André Wilms, Christine Murillo, Evelyne Didi

A potential romance between two poor artists in Paris 1991 is cut short by the police. Their separation enables the woman to ascend into the ranks of high society. But, upon the man's return, she is d...( read more  read more... )ragged back down again.

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87% liked it

675 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 40 min.

Directed by: Aki Kaurismäki

Release Date: July 29, 1993

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Flixster Reviews (55)


  • March 5, 2009
    Filmed in France with French dialogue ? even from the Finnish members of the cast - La Vie de Bohème (The Bohemian Life) would seem to be aiming to be a reasonably faithful adaptation of Henry Murger?s novel, the original source of Puccini?s famous opera La Bohème. But for the ch...( read more)aracter names and their social status as bohemian artists living hand-to-mouth however, Kaurismäki?s modern-day version bears almost no resemblance to either the novel or the opera in its situations or characterisation. Stripped back to its core elements though, its view of marginalised people struggling to live their lives in the manner they choose and find true love against the odds, is at the heart of the piece as it is in much of Kaurismäki?s work.

    Kaurismäki regular Matti Pellonpää is the film?s Rodolfo, an illegal Albanian immigrant in Paris who is struggling to make ends meet as a painter. Between himself, his friend Marcel (André Wilms), a struggling writer and Schaunard (Kari Väänänen), an impoverished musician, they manage to get the occasional commission to support each other through the difficult periods. Rodolfo, a romantic who falls in love easily, has met Mimi (Evelyne Didi), a girl just arrived in the city from the provinces, who has found work in a Tobacconists. Fate, misfortune and poverty however conspire to keep them apart.

    ?I love you, but life is difficult? Mimi tells Rodolfo with typical Kaurismäkian concision and matter-of-factness at one point in the film, and essentially that sums up the essence and commonality of La Vie de Bohème with its source material. In the modern day world, Mimi is not dying of consumption, Rodolfo is a painter rather than a poet (although curiously, in the one scene barring the finale that is in any way close to the original, the artist drags out some old poetry he has written to burn on the fire when he and Mimi can no longer afford to heat their room), but there are other factors like illegal immigration that place obstacles in their way.

    I?m not convinced that this achieves anything great ? neither illuminating the themes of the source material nor adding anything particularly new to the director?s oeuvre. Although the Finnish members of the cast acquit themselves well in French, it?s less clear why the director has chosen to shoot the film in France or how it relates to the essential Finnish character of his other works, and it ends up coming across feeling lifeless rather than droll. Murger?s original novel was based on the author?s own personal experiences with the Bohemian life of Paris in the mid-1800s and rather than recount those, it would appear that Kaurismäki perhaps examines how the themes that arise there relate to his own life experiences. In this respect at least La Vie de Bohème remains timeless and universal.
  • June 16, 2008
    Droll comedy about a trio of artistic misfits and their struggles to eke out an existence in, where else, Paris. Another enjoyable Kaurismaki but perhaps not quite up there with his best.
  • May 5, 2007
    A smart movie by Aki Kaurismaki. It's his "French movie" Set in france and spoken in French. The main characters are a French novellist, An Irish musician and a painter from Albania. It seems that the world doesn't care of them and their qualities...but anyway way they's artists!...( read more):) The ending is all-consuming...great and sharp!

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