“She was lying, señor, as she always lied. I wonder whether that girl ever spoke one word of truth in her life” (Mérimée, 1963 [1845: 24]). With these words, Antonio (Antonio Gades in Carlos Saura's film CARMEN [1983]) presents Carmen – one of the most famous Romani figures in the world – to his dance troupe. He is not only quoting Don José's words from Mérimée, he is also creating an analogy between the old story and the new one. In this version Carmen is a dancer in the troupe who is playing the lead in the show while he himself plays the role of Don José, both on the stage and off. Time has passed and yet Carmen the gypsy is still depicted by a man, in this case one man quoting another.

Step by step, Antonio tries to examine the myth, but as he tries to change it, he is, in fact, repeating it. The confluence of repetition and difference is a strategy used in Saura's version, as in numerous other filmic variations of Carmen, to mobilize an old story for a new configuration. However, it is the dialectic between the “old” and the “new” that keeps producing additional versions. In this sense, the re-signification of Carmen is part of a cultural process of assimilation, appropriation and transformation, which also includes the act of reading itself. Thus, from the present (and limited) point of view of this specific historical- cultural moment, we may identify Carmen as an emblematic cultural object that reflects the need to redefine the “I” and the “other” vis-à-vis law and desire.

I will argue that the Carmen figure, as gypsy and woman, functions as a source of both attraction and dread to society. This is, in fact, the motor which generates the plethora of remakes. In this respect, every new remake arouses the same apprehension: will the new version succeed in treading that same thin line that allows us to see Carmen and her gypsy band with both dread and delight? Can the new version succeed in maintaining the balance achieved so far – a balance that enables us, the viewers, to both accept and reject the Carmen story?