The book Scenes from a Latin Quarter and the movie Rent illustrated the Bohemian lifestyle and demonstrated similar themes of art, poverty, and love. However, I found the book to have dense language and hard to follow at times, so seeing those themes from the movie was more enjoyable. The movie’s flaw, in my opinion, is that it was a musical, so the music was a bit incessant at times, but it did a great job of capturing the Bohemian lifestyle. Also, the connections between the book and the movie were apparent because I read the book first and then watched the movie. So, when I saw similar themes, such as the characters failing to pay rent and the pride the artists took in their work, I could draw parallels between the book and the movie while watching. The movie also covered important topics for the Bohemian lifestyle in New York in the 1980s, such as Angel’s relationship with Collins and their suffering from AIDS. Back then, AIDS was thought only to be transferred between two men, and there weren’t as many treatment options available, meaning if you had contracted it, it was likely fatal. While researching the movie’s origins, I found that it was based on the opera La bohème, so going into watching the opera recordings, I was interested in drawing connections again. I thought the opera singers were talented and did a great job conveying emotion. I could see how the movie was based on an opera because of the similar ways of telling their stories through their voices. Overall, I enjoyed the book, the movie, the opera, and the connections they had between each other.

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