La Bohème

King Vidor, 1926, MGM: Lillian Gish as Mimi, John Gilbert as Rodolphe, 1830s Paris, from Murger by way of the opera everyone already knew. Gish dying in a cold room is the image. Vidor shoots poverty as weather. It is a prestige silent from the year MGM learned that Gish could still open a picture if you gave her a cough and a poet. The Bohemians are extras. Gish is the film.