Some RENT questions...for the experts.

In the film, anyway, it's established in the very beginning that Mimi and Angel do in fact know each other. Mimi very specifically tells Roger that she and Benny had a thing "two years ago," but that's the only time it's really spoken of -- other than speculation, there's little concrete as to how serious they were, how long they lasted, if it was steady or on again/off again, etc.

A lot of the questions you ask, unfortunately, are very ambiguous and open to interpretation -- as I'm sure is pretty obvious, because the characters are written with such a realistic sense of depth and individuality, it's easy to speculate and think of what may have happened to them prior to the small window of time we get to spend with them in the lapse of the story. Some of the things you bring up are also some of the plot-holes that mark the imperfections of the piece. In the movie, it seems as though Angel may have known Maureen prior to her performance; but would he not, then, have ever met Mark before?

Benny's opposed to Maureen's show because she considers it to be a protest against his project. Her performance is an abstract representation of what Benny is doing/proposes to do the community, by building up and evicting the homeless in tent city. He says, in one way or another, that he is opposed to it because -- in his opinion at least, that she simply doesn't want to lose her performance space. She says she's doing this to protest against Benny's attitude, and flippancy toward the homeless, who he will soon evict. Again, where the money for Maureen's performance comes from is probably ambiguous and up to speculation. I've often wondered how she ever made any money, too. We don't really know that much about her, truthfully -- although we don't know where she lives now that she and Joanne are together (is she mooching off of Joanne's lawyer's salary?) she *used* to live with Mark (and Collins and Benny, as the line tells it -- I'm not sure why when Benny says "you, me, Collins and Maureen," he leaves Roger out, but perhaps that was when Roger was in rehab, or something).

At the funeral scene in the movie, if you look toward the left of the screen, there is an older Latina woman, presumably a member of Angel's family -- maybe his grandmother, or aunt, or something. How many people would attend the funeral, and who those people were, was an important decision that was made during the process of the film -- it was a detail that could be shown more realistically, and the way it ended up being presented was very telling. If you look around the church, you see Angel's friends, and then mostly those left of his Life Support group. Who else would care, we might ask ourselves. In the show, Benny pays for the funeral -- the implication might be that he, then, made the arragements. The scene explaining the payment for the funeral was cut from the film, unfortunately. The photo could be a point of personal taste -- I like the photo they used -- there's something beautiful and touching in its simplicity.

Sorry to not be of too much help, and to bail out on ambiguity on a few of those points, but I hope that was somewhat helpful.

---

Updated On: 12/1/05 at 01:19 AM

Thanks. That does answer some of the questions.
But how is Maureen's performance piece so threating to Benny and his backers? I mean it is a pretty silly song that's really so muddy in it's target that I wasn't really sure what it was about. I know what they SAY it is about.
And I wasn't questioning the absence of Angel's family at the funeral. I did notice a few others there, but it might have been a nice touch to have the others acknowledge his Grandmother in some way.

---

Updated On: 12/1/05 at 01:37 AM

Ironically, though, Over the Moon captures that era of the really bad performance art very well. Even though it was written to make a statement, it comes off now as a parody of the crap that was being performed back then. I laughed, but I am not sure for the right reasons.

---

In the stage version Mimi and Roger meet during Light My Candle, Roger only knows her from The Cat Scratch Club as the song says but never personally met her. Mark and Mimi meet in Christmas Bells which is cut in the movie. Mimi and Angel don't even interact with each other in the stage production until La Vie Boheme. In the stage production all of this takes place on Christmas Eve (entire Act I) and not during a span of days. Maureen's performance mocks the terrible performance art that took place in the late 80's in NYC and unfortunately still continues in SF. In the stage production, Maureen only has a digital delay and nowhere is it indicated that she is on a stage with all the TV's and other expensive equipment shown, but whatever equipment she does have is obviously something she has acquired and had for quite some time and possibly could have gotten help from Joanne. In the stage version The Cat Scratch Club is implied to be a sex club "they used to tie you up", "it's a living", not a strip joint. In the stage production, it is apparent that Mark is enamored by Angel from the first moment he meets him not to mention he hands all of them wads of cash (not Roger as much cos he is much angrier and distraught due to the horror he has just come from 6 months prior also not mentioned in the film, April his ex, slits her wrists and leaves a note saying "We've got AIDS" so in one moment Roger is dealt a double blow, losing his love to suicide and also finding out he has AIDS) this is not even discussed in the film and is glossed over by that awful flashback shot of Roger comforting April when she receives her HIV positive test results. The lack of these motivating factora are what make the Roger character bland in the movie, in the stage production he is motivated by the horror I just described and is very angry, reclusive and distraught, he has lost all faith in the world. He does NOT go to Life Support in the stage play which in the movie is utterly ridiculous because it goes completely against his character. Any other questions feel free to ask.

Updated On: 12/1/05 at 04:31 AM

In the film, anyway, it's established in the very beginning that Mimi and Angel do in fact know each other. Mimi very specifically tells Roger that she and Benny had a thing "two years ago," but that's the only time it's really spoken of -- other than speculation, there's little concrete as to how serious they were, how long they lasted, if it was steady or on again/off again, etc.

in the show Mimi and Benny had a "fling" 3 months prior. this is revealed when Benny confronts Mimi in the Life Cafe. since it happened 3 months prior to the events in the show not two years as in the movie.

if any did they weren't close attention when he took off his wig in the life support meeting. also, he has no breasts.

yea...the OSG thing seems to come up a lot. But just think, if OSG was Roger's one song, we wouldn't have Your Eyes. And then......we wouldn't have Adam Pascal's huge face up on a 20 ft. screen to oooo at.

---

All of these responses lead me to the conclusion that the problems with the film are brought on by Columbus and the screenwriter. Thanks for enlightening me.

---

Yeah I didn't think the omission of April's suicide changed too much about Roger's character or his grief over losing her.

---

What I was upset by more than people not *getting* that Angel was a man was these obnoxious pre-teens who LAUGHED at him when he removed his wig -- one of the singular most most moving momnents, and they laughed at him.

No, OSG shouldn't have been Roger's "one song." He's LOOKING for his one song. His song is Your Eyes.

I think Roger still feels guilty, even without the suicide; by showing him helping April with the needle, I think it's implied that he feels like he had a hand in her illness, and therefore her death. I loved the flashbacks; I cried like a baby.

---

There are international posters, but the international release isn't until early next year.

---

I don't think the flashback is so much to explain the AIDS, while that is *part* of it. If you didn't know the part of Roger's story about the life and the love he used to have, you wouldn't understand an enormous part of who he is -- without knowing that about him, you might look at him and go "what a loser. So he feels sorry for himself, and he just sits around." That's why you need that storyline for him, and not necessarily for Angel or Collins; Angel clearly isn't depressed due to his illness, but he lives every day like his last for it. Because of the flashbacks, (in in the case of the stage show, dialogue that verbalizes Roger's loss) we know that he feels culpable for what happened to April. That's why I love the shot of him walking to Life Support -- you can see on his face how much he hates himself.

I'm not sure how long Benny and Allison have been married; I assume not that long, but again, I'm pretty sure it's not mentioned and up to speculation.

---

Updated On: 12/1/05 at 11:01 AM