Someone should have given the film editor of this ballet a hearty dose of Ritalin before allowing him in the cutting room; far too much exciting modern dance has been sliced to smithereens by someone who has watched too many Warner Brothers cartoons! Matthew Bourne's exciting re-imagining of Bizet's familiar cat-among -the-pigeons opera transfers heroine Carmen to a Fantasy American Garage-Diner Combo, and a sexy drifter ambles into the wreckage and creates a steamy chaos, loving not only the wife of the boss, but the poor teased pretty boy that hangs around the diner--its an odd concept, but the dancing is a galvanizing mix of classical technique, modern dance and show hoofing, with a steamy atmosphere that surrounds an eclectic mix of lowlife types.
This is clearly not a concept for everyone, and unfortunately, the rapid cross-cutting utilized in the first twenty minutes makes for an uncomfortable watching experience--it is crass work with no eye for the dancers or the mood--but once the story and the dancers take over, the editor seems to mellow out a bit and you can actually see some dancing. As one of his rules for being photographed for film at RKO, Fred Astaire required that all his dancing be covered full-figure, from head to toe, as it was, after all, his dancing that people had come to see. Matthew Bourne should so specify so that dynamic performances such as The Car Man are not chopped to smithereens. High marks for the performance, very low marks for the editing make for an average rating.