La Boheme: The Film [Blu-ray]
by Robert Dornhelm
![La Boheme: The Film [Blu-ray]](/images/La-Boheme-The-Film-Blu-ray-B002Q9MZHE-L.jpg)
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Blu-ray details
Actor: Anna Netrebko, Bertrand de Billy, Rolando VillazonDirector: Robert Dornhelm
Brand: Kultur
Blu-ray: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Classical, Color, Dolby, HiFi Sound, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 100 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: 2009-12-15
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: KULTUR VIDEO
Blu-ray Reviews of La Boheme: The Film [Blu-ray]
Blu-ray Review: Passionate & Beautiful
Summary: 4 Stars
This film version of La Boheme is gorgeous! The cinematography is beautiful and tasteful, and the singing is all top-notch, crowned by a performance by Anna Netrebko as Mimi. Her voice has luster and charisma, and her acting is right on the money. Rolando Villazón's only fault, vocally, is that he is not Pavarotti; otherwise, he is among the very best tenors today, having a beautiful, powerful, and passionate voice, and impeccable technique. His acting was just a tad over the top for a film, but it would have played perfectly in the opera house.
In a way, my review should stop here. I recommend this wholeheartedly to the most discriminating of opera lovers; and this is the first mainstream opera that I have seen on Blu-ray that can stand up to the competition in all formats. As always, however, there are a few caveats that perhaps should be mentioned.
This is opera as film, not simply a film of a staged production, although it was inspired by the two principals' on-stage performances together. The reader/shopper probably already knows whether or not he or she likes opera presented in movie format, so I will not discuss the pros and cons, except to make two observations specific to this film: (1) this is, for much of the time, not a lip-sync job for the principals, which is unusual for opera-on-film, and (2) the director used only very sparingly (twice, I think) the device wherein singers' voices are heard without their moving their lips (as is done sometimes for day-dream sequences). In this case the main use for it was to show Mimi's inner thoughts when she would have been too weak to have sung them in real life. Returning to the first point, however, lip-syncing was used for some of the characters, in which photogenic actors were seen but opera singers were heard. There is also some lip-syncing by the principals when it was impractical to record the voices on the set. The bonus materials mention the difficulties inherent in keeping the singers in sync with the orchestra, which was recorded in a separate studio at another time. The final result, however, is excellent; and on the whole, I'd say that this transformation of opera to the movies is less jarring than most.
Among the 71 minutes of extras, the director, Robert Dornhelm speaks about several of the choices he made, big and small. The most important choice he made was to keep things traditional; there is no attempt to update the setting, costumes, or circumstances in order to pander to more modern, or simply restless, tastes. He wisely realized that straying from the original concept would have only taken it downhill. He had also made a version of the film in which there was somewhat extensive use of CGI and other special effects but ended up using almost none in the final cut. A few scenes are shown in black-and-white, an effect that mostly worked well and for which the justification was rather obvious; but there was one mostly black-and-white scene, in which a stand of flowers was deliberately singled out for color. While it was effective, and pleasantly reminded me of a famous scene from a Fellini movie, I did not feel that it was organic to the mood here--it was distracting, but only for a second or two, as it caused me to pause to contemplate its "meaning"; on the other hand, it could be considered a good thing that the director threw us something additional to chew on. In any case this was a rare exception within a production that is distinguished by its lack of tricks, an homage to the time-tested genius of Puccini.
Musically, one could hardly desire more. In the beginning of the first act, the tempi may have been ever so slightly fast, and I was afraid that the conductor was going to take a somewhat business-like, let's-get-this-thing-over-with, tack; but that did not last long at all; there was plenty of good 'ole romantic wallowing in tears to come. Indeed, the quick pace of the first few moments was consistent with the vision of the film director, who conceded that the first act is the most difficult to bring off, and who opted to bring out its more humorous aspects; sparing us any unnecessarily-early hint of the pathos to come.
The only other nit picking is to mention a couple of minor (almost theoretical) shortcomings in the final product:
(1) The highest-tech soundtrack available on this Blu-ray is Dolby 5.1. (There is also "Dolby 2.0," and I am not quite sure what that means -- 2-channel PCM encoded for Dolby Pro Logic, maybe, for the benefit of older receivers that cannot process a digital input?) Many operatic and concert DVDs provide DTS 5.1 as a sometimes preferable option; and of course Blu-ray often offers further enhancements to these formats, including the possibility of 5, 6, or 7 uncompressed audio channels. As something of a long-time audiophile and techno-geek, I have to mention this lack of state-of-the-art-edness; but I also have to say that it makes virtually no difference. Yes, it is conceivable that a more detailed audio could have been attained, but to what point? This Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is beautiful and perfectly fits the look of the film. For that matter, it would also have been possible to capture a more starkly detailed picture through the use of direct video, but the softer images of cinematic film better suit the mood. None of this, however, is to deny the superiority of the Blu-ray edition of this film versus the DVD; "softness" is one thing, a DVD's 5.5-times loss of detail is quite another, if one is watching on a large screen.
(2) Kultur provides no booklet, and the jacket almost requires one to use a magnifying glass to find the name of the orchestra and conductor (both of whom contributed greatly to the overall high standard of musical performance). The only readily visible credits are to Netrebko, Villazón, and Dornhelm. As to the absence of program notes, the justification, no doubt, is that there is an abundance of information in the rolling credits, as well as in the generous bonus features; and of course, the optional subtitles mostly do away with any need for printing the libretto. However, on this latter point, the subtitles were not perfect; and it would have been nice to have had a printed copy of the original Italian. In addition, there are times one would like to refer to notes rather than having to put the Blu-ray in the machine, wait for all the preliminaries to pass, and then scan through for the sought-after factoid.
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