693 La vie de bohème

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swo17
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693 La vie de bohème

#1 Post by swo17 » Wed Oct 16, 2013 3:37 pm

La vie de bohème

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This deadpan tragicomedy about a group of impoverished, outcast artists living the bohemian life in Paris is among the most beguiling films by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki. Based on stories from Henri Murger's influential mid nineteenth-century book Scènes de la vie de bohème (the basis for the opera La bohème), the film features a marvelous trio of Kaurismäki regulars, André Wilms, Matti Pellonpää, and Karl Väänänen, as a poet, painter, and composer who scrape by together, sharing in life's daily absurdities. Gorgeously shot in black and white, La vie de bohème is a vibrantly scrappy rendition of a beloved tale.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New, high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Where Is Musette?, an hour-long documentary on the making of the film
• New interview with actor André Wilms
• Trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• One Blu-ray and one DVD, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Luc Sante

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domino harvey
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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#2 Post by domino harvey » Wed Oct 16, 2013 3:38 pm

Well, this was left-field, wasn't it?

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#3 Post by Michael Kerpan » Wed Oct 16, 2013 3:55 pm

domino harvey wrote:Well, this was left-field, wasn't it?
Certainement.

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zedz
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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#4 Post by zedz » Wed Oct 16, 2013 4:04 pm

Great! This is one of my favourite Kaurismakis, so I'm glad it got the mainline nod.

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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#5 Post by MichaelB » Thu Oct 17, 2013 2:44 am

I'm particularly pleased about this because it's one of the only Kaurismäkis that I haven't seen in 35mm, and I suspect the black and white cinematography will look gorgeous.

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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#6 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Thu Oct 17, 2013 4:34 am

It also makes for a wonderful companion piece to Le Havre, Kaurismaki's other foray into France and the french language.
A propos of which according to Kari Väänänen, other than Wilms, no-one spoke a word of french and learned their lines phonetically making them seem even more bewildered than the Kaurismaki norm.
To try and help Matti Pellonpää , idiot boards were hung around the camera to guide him through the more difficult moments. However his wandering eye-line as he followed the dialogue were proving equally problematic. Kaurismaki's solution was to gaffer tape the boards to his head and as the lines were read he would gradually rise from a crouching position behind the camera to full height to maintain a constant eyeline.
The mark of a true innovator.

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Re: Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol.

#7 Post by Michael Kerpan » Fri Oct 18, 2013 12:46 pm

nolanoe wrote:My dislike for Kaurismäki is legendary.
I'd be interested in hearing why -- in a suitable spot (not here).. No separate thread for him in the Directors Forum, so one can talk about this in the Proletariat Trilogy thread in the Eclipse Forum or in the brand new Vie de Boheme thread in the Criterion Releases Forum. ;-}
Last edited by Michael Kerpan on Fri Oct 18, 2013 12:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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swo17
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Re: Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol.

#8 Post by swo17 » Fri Oct 18, 2013 12:48 pm

I'm just as curious to hear about the "legendary" as the "dislike."

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Re: Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol.

#9 Post by nolanoe » Fri Oct 18, 2013 2:38 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:
nolanoe wrote:My dislike for Kaurismäki is legendary.
I'd be interested in hearing why
Oh dear...

Well, let's just say that I consider him to be overhyped. Visually, it's unimpressive (even though he's got an eye for color and framing), the stories do not interest me and I think - most of all - that the acting is abysmal. I like to discuss Fassbinder, and point out that many german cinephiles I talked to share my impression that the acting in his films range from "cold" to "wooden" - with Kaurismäki, it seems the other way around, where people from Finland tell me it's "genius" and "real". I also do not get his form of humor. At all.

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Re: Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol.

#10 Post by Zot! » Fri Oct 18, 2013 2:50 pm

I'm not a Kaurismäki fan either, and liken his approach to Hal Hartley and Jim Jarmusch, both of which I similarly dislike. I'm sure it's a personal shortcoming, but not one that I feel like I need to correct. I stress, it is a dislike, not a abhorrence.

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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#11 Post by Michael Kerpan » Fri Oct 18, 2013 3:42 pm

I guess I am more akin to Finns than to Germans, as I find the performances in Kaurismaki fine and find the intended humor ... funny. ;~}

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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#12 Post by MichaelB » Fri Oct 18, 2013 3:55 pm

Yes, I think the performances are terrific. It's very clear from his first feature onwards that his actors are giving him exactly what he wants, and what he wants are clearly performances that are deliberately flat and unexpressive - in fact, very consciously influenced by Bresson's "models". And it's clear that the better the actors are at delivering what he wants - Matti Pellonpää, Kati Outinen, André Wilms, Jean-Pierre Léaud - the more frequently he's likely to work with them.

But then I also think his films are hilarious - and entirely intentionally so (although, to my shame, I only picked up on the exquisite black comedy of The Match Factory Girl on a second viewing). I've met the man himself several times (I used to work for his main UK distributor at a time when they were heavily pushing his work) and there's no question about this, although some interviewers like this poor guy have completely failed to pick up on his bone-dry sense of humour. (Sadly, my own interview - which I think was conducted on the same day - isn't online, but it was altogether more successful: in fact, because the subsequent interviewer failed to turn up I ended up getting 75 minutes!)

