Car men de Jiří Kylián and Boris Paval Conen

Car Men is a collaboration between the renowned choreographer Jíri Kylían and filmmaker Boris Paval Conen. 


Based on the opera 'CARMEN' by Georges Bizet they shot a hilarious and poetic short film in the destroyed landscape of a Czech brown coal mine. The actors in this film are older dancers (around 50 years old) and the main prop is a 'TATRA 87', a famous car from 1937. The film won several prices including the 'Prix 'd Italia' and the 'BANFF rockie award'.

This video fragment shows a part of the working process of the film. Before the shooting we had a 6 weeks rehearsal; part of it in the Netherlands and part on location in the Czech Republic. During the rehearsal we also tried out all the camera positions. At the end of each day we edited the shots, and if necessary we dit some reshoot. Because of the blazing heat outside we rehearsed the seduction scene in a Gym. One part of the seduction scene was deleted in the final edit.