Bohemian Life (1992) ( La Vie de bohème ) ( Boheemielämää )

Bohemian Life (1992) (Blu-Ray) (*)

~~$20.99~~ $14.97

Original Title: La Vie de bohème
Alternate Title: Boheemielämää
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Berlin International Film Festival
European Film Awards
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Danish ( Subtitles )
English ( Subtitles )
Finnish ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French ( Dolby DTS-HD Master Audio )
Norwegian ( Subtitles )
Swedish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Finland ( Blu-Ray/Region A/B/C )

Running Time:
103 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1992 and produced in:
Finland ( Scandinavia, Iceland )
France ( France, Benelux )
Italy ( Italy, Greece )
Sweden ( Scandinavia, Iceland )

Directed By:
Aki Kaurismaki

Written By:
Aki Kaurismaki

Actors:
Matti Pellonpää ..... Rodolfo
Evelyne Didi ..... Mimi
André Wilms ..... Marcel
Kari Väänänen ..... Schaunard
Christine Murillo ..... Musette
Jean-Pierre Léaud ..... Blancheron
Laika ..... Baudelaire
Carlos Salgado ..... Garcon de café
Alexis Nitzer ..... Henri Bernard
Sylvie Van den Elsen ..... Mme. Bernard
Gilles Charmant ..... Groupe rock
Dominique Marcas ..... Brocanteuse
Samuel Fuller ..... Gassot
Jean-Paul Wenzel ..... Francis
Louis Malle ..... Gentleman

Synopsis:

Three penniless artists become friends in modern-day Paris: Rodolfo, an Albanian painter with no visa, Marcel, a playwright and magazine editor with no publisher, and Schaunard, a post-modernist composer of execrable noise. Rodolfo falls in love with Mimi, a barmaid. The day he asks her to move in with him, he is deported. Six months later, he sneaks back to Paris, and Mimi leaves her new boyfriend to be with him. Conflicts arise, especially around their poverty, and soon Mimi and Rodolfo separate, as do Marcel and his Musette. The three men scrape together a meal to celebrate All Saints' Day, and Mimi arrives, ill. Can her friends bring her back to health? Can love rekindle?

This is a well-regarded contemporary dramatic retelling of the story most familiar to audiences from Puccini's great opera La Bohème and was made by the noted Finnish film director Aki Kaurismaki. Like the opera, it is based on the novel Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger. Despite their ever-present poverty, which poses a constant threat to their continued existence, the artists and their friends in this movie speak in only the most polite, elegant, and genteel manner, which only serves to underscore their desperate situation. In the story, the poet Marcel has been unable to come up with the rent for his barely tolerable room and has been evicted from it. While wandering in his neighborhood, he catches the eye of Rodolfo, an Albanian immigrant eating in a small cafe, who waves him over and invites him to share his dinner. Though they have never met, they are soon deeply involved in a discussion about art. They leave the restaurant together and, for want of a better idea, wander back to Marcel's former room. There the poet and his new friend, the painter Rodolfo, discover an equally congenial companion in the man who just rented his room, Schaumard, an Irish composer. Just one step away from starvation most of the time, these loyal friends share resources to help one another out. On one occasion, Marcel needs a suit for a job interview and is able to borrow one from one of Rodolfo's portrait sitters long enough to be interviewed and get a paid job. With his earnings from his new editing job, Marcel buys Schaumard a car he needs. On the job, Marcel meets poor provincial girl Musette, whom he falls for, and at the same time Rodolfo finds another poor provincial girl, Mimi, on his doorstep. He quickly comes to love Mimi, but circumstances constantly thwart their being together, until he at last succeeds in making a place for them and she dies in his arms.

Marcel (André Wilms) is an impoverished Parisian poet and playwright who is evicted from his extremely modest room after he is unable to pay rent for it. While roaming the streets of Paris, he meets Rodolfo (Matti Pellonpää), a painter from Albania who is almost equally poor and is in the country illegally. They quickly discover they are kindred spirits since they both share the same love for art without much regard for their worldly well-being. The two eventually make another friend in Schaunard (Kari Väänänen), an Irish composer who is now renting Marcel's former room. The three friends help each other in the daily struggle to survive by sharing whatever little money they have among each other in order to maintain a basic and simple standard of living.
Rodolfo's life is interrupted when he meets Mimi (Evelyne Didi), a poor French girl with whom he falls madly in love. But Rodolfo is soon deported back to Albania due to not having a visa. He is unable to return to Paris for six months and, by then, Mimi has moved on and found another boyfriend. Rodolfo, Marcel and Schaunard scrape together what food they have and have a meal together to celebrate the feast of All Saints. Mimi shows up and informs Rodolfo that she has left her boyfriend to be with him again, but she is ill and dies the next spring.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 03 September, 2013.

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