La vie de Bohème

(Albert Capellani, US 1916, 71 min., 35mm)

Winter Romance. Hewing closer to Henri Murger’s original 1851 text than the Puccini opera that made the story famous, this film uses high production values to tell the tale of young people living in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the mid-1800s. Mimi, who had been abandoned as a baby to a convent, takes a job as a barmaid and falls in love with Rudolphe, a poet from a well-to-do family, but both friends and family strive to keep them apart. French filmmakers working in the United States bring excellent set and costume design, as well as cinematography and direction to this classic tragic romance. A young Alice Brady (My Man Godfrey) surprises in one of her earliest extant films. Live piano by Philip C. Carli.

Also showing: Wednesday, January 30