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I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

This isn't as good as most stage versions I've seen, and the 1920's version of the film is far superior (I know many people won't like it because it's so old), but this is still a good film. The story is so good it still works even when it's not a perfectly told version. Acting is good.

I discovered this production on You Tube while surfing. What a great find! I am an opera buff and Boheme is my number one favourite. (There is a disk of the last scene in ACT 1 filed with my will with instructions it be played at my funeral.) I have seen Boheme live and on video many times. I have countless productions on VHS, DVD, casettes and CD's. But I never have seen Netrebko in it. She is a SUPERB Mimi --- devious, flirty and coy. (A little too healthy looking for somebody dying of "consumption" but what the heck... this is opera...) Nicole Cabelle is a wonderfully unique Musetta. And they have captured the boisterous camaraderie of the students perfectly as well as the atmosphere of Paris in the early nineteenth century. I've always loved the Zeffirelli film of La Traviata. This is its equal!

I was excited to watch this film on PBS after an early holiday dinner. It certainly didn't get off to a good start, with the young Bohemian roommates overacting and over-singing, about nothing at all. Apparently, director Robert Dornhelm had no idea how to play that down. Or else he didn't bother; I don't know. Rolando Villazón should have been encouraged to start off in a more subtle way, with less volume and less mugging. And the makeup artists surely could have done something to make him appear less lugubrious.It was disappointing to see Anna Netrebko, a riveting actress and singer, so ill-used. Again, there must have been some way to make her appear both more attractive and more interesting; on stage, she is gorgeous and completely unique. The split-screen technique made no sense and added nothing to the drama, while scenes that featured people singing off-screen were confusing and boring.I'm sure this is not entirely the director's fault. Grand opera fares best on the stage, and often appears stiff and overblown in film versions. Probably the best idea would simply have been to film the singers performing on stage in front of an audience. We would have gotten the benefit of verisimilitude, and the dramatic gestures and heroic singing that opera demands would have seemed much more fitting.Oh, well!

It is what it is: a film version of an opera - they can never be anything else after all. This must be seen as a film of people miming to music with cinematography augmented by digital cartoonery supplanting stage drama, and judged on those merits. As a film it's pretty - pretty enjoyable and pretty well worth watching … and of course Anna Netrebko as Mimi is fairly pretty too!Young penniless couple meet, fall instantly head over heels in love for no reason at all but their dreams are cruelly cut down by her illness… and all to some of the most emotionally charged music ever written. So long as the music, libretto and script are adhered to a film version can't go wrong - the director generally sticks to it and doesn't force his own interpretations on us too much. When he does, it works: a restrained use of artistic license. And there's nice imagery, plush backgrounds and clever use of colour. Trouble is, the atmosphere generated by a live performance is lost with a film – the lavish 2008 Met Opera production by Zefferelli recorded with Angela Georghiu and Ramon Vargas had its faults too but imho is preferable to this. We all probably have our own favourite versions of Puccini's most famous opera – mine is the May 1938 complete recording in Milan with Beniamino Gigli as Rodolfo (especially of O Mimi, Tu Piu Non Torni at the beginning of Act 4 - something so beautiful which has not been bettered since the advent of stereo or digital - since the singer was unrepeatable). What's yours? For arguments sake I could also say the legendary Lucrezia Bori's Mimi still resonates well through the acoustic mono hiss from her century-old records.Netrebko has a fine and well controlled voice, but having seen her repeatedly wallow in a swimsuit to Dvorak's Song To The Moon on the late UK Classic FM TV I still wonder whether she's punching above her weight with operas like La Boheme – incidentally great blood spattered acting in the Met's Lucia Di Lammermoor a few months ago but is she colouratura enough? Her acting for the camera here is also fine, something which is occasionally in doubt when she's performing live – however the rapturous applause from her adoring Met audiences for her various performances this year leave no doubt of her superstardom. Favourite bits from many: O Soave Fancuilla - definitely not bathed in moonlight; Dunque: E Propio Finita in the pouring snow; naturally the climax back in the garret – as suitably tearjerking as it should be. However, this is a film (with minor faults) well worth the time/effort and an admirable vehicle for Anna Netrebko, as it should be. Brava!