The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
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A brain surgeon's complex romantic entanglements are tested by the political upheaval of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
The story
Tomas, a successful brain surgeon in communist Czechoslovakia, maintains a carefree affair with Sabina, an artist in Prague. His life becomes complicated when he meets Tereza, a dissatisfied waitress seeking intellectual stimulation, who eventually moves in with him. As the characters navigate their intricate romantic dynamics, the political landscape shifts dramatically with the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Faced with the transition from the Prague Spring to a stultifying police state, the group must decide whether to remain in the face of repression or flee the country entirely.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Tomas, a brain surgeon in communist Czechoslovakia, is involved with an artist named Sabina. He meets Tereza, a waitress who moves in with him, leading to a complicated domestic life where Tomas marries Tereza while continuing his affair with Sabina. When the Soviet Army invades in 1968, the trio flees to Switzerland. In Geneva, Sabina begins an affair with a professor named Franz, whom she eventually abandons to avoid emotional weight. Tereza and Tomas struggle to adapt to Swiss life; Tereza eventually returns to Czechoslovakia after discovering Tomas's continued womanizing. Tomas follows her but is trapped in Czechoslovakia after his passport is confiscated. He becomes a political dissident due to a previous article and is blacklisted from medicine, working instead as a window washer. Tereza, fearing the secret police, has a brief liaison with an engineer and contemplates suicide before being won back by Tomas. They eventually move to a rural village to live an idyllic life. The film ends with them driving down a country road in the rain, expressing relief just before they are killed in an automobile accident, a fact later learned by Sabina in the US.
- First release year
- 1988
- Runtime (minutes)
- 171
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Philip Kaufman
- Writers
- Jean-Claude Carrière · screenplay; Philip Kaufman · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Daniel Day-Lewis · Tomas; Juliette Binoche · Sabina; Lena Olin · Tereza; Derek de Lint; Erland Josephson; Pavel Landovský; Donald Moffat; Daniel Olbrychski; Stellan Skarsgård
- Genres
- romantic drama; erotic drama; political drama
- Themes
- political repression; romantic entanglement; freedom vs. weight; identity
- Tone and mood
- artful; erotic; political
- Premise and plot tags
- invasion; surgeons; Czech novel; communism; political dissident
- Source material / true-story basis
- 1984 novel by Milan Kundera
- Reception
- The film received generally favorable reviews, with an 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 73 out of 100 score on Metacritic.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 86% · review count: 29; Metacritic · score: 73 · scale: 100 · review count: 17
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Adapted Screenplay · Nomination; Academy Award · Best Cinematography · Nomination
- Production trivia
- The film was listed 87th by the American Film Institute in its 2002 list AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions.; Kundera wrote the poem that Tomas whispers into Tereza's ear specifically for the film.; The film makes extensive use of classical pieces by Czech composer Leoš Janáček.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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