Doleful & amused, the deadpan style of Finland’s Aki Kaurismäki is only partially successful at catching the proper spirit in this free adaptation of Henri Murger’s story collection, the source of Puccini’s evergreen opera. Updated from 1830s Paris to ‘Timeless Contemporary’ (1950s details, but period unspecific), with its four artistic bohemians reduced to three, and their skills swapped. (Writer Rodolfo now painter, etc.) Shot in a harshly beautiful b&w, the film works best as a series of still-life compositions from poverty-row: tenements, hole-in-the-wall bars, a train platform conjured of shadow, silhouette & moving light. (A technique that sends us back to Chaplin’s A WOMAN OF PARIS/’23.) The core story remains: starving artist friends (painter, writer, playwright), less than faithful girlfriends, visa trouble; wistful separation, love renewed too late. But here, working in French with local & Finnish players (plus Samuel Fuller speaking a bit of phonetic French), Kaurismäki can’t find a working rhythm when he needs to play it straight. Even the jokes, hit and miss. But with its strong visuals (production design John Ebden; cinematography Timo Salminen) and time-tested narrative, it pulls you in anyway.
DOUBLE-BILL: Dozens of adaptations, most hewing closely to Puccini, but crediting out-of-copyright novelist Murger. King Vidor’s traditional version of 1926 surprisingly little known, but unsurprisingly fine. With Lillian Gish (almost too realistic for comfort in her first M-G-M pic), John Gilbert & Renée Adorée (playing Musette but in real life, like poor Mimi, actually dying of T.B.). Bonus: since it’s a silent film, you can listen to Puccini while you watch.
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