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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#13 Post by whaleallright » Fri Oct 18, 2013 5:18 pm

Yeah, I think the influence of Bresson on the acting (and much else) in Kaurismaki's films cannot be overstated. I think of the scene in Match Factory Girl where the bearded yuppie picks the protagonist up at a nightclub. Each step in their brief flirtation is represented by a single, sharp, discrete gesture, divided by a brief pause. Digital, you might say, rather than analog. He sits down. He turns to look at her. She looks down shyly, then peeks upward at him and smiles. He places his hand over hers. They both get up and walk to the dance floor. No dialogue that I recall. It's actually pretty remarkable that Kaurismaki uses such Bressonian devices in the service of deadpan, often mordant humor (of course, I know folks who appreciate Bresson against the grain and find Lancelot du lac hilarious).

I have to admit thinking that Match Factory Girl is not one of Kaurismaki's best films. Even for a director who tends to plow a narrow furrow, it's remarkably one-note, without the oneiric qualities, narrative left turns, and much of the goofy rock 'n' roll sensibility that make stuff like Ariel, Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana and Le Havre so perversely involving. But Kaurismaki as much as or more than any other contemporary director has really created his own universe and I'm always grateful to pay it a visit.

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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#14 Post by MichaelB » Mon Oct 21, 2013 2:41 pm

jonah.77 wrote:Yeah, I think the influence of Bresson on the acting (and much else) in Kaurismaki's films cannot be overstated. I think of the scene in Match Factory Girl where the bearded yuppie picks the protagonist up at a nightclub. Each step in their brief flirtation is represented by a single, sharp, discrete gesture, divided by a brief pause. Digital, you might say, rather than analog. He sits down. He turns to look at her. She looks down shyly, then peeks upward at him and smiles. He places his hand over hers. They both get up and walk to the dance floor. No dialogue that I recall.
I've just checked my copy - that entire nightclub scene is indeed completely wordless.

In fact, in the entire film there's no dialogue of any kind for the first seven minutes (the first spoken content being a TV news report whose content is easy enough to follow without understanding Finnish), the first spoken word uttered by any of the characters comes at the 13-minute mark ("A beer, please"), and I'd say that the first dramatically significant dialogue doesn't appear until nearly nineteen minutes in. And even then you can probably guess what her dad's saying after he slaps her for having the temerity to buy an attractive dress ("Whore"), and the content of much of the rest is easily guessable from the context.

Put it like this, if the Finns bring it out on an unsubtitled Blu-ray, I wouldn't regard that as a deal-breaker.

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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#15 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Jan 02, 2014 6:46 am


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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#16 Post by MichaelB » Thu Jan 02, 2014 9:00 am

This is one of the only Kaurismäkis that I haven't managed to see in 35mm, so this is going to be a particular treat for me.

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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#17 Post by FrauBlucher » Sat Jan 04, 2014 6:19 pm


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med
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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#18 Post by med » Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:15 pm

Question: Luc Sante's essay mentions Karl Väänänen's character is Irish. I've watched the film twice now—the second time after reading the essay—and there is no mention of his being Irish! What am I missing? I haven't read the source book. Was the original Schaunard Irish? Is Schaunard an Irish name and I just didn't know it?

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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#19 Post by nickoberg » Mon Jul 14, 2014 2:24 am

no 2k or 4k transfers on BOHEME or HAVRE?

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MichaelB
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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#20 Post by MichaelB » Mon Jul 14, 2014 4:54 am

Le Havre was digitally post-produced, so I suspect Criterion's version (and every other BD) would have come directly from that master.

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knives
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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#21 Post by knives » Wed Feb 26, 2020 8:22 pm

This was as wonderful as should have been expected. It's of course beautiful and the reduction of his deadpan tendencies (though this is still very deadpan) works quite well. My biggest and most pleasant surprise was in finding out this is based on the same book as Puccini's opera. Kaurismaki's manipulation of that text though for his contemporary needs as well as personality makes it a delightfully new experience and easily the best reworking I've encountered. Matters don't seem so apocalyptic because of the blind love of place the male characters have (the women are a bit more aware for lack of a better phrase). It's an interesting approach to their perspective.

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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#22 Post by bfaison » Tue Jun 01, 2021 10:08 am

This is likely the wrong place to ask this question, so please feel free to delete/move this post, but I am wondering if any of you know how to get a hold of Aki's "Dirty Hands (Likaiset kadet)"? This is one I have never been able to see, and as I've been going through his filmography for the fourth or fifth time now I would really like to.

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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#23 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jun 01, 2021 4:37 pm

A quick Google established that all the necessary ingredients (video, albeit in two separate parts, and an English subtitle file) are out there, but I'm not sure whether offering more explicit advice is against the forum rules.

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Re: 693 La vie de bohème

#24 Post by bfaison » Tue Jun 01, 2021 8:43 pm

Many thanks to dekadetia and Michael. Will be having a drink to your kindness, cheers

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