Customer Reviews

La Vie De Boheme [VHS]

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If you have not seen the films of Ari Kaurismaki (Leningrad Cowboys go America is the one most likely to turn up in Blockbuster), you are really missing a unique international film experience. Like Jim Jarmusch, who placed a vignette of his in "Night on Earth", Kaurismauki's films move at a liesurely pace, yet every frame is full of meaning. Anyone who has visited Bohemia or its fringes will appreciate the 3 hapless protaginists in "La Boheme". Their very survival, let alone their success as artists, seems to hang on dumb luck. When their luck is good, or mildly unfortunate, the film is wryly funny. When their luck turns bad, the film projects a certain sadness that never turns to bathos. La Boheme is as beautifully filmed black and white as I've seen in a modern film.

A relaxed feeling, wonderful sound and music, beautiful cinematography, unusual Paris locations and... its hilarious.I've seen many films from all over the world - I keep coming back to this one. No matter how many times I've seen it I find something new. Very different from Aki Kaurismaki's "Leningrad Cowboys". Cameo apperances by Louis Malle and Sam Fuller. Matti Pellonpaa, who plays Rodolfo in the film, died not too long after the release. One of my all-time favorite films.

**** 1992. Based on Henri Murger's The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter, this film was written and directed by Aki Kaurismäki. Two European Film Awards (Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor). Three artists, a painter, a writer and a musician try to survive in the 1960's Paris. Don't miss directors Samuel Fuller and Louis Malle's small performances. Another great movie by the Finnish master.

Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki's black and white adaptation of Scene de la Vie de Boheme (originally a non fiction book by Henri de Murger dealing with the lives of the starving bohemian artists of the Paris of the first decades of the 19th century, and later a famous opera by Puccini) is surprisingly faithful to its source material, despite its modern settings. The place is still Paris, and the film closely follows both the book and the opera, with the proud but poor artists living at the day to day to survive in the city of lights. We even have the famous burning of the manuscripts to get some heat during the cold winter. The late Matti Pellonpaa, a Kaurismaki regular, stars as Rodolfo, as well as other less known, but equally fine actors (the actress playing Mimi, however, fails to create an impression). There are a couple of cameos by Nouvelle Vague faves Jean-Pierre Leaud and Samuel Fuller. Note: Later, Rent, a less accomplished modern retelling of La Vie de Boheme, this time set on New York City, was also produced, first on stage, and later on film.