice Film Festival.


Preceded by
The State of Things
Golden Lion winner
1983
Succeeded by
The Year of the Quiet Sun