La Vie de bohème
1992
***½
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast: Matti Pellonpää, Kari Väänänen, Evelyne Didi, André Wilms, Christine Murillo, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Carlos Salgado, Alexis Nitzer, Sylvie van den Elsen, Gilles Charmant, Dominique Marcas, Samuel Fuller
Three bohemian artists - an Albanian painter, a French poet, and an Irish composer - are forced to live from hand to mouth while they attempt to cling to their artistic integrity. Aki Kaurismäki's first film in French (the second one is Le Havre) is a charming black and white drama comedy that includes camaraderie, romance, and tragedy. It's supposedly set in present day Paris, but the depiction of misery and hopelessness feels lifted straight from Henri Murger's 1851 source novel Scènes de la vie de bohème. Timo Salminen's camerawork looks great, once again.
