Carmen Jones (1954)

Otto Preminger brought Georges Bizet’s beloved opera blazingly to the modern screen in Carmen Jones, famous for its daring, all-Black cast, its astonishing Cinemascope compositions, and above all for the bewitching star turn by Dorothy Dandridge. Playing the titular temptress, a factory worker who ensnares a hapless GI (Harry Belafonte) in a doomed romance, Dandridge established herself as a major talent, rewriting the possibilities of African American femininity on screen. Presented in an imported 35mm print from the British Film Institute.

Image: Still from Carmen Jones, 1954