La Bohème (1994)

Very disappointing...

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This Baz Luhrmann La Boheme is just lovely. I would have the 1988 SF production or the 1965 production as first choices over this one, that said, coming from someone who finds Luhrmann's filmography very hit and miss I very much enjoyed this Australian production of La Boheme.Visually, it is beautifully done, with the whole production shot lovingly with no overblown editing in sight. The acts 1 and 4 settings are well-lit and appropriate, but for sets I found act 2 was the most effective. The costumes are sumptuous, with Mimi looking very angelic dressed in white. Staging is also great, act 2 is busy without being too chaotic, the end of act 1 is understated, and the quartet and act 4 are just heart-breaking as they should be.From a musical point of view, this La Boheme also excels. The orchestra bring out the pathos and beauty of Puccini's magnificent score wonderfully and the conducting is nicely genteel while never becoming stodgy. Chorus work is excellent, especially with the ladies, though the start of act 3 with the men is characterful and mostly in tune.You also have great performances. It is true that David Hobson's tenor voice is quite lightweight and perhaps on the thin side. This in mind, he does sing beautifully with no obvious strain and uses the voice musically, and at least he emotes and exudes good chemistry with Baker. Cheryl Baker is a wonderful Mimi, with her two shining moments being in Donde Leita Uschi and the whole of the final act. The end of act 3 with the snowballs may be corny to some, I personally found it quite affecting.Christine Douglas is a flirtatious and witty Musetta, and Robert Demke is great as Marcello, reacting well with Douglas during La Commedia Stupenda...Quando M'en Vo and blending beautifully with Hobson in In Un Coupe...O Mimi Tu Piu Non Torni. Colline is intelligently sung with a very musically phrased Vecchio Zimmara, Schaunard steals every scene he appears in and Benoit, Parpignol and Alcindoro are sung and acted with few problems at all.In conclusion, lovely. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I had never seen the Opera La Bohéme before, then,I cannot say that this version is better than the other ones.In my opinion, I found it quite interesting, not only for the love story, which is beautiful spite of being simple, but also because it take place in modern times. Most of the Operas that I watched, happened in remote time, or in the last century.La Bohéme has its story in France, after the Second World War and tells about Rodolfo and Mimi , neighbours that fall in love to each other.As all the operas, it finishes in a tragic way, that it is the death of Mimi.

Boheme always makes me cry (a lot), but I don't recall any of the dozens of performances I've seen having this effect on me. I'm quite used to suspending reality when looking at large, mature singers portraying teenagers, but when you have singers who not only look the part but can act... it makes 'big name' productions a bit like too much wedding cake all at once... Just wonderful, especially David Hobson. Buy it. Now.

With Moulin Rouge doing well at the box office at the moment, I decided to see whether the IMDB contained an entry for the video of Luhrmann's original opera production La Boheme, the one that contains the huge rooftop sign saying L'Amour, which also features in Moulin Rouge. Well, it's here but no user comments at all. What a shame!This Australian production is a wonderful La Boheme, more like a musical than an opera and not really for opera buffs. At the time of its first production it really was a production of the young, all the main singers as well as designer Catherine Martin and Baz himself being under thirty. The singers are good but not the very best, but most non-opera lovers will trade that in for singers who look the part. David Hobson is great looking as is Cheryl Barker who really does look consumptive at the end. And they can act. In the curtain calls at the end Hobson is really crying. This is emphatically not one of those opera productions where you desperately try to forget that the singers are middle-aged, decidedly rotund and definitely not suffering.The design is beguiling, setting the opera in 1950s Paris complete with cool leather jackets, new look dresses and bright lights amid post-war drabness. It is stagey, because this is a video of a stage production but the original direction was very fluid and the set works beautifully. As with all updating there are problems with anachronisms (no wall around Paris is a problem). But these are small points. This was Baz Luhrmann's first hurrah and a great one too. Don't know how readily available it is but rush to see it if you can.