The Bohemian Life: Aki Kaurismäki’s loose adaptation of Henry Murger’s work follows a trio of struggling artists trying to make do in Paris, showing their schemes, affairs, and disappointments. Everything is presented in Kaurismäki’s usual deadpan and mild absurdity, so the tone can be off-putting, but the characters are charismatic in their own ways. Matti Pellonpää plays an Albanian painter, a quiet romantic; Evelyne Didi plays his love interest; André Wilms plays a somewhat ambitious writer; and Kari Väänänen plays a musical composer. Pellonpää and Wilms, particularly, do a lot with very, very little. Cinematographer Timo Salminen shoots it in stark, dramatic black-and-white. He and production designer John Ebden created a fantastically synthetic and efficient recreation of a train station, which works remarkably well; the dilapidated apartments are nicely put together. Editor Veikko Aaltonen gives the film a good pace, and the musical selection is, as usual, rather efficient.