In terms of playing the role, the art of opera is a whole lot like the silent film. To go with the words which will often be in a foreign language, you need to gesticulate to get the meaning across. Cecil B. DeMille realized that when he imported opera diva Geraldine Farrar to do a silent version of her acclaimed Carmen. Similarly the woman who specialized in playing innocents on the silent screen got one of her best roles as Mimi in the silent version of La Boheme.
Following up on The Big Parade, King Vidor directs his stars from that film in La Boheme. John Gilbert plays Rudolphe and Renee Adoree the saucy Musette. But the star of this film is Lillian Gish as the innocent and tragic Mimi. If you're familiar with the opera the plot of the film follows it faithfully.
Gilbert and Adoree live with a group of happy, but starving artists in a flat in Paris where getting the next meal or the next month's rent is an adventure. In fact in the beginning they are living in the flat for another month by dint of George Hassell's entertaining the street crowds with an organ and a monkey. And they can't eat the monkey because he might prove the most valuable breadwinner among them.
Into this world of artists comes sweet and innocent seamstress Lillian Gish. Of course she falls for Gilbert totally. But Gilbert only reciprocates her part way. He's about his art which in his case is writing. That's something Gish can't comprehend and leaves her vulnerable to the rakish Roy D'Arcy.
Edward Everett Horton has a small part in La Boheme. He's not the usual fuss budget that he was in talkies. Still I think most will recognize him.
The film belongs to Lillian Gish as the opera does to every soprano who essays the role from Mimi. It's only the end that Gilbert truly appreciates what he's had.
From the opera to the silent screen to talkies in the film Mimi that starred Gertrude Lawrence and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. to the modern updating of the story in Rent, La Boheme is a timeless tale and in this case brought to us by the timeless art of one Lillian Gish.
