LA BOHEME

US, 1926, 75 minutes, Black and white.
Lillian Gish, John Gilbert, Renee Adoree, Edward Everett Horton.
Directed by King Vidor.

La Boheme is one of King Vidor's final silent films. It is a dramatisation of the classic story which was immortalised by Puccini in his opera. It is a star vehicle for Lillian Gish at her most sympathetic. (In The Patsy, 3 years later, Marian Davies will do a mimicking parody of Lillian Gish - to some effect.) The co-star is John Gilbert, who gives a dashing performance in a role of a playwright who is completely self absorbed and obsessive.

The film, in the silent style of fixed camera, nevertheless has a fluidity because of its direction by Vidor, the range of shots and the pace of the editing. The studio re-creates sets for the story which are reminiscent of those for classic and traditional presentations of the opera. The film is the perennial story of the self-absorbed man, the devoted woman who sacrifices herself for him - with his discovering the truth too late.

1.La Boheme as a classic story, the many versions, the opera?

2.Silent film style, fixed camera, angle shots, editing and pace? The work of King Vidor?

3.The black and white photography, its clarity, the studio sets, the strength of the cast? The captions?

4.Paris in the 1830s, the Latin Quarter, the would-be artists, the models, Rodolphe and his writing? Mimi as the seamstress?

5.The portrait of Rodolphe and John Gilbert's style? Type, writing his plays, resisting the landlord, the attraction towards Mimi, the picnic, her being his inspiration, being casual with his editor, writing the articles, in need of money? His glimpsing Mimi with the vicomte? Suspicious? Her bringing him the money from the articles, his impassioned writing? Mimi's absence and his search of her garret? His going out drinking beer with his friends, encountering the editor, the truth about his being sacked? Confronting Mimi, seeing her shoes, his jealousy? Losing her? His bitterness and sorrow, the passion of his play? Its success? With his friends, the regrets about Mimi? Her return to the garret, the pathos of her death?

6.Mimi as attractive, the seamstress, attracted towards Rodolphe, the picnic and their love? Her deceiving him about his being sacked and sewing all night for the money? Her illness, tiredness? The chance encounter with the vicomte and Rodolphe's suspicions? Going out with him, Musette giving her the dresses, hoping to see the manager of the theatre? Being confronted by Rodolphe? Her decision to leave, the hard work in the laundries? Her dying, the return, on the carriages, walking? Seeing Rodolphe and her having given herself completely for him?

7.The vicomte and his wealth, the satanic look, the attraction towards Mimi, seductive? At the theatre?

8.Musette, the model, her background, helping Mimi with the dress? The group of Rodolphe's friends and their celebrating with him?

9.The era, the love story and its continued appeal? Relationships between men and women? Interdependence?