As Carmen pretends to be in love with Don Jose for pride and profit, Geraldine Farrar pretends to act for presumably similar reasons. Farrar is obnoxious. She parades, grins and gestures, positions herself constantly for the camera, even appears to glance at the camera occasionally, to wink or check for framing. She flaunts her eyes to and fro and pats her attire, or fondles her body, whenever she's not using her arms for needless and annoying gesticulation. Blame opera or DeMille's consistently inept direction of actors, but Farrar stands out in this movie, and compared to contemporaneous films, because she is excessively tactless.
As for DeMille's direction otherwise, it is unremarkable compared to "The Cheat" of the same year. Being trained in 1914, he obviously understood the rudiments of the art form by the time he made this "Carmen". He used low-key lighting in "the message of the cards" scene, and the tinting is nice, as others have mentioned. Nothing innovative. The story is worthless, although I was slightly amused by the tacit feminism. Perhaps, someday, I'll see if the 1954 version does better in promoting racial equality. If you watch DeMille's "Carmen", see Chaplin's burlesque on it--it'll makeup for lost time.
As for DeMille's direction otherwise, it is unremarkable compared to "The Cheat" of the same year. Being trained in 1914, he obviously understood the rudiments of the art form by the time he made this "Carmen". He used low-key lighting in "the message of the cards" scene, and the tinting is nice, as others have mentioned. Nothing innovative. The story is worthless, although I was slightly amused by the tacit feminism. Perhaps, someday, I'll see if the 1954 version does better in promoting racial equality. If you watch DeMille's "Carmen", see Chaplin's burlesque on it--it'll makeup for lost time.