The Car Man in cinemas

Posted on February 24, 2016

Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man, his reworking of Bizet’s Carmen for his company New Adventures, will be screened in UK cinemas from March 1.

The production moves the action from 19th-century Spain to small-town America of the 1960s. Bizet’s femme fatale becomes Luca, the “car man” of the title, a handsome stranger who triggers a spiral of lust, betrayal and revenge at a greasy garage-diner.

In this performance, filmed at Sadler’s Wells in August 2015, Chris Trenfield appears as Luca, with Zizi Strallen as Lana – a role for which she won the award for outstanding female performance (modern) at the National Dance Awards. Dominic North plays Angelo, with Alan Vincent as Lana’s husband Dino and Kate Lyons as her sister Rita.

Distributed by London cinema specialist More2Screen, the film will be shown at Cineworld, Picturehouse and independent cinemas across the UK from March 1. For dates and times, see the More2Screen website. 

On March 2, there is a special event screening at the Peckham cinema Peckhamplex, followed by a Q&A with Matthew Bourne. Tickets are available from the Peckhamplex website.

Picture: Zizi Strallen in The Car Man. Photograph: Johan Persson

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.