La Vie de bohème (1992 film)

La Vie de bohème (Finnish: Boheemielämää) is a 1992 film directed by Aki Kaurismäki and starring Matti Pellonpää, Évelyne Didi and André Wilms. Kaurismäki's screenplay for the film was loosely based on Henri Murger's influential 1851 novel Scènes de la vie de bohème which has spawned several on-screen adaptations as well as plays and operas, the most notable one being Giacomo Puccini's 1896 La bohème.

La Vie de bohème
VHS cover
Directed byAki Kaurismäki
Produced byAki Kaurismäki
Screenplay byAki Kaurismäki
Based onScènes de la vie de bohème
by Henri Murger
Starring
CinematographyTimo Salminen
Edited byVeikko Aaltonen
Production
company
Sputnik
Distributed byFinnkino
Release date
Running time
103 minutes
Country
  • Finland
  • France
  • Sweden
  • Germany
LanguageFrench

The film was a critical success earning several awards. FIPRESCI awarded the film the Forum of New Cinema award at the 1992 Berlin International Film Festival. At the 1992 European Film Awards, Matti Pellonpää and André Wilms were awarded the Best European Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively while Évelyne Didi was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress and the film was nominated for the Best Film Award. Kaurismäki won the Best Director award at the 1993 Jussi Awards.[1] Le Havre (2011) is a follow-up movie to La Vie de bohème having many of the same actors 19 years older.

Plot

Marcel 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, 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, 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, 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.

Cast

References
  1. Awards given to Aki Kaurismäki, Orimattila Town Library, March 6, 2008. Accessed February 24, 2009.
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