Carmen (1918)

Polish-born actress Pola Negri was already popular when she began appearing in German silents in the 1910s, but it was her collaborations with Ernst Lubitsch that transformed her into a silver screen goddess, a mesmerizing presence as formidable in comedies (The Wildcat) as in tragedies (Madame Dubarry). Released in the U.S. as Gypsy Blood, Carmen retells Prosper Merimée’s classic tale of a Romani woman who seduces a military officer and sends each of them on a trajectory of dramatic self-destruction. Restored in 4K by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Carmen features a lively score by Tobias Schwenke, performed by the orchestral ensemble Kontraste.