Karmen Gei

One story that was clearly not in need of being told anew is Prosper Merimee's Carmen, which was immortalized in Georges Bizet's opera and then filmed 50-odd times...and I do mean odd (including the silent Chaplin romp Burlesque on Carmen and the utterly ridiculous Carmen on Ice with Brian Boitano and Katarina Witt). But you can't keep a bad girl down: Karmen Gei transplants the story to a contemporary Senegalese setting, where the eponymous anti-heroine is a bisexual beauty who not only runs a smuggling ring, but also drives a love-struck lesbian prison warden to suicide, kidnaps a jailed soldier by driving through the doors of a police station, and possesses an astonishing quantity of designer clothing without seeming to have any closet space to store said wardrobe. Writer-director Joseph Gai Ramaka's storytelling skills are not equal to the huge and often illogical shifts in the story (why is Karmen Gei the entertainment at a wedding and why does she suddenly decide to assault the bride?), and the film is oddly punctuated with brief musical numbers that literally come out of nowhere and disappear just as abruptly. The saving grace, however, is the astonishing presence of Djeinaba Diop Gai in the title role: she is an African goddess come to life, towering physically and emotionally over everyone around her while giving off enough energy to fuel the continent. From her killer legs to her wicked mane of braided hair to her vibrant smile to her luscious skin (which makes beads of sweat look like streams of diamonds), she is a movie icon-in-waiting stuck in a film that can barely contain her. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include a November 2004 interview with Dr. Joanna Grabski, instructor of African Visual Culture at Ohio's Denison University (27 min.), and a stills gallery. Bottom line: a small but solid extras package for a so-so foreign film.] (P. Hall)