La Vie de Bohème

1992 1h 43m FR

🙌

7.5

BANGER

★7.5TMDB · 159

DramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Where to watch · US

Criterion ChannelSubscription

Cast

Matti Pellonpää
Rodolfo
Evelyne Didi
Mimi
André Wilms
Marcel
Kari Väänänen
Schaunard
Christine Murillo
Musette
Jean-Pierre Léaud
Blancheron
Carlos Salgado
Waiter
Alexis Nitzer
Henri Bernard

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Writers: Aki Kaurismäki
Languages: French, English
Countries: France, Finland, Germany, Sweden

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

34 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 4 countries: France, Finland, Germany, Sweden.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Aki Kaurismäki, shot by Timo Salminen. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Veikko Aaltonen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Matti Pellonpää and Evelyne Didi and André Wilms carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0105750 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Aki Kaurismäki directs. Timo Salminen behind the camera. Veikko Aaltonen cuts. Produced in France, Finland, Germany, Sweden. Dialogue in French, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

134 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.
3International production across 4 countries: France, Finland, Germany, Sweden.
4Directed by Aki Kaurismäki, shot by Timo Salminen. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Veikko Aaltonen shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Matti Pellonpää and Evelyne Didi and André Wilms carry the top of the cast.
7IMDB entry: tt0105750 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 12 themes, including "friendship", "homeless person", "paris, france", "composer".

The technical file

Cinematography: Timo Salminen
Editing: Veikko Aaltonen
Production design: John Ebden
Costume design: Simon Murray
Sound: Tom Forsström
Runtime: 103 min · 1h 43m
Status: Released
Original language: FR
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: La Vie de Bohème (1992)

Awards

European Film Award for Best Supporting Actor
European Film Award for Best Actor

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Aki Kaurismäki

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CRCulver2018-08-14
★ 6/10
Aki Kaurismaki’s La Vie de Bohème is the Finnish auteur's loose adaptation of Henri Murger's classic 19th-century collection of short stories, set in contemporary Paris with an eclectic cast of French and Finnish actors, all speaking French. As the film opens, the penniless aspiring writer Marcel (André Wilms) is being evicted from his apartment. Though a series of amusing events, he falls in with the equally aspiring and penniless painter Rodolfo (Matti Pellonpää) and composer Schaunard (Kari Väänänen). The film then tracks their comical struggles to make money, gain lasting fame, or charm women in spite of their lack of a stable existence (Evelyne Didi plays a major supporting role as Rodolfo's girlfriend Mimi). Though the three men are perennially underdogs, their firm friendship and readiness to share what little they have makes the film a heartwarming experience. The poorly spoken French of the foreign actors, as well as the mismatch between the ostensibly 1992 setting and the decaying interiors, must have seemed bizarre for viewers who didn't know Kaurismäki before. However, it is quite of a piece with this director's prior work. Kaurismäki had made a number of films in his native Helsinki that are ostensibly set in the present day, but feature ramshackle tenements, working-class struggles, and antique appliances that are all right out of the 1950s. At some point, a band will appear on a stage playing high-energy rock music from a bygone age. In LA VIE DE BOHEME, Kaurismäki has reused the exact same elements in a Parisian context. He managed to find decrepit places one would have never expected in the modern city, and in one scene a punk band perform even if it has little relevance to the overall plot. While Rodolfo and Schaunard are explained as Albanian and Irish immigrants, respectively, they are really bringing to this film a typically Finnish quality. One of the quirks of Kaurismäki's Finnish-language output is that the actors deliver their deadpan, almost robotic lines in the Finnish literary language, which is vastly different from the ordinary Finnish spoken language. Kaurismäki has managed to create a similar effect here by lifting dialogue from Murger's original book, as in 19th-century stories the actors often speak with elaborate constructions and literary flair that is completely unrealistic for the particular setting. Their's also an amusing opposition between the garrulous Marcel and -- remember, the character's Irish or Albanian back stories need not be taken seriously -- the silent, stony other characters, as the Finns are an infamously taciturn race. Still, Kaurismäki's applications of his perennial formula are usually very entertaining, and I never tire of his dark humourly vision. And even if most of the other elements are the same as always, La Vie de Bohème features an unexpected ending. Usually in Kaurismäki you can foresee the nice little ending that's going to come from a mile away, but here he takes the viewer by surprise. Cinema aficionados will enjoy the small roles of a sugar baron, played by legendary French New Wave actor Jean-Paul Léaud, and a publishing magnate, played by American director Samuel Fuller. (Viewers who don't know who Fuller is will think it odd that he exits the stage with some profanity spoken in English and a distinctive old-timey New York Jewish accent!) This might not be the best introduction to Kaurismäki -- the films making up the so-called Proletariat Trilogy might work better for that. Still, for me La Vie de Bohème was a funny and touching picture.

Production companies