Czechoslovakia, 1968: love and peaceful revolution’s in the air. In the Prague Spring, “socialism with a human face” has created a euphoric atmosphere. Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis), a surgeon in a Prague clinic, enjoys the carefree life of a Don Juan, and cultivates a pleasurable erotic friendship with his soul mate, the artist Sabina (Lena Olin). One day, Thomas meets a shy girl named Tereza (Juliette Binoche). Against his principles, he allows her to stay the night with him; and shortly after that, they’re married. Nonetheless, Tomas hasn’t abandoned his old lifestyle, and he continues to meet Sabina. Although Tereza knows Tomas loves her, she suffers terribly as a result of his unfaithfulness, and decides to leave him. But her decision pales into insignificance when the Soviet tanks roll through the Old Town, and the Warsaw Pact troops crush the Czech reform movement. Sabina leaves the country immediately and settles in Geneva. When Tereza and Tomas follow her into exile, the three are reunited, but not for long.
As a literary adaptation, The Unbearable Lightness of Being has frequently been criticized. It is undeniable that the screenplay, written by Philip Kaufman and Jean-Claude Carrere, differs substantially from Kundera’s novel. The striking narrator has disappeared, along with the philosophical digressions that constitute a large part of the book’s charm. The complex narrative structure – non-chronological and written from a variety of perspectives – is replaced by a simple linear storyline. Some may see this as a violation of the book (or even put it down to “Americanization”), but it certainly demonstrates self-confidence on the part of Philip Kaufman, the director and the American half of the script ring team. And in fact this self-assurance does the film a world of good.
This attitude is particularly evident in the sequence showing the invasion of the foreign troops, where Kaufman mixes documentary material with the fictional scenes. Suddenly, Tomas and Tereza find themselves in the thick of the action. In such moments, the film is enormously powerful. The drastic nature of the turning point presented by the Soviet invasion is much more clearly conveyed than in the book. When Tereza and Tomas return to Prague, the film reaches another crossroads. From this point onwards, the film develops a kind of heaviness that clearly has something to do with the character of Tereza. This classic three-part set-up might easily be misconstrued as a concession to mainstream Hollywood conventions. In fact, there is an idea behind it. Each of the three sections focuses on one of the protagonists, and the structure that emerges – the association of Tomas with departure, Sabina with exile, and finally Tereza with inner emigration – is also differentiated in visual terms. It is nothing less than a concrete manifestation of the connections between politics and private life, a subtle expression – in cinematic terms – of one of Kundera’s major themes.
This is not only respect in which Kaufman’s film seems very European. For a big American production, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is highly unusual in a number of ways: the general look of the movie, its relaxed eroticism, unprejudiced interest in the hedonism of Tomas and Sabina, and not least, its melancholic view of their whole relationship. With co-author Jean-Claude Carriere and cameraman Sven Nykvist, Kaufman picked two celebrated craftsmen of the European cinema, while the European actors Juliette Binoche, Daniel Day-Lewis and Lena Olin were fresh and interesting new faces; all relatively unknown at the time the film was made. Such decisions demonstrate Kaufman’s desire to respect and preserve the cultural location, the “roots” of Kundera’s novel. The film that resulted is a triumphant success. At one point in the novel, Sabina tells Tomas that he could serve as “a dreadful example” in the screenplay of any Russian or American film. In Kaufman’s film, there’s no chance of him being misused in such a way.
INTERESTING FACTS
The house that Sabina is living in at the end when she's in America belonged to film editor Walter Murch.
Lena Olin's American film debut.
The scene depicting the euthanizing of Karenin the dog was the scene Juliette Binoche read at her audition for Philip Kaufman. She reduced him to tears and she got the role.
Several Czechs were in consideration to be involved in this film, including director Milos Forman, but very few ultimately ended up working on the film. Allegedly, protecting relatives still in Czechoslovakia from reprisals from the Communist regime was a primary reason.
The sequence depicting the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia incorporates real documentary footage of the era shot by students of Prague Film School with new scenes recreated for the movie. One of the film students, Jan Nemec, has a small role as a cameraman who is beaten and has his film confiscated by the Soviet police
FAMOUS QUOTES
Tereza: I don't understand how someone can MAKE love without BEING in love.
Sabina: I really like you, Tomas. You are the complete opposite of kitsch. In the kingdom of kitsch you would be a monster.
GOOFS AND BLUNDERS
When Teresa is taking pictures of Sabina, the movie camera is sometimes reflected off of lens of the photo camera.
