The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Philip Kaufman

Writers (WGA):

Milan Kundera (novel)
Jean-Claude Carrière (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

5 February 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

A Lovers Story.

Plot:

In 1968, a Czech doctor with an active sex life meets a woman who wants monogamy, and then the Soviet invasion further disrupts their lives.

Plot Keywords:

Soviet | 1968 | Doctor | Czechoslovakia | Sex

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Daniel Day-Lewis	...	Tomas
Juliette Binoche	...	Tereza
Lena Olin	...	Sabina
Derek de Lint	...	Franz
Erland Josephson	...	The Ambassador
Pavel Landovský	...	Pavel
Donald Moffat	...	Chief Surgeon
Daniel Olbrychski	...	Interior Ministry Official
Stellan Skarsgård	...	The Engineer
Tomasz Borkowy	...	Jiri (as Tomek Bork)
Bruce Myers	...	Czech Editor
Pavel Slaby	...	Pavel's Nephew
Pascale Kalensky	...	Nurse Katja
Jacques Ciron	...	Swiss Restaurant Manager
Anne Lonnberg	...	Swiss Photographer
László Szabó	...	Russian Interrogator
Vladimír Valenta	...	Mayor
Clovis Cornillac	...	Boy in Bar
Leon Lissek	...	Bold Man in Bar
Consuelo De Haviland	...	Tall Brunette
Jacqueline Abraham-Vernier
Judith Atwell
Claudine Berg
Jean-Claude Bouillon		(as Jean-Claude Bouillion)
Miroslaw Beuer
Niven Busch
Margot Capelier
Victor Chelkoff
Monica Constandache
Jean-Claude Dauphin
Dominique De Moncutt
Bernard Lepinaux
Josiane Lévêque
Peter Majer
Charles Millot
Gérard Moulévrier
Jan Nemec
Charly Oleg
Sylvie Plantard
Olga Baïdar-Poliakoff
Christine Potter
Hana Maria Pravda
Romano
André Sanfratello
Jirí Stanislav
Milos Szoboda
Helenka Vernier
Marrian Walters
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Isabelle Noérie	...	Student (uncredited)

Directed by
Philip Kaufman

Writing credits (WGA)
Milan Kundera		(novel)
Jean-Claude Carrière		(screenplay) &
Philip Kaufman		(screenplay)

Produced by
Bertil Ohlsson	....	executive producer
Paul Zaentz	....	associate producer
Saul Zaentz	....	producer

Original Music by
Mark Adler

Cinematography by
Sven Nykvist

Film Editing by
Vivien Hillgrove Gilliam		(as Vivien Hillgrove)
Michael Magill
Walter Murch
B.J. Sears		(co-editor)

Production Design by
Pierre Guffroy

Costume Design by
Ann Roth

Makeup Department
Suzanne Benoit	....	key makeup artist
Rosalina Da Silva	....	makeup artist: Lena Olin

Production Management
Frank Simeone	....	unit production manager: USA unit
Daniel Szuster	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Eric Bartonio	....	first assistant director
Simon Brook	....	assistant director
Robert Kechichian	....	second assistant director
Charles Paviot	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Jean-Michel Ducourty	....	second assistant art director
Michael G. Ploog	....	storyboard artist
Jean-Yves Rabier	....	carpenter

Sound Department
David Franklin Bergad	....	sound editor
Mark Berger	....	supervising re-recording mixer
Jean-Marie Blondel	....	sound assistant
Todd Boekelheide	....	sound re-recording mixer
Luis Colina	....	sound effects editor
Ernie Fosselius	....	foley editor
Ruth Hasty	....	apprentice sound editor
Pat Jackson	....	sound effects editor
Ann Kroeber	....	sound effects
Barbara McBane	....	dialogue editor
Christopher Newman	....	production sound mixer
David Parker	....	sound re-recording mixer
Philip Rogers	....	sound recordist
Karen Spangenberg	....	dialog editor
Alan Splet	....	sound designer
Dianna Stirpe	....	sound apprentice
Ewa Sztompke	....	sound effects assistant
Gwendolyn Yates Whittle	....	assistant dialogue editor

Special Effects by
Jozef Ort-Snep	....	trick photography

Camera and Electrical Department
Phil Bray	....	still photographer
Richard Brodet	....	best boy electric
Philippe Houdart	....	camera operator
George Michael Pantages	....	gaffer: US production crew (as Michael Pantages)

Casting Department
Patricia de Oliveira	....	casting: US production crew
Sarah C. Koeppe	....	casting associate

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Donna Maloney	....	wardrobe

Editorial Department
Donah Bassett	....	negative cutter
Jack Garsha	....	color timer
Robert Grahamjones	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Mark Adler	....	music arranger
Ernie Fosselius	....	music arranger: Gevena production crew
Alan Splet	....	music selection: Janacek's works
Jeffery Stephens	....	assistant music editor

Other crew
Patrick Boshart	....	location scout
Kent Brown	....	production assistant
Walter Slater Murch	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• The Saul Zaentz Company

Distributors

• Transmundo Films (1988) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Aquarius TV (2005) (Greece) (TV)
• Argentina Video Home (2006) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (2006) (Argentina) (VHS) (re-edited)
• CBS/Fox Video (1989) (Belgium) (video)
• Condor Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (1998) (USA) (DVD)
• Orion Pictures Corporation (USA)
• Tobis Filmkunst (Germany)
• Transmundo Home Video (THV) (1988) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Warner Bros. (2006) (Argentina) (all media) (re-release)
• Warner Home Video (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (Brazil) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Trielli Bros.

Other Companies

• Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC)  with the assistance of (as French National Center of Cinematography)
• Cinematte  optical effects
• Dennis Davidson & Associates Public Releations (DDA)  publicity
• Europe 1  with the assistance of
• Fantasy Records  soundtrack
• Nancy Seltzer & Associates  publicity
• Pacific Title  titles
• Pan American Airlines  with the assistance of
• S.N.C.F.  with the assistance of (as French National Railroads, S.N.C.F)
• San Francisco Symphony Chorus  with the assistance of
• Saul Zaentz Film Center  sound re-recording

Runtime:

171 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) (re-rating) (2005) | Canada:PG (Ontario) (re-rating) (2005) | Canada:R (Manitoba) (2005) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) (original rating) | Iceland:14 | Argentina:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Hong Kong:III | Singapore:R21 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Bèze, Côte-d'Or, France

Company:

The Saul Zaentz Company

Trivia:

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.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: DX-coded film was not invented until the 1980s.

Quotes:

[first lines]
First Title Card: In Prague, in 1968, there lived a young doctor named Tomas...
Tomas: Take off your clothes.
[line recurs several times during film]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (2003) (V)

Just a love story

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is one of those occasional attempts by American filmmakers to make a European art-house movie in English, in this case taking on an 'unfilmable' novel and trying to solve the problem of turning inner monologue into a credible narrative. Despite, or perhaps because of Jean-Claude Carriere's presence as co-writer with director Philip Kaufman, this tends to take the form of the odd conversation between shags rather than an attempt to turn ideas into images, leaving a rather conventional narrative about a philandering surgeon who ultimately needs the oppression of the Russian invasion rather than the freedom of the Czech Spring to focus his emotional commitments and principles. Some of this is done well, some of it less well, but at the end of the day it's just a love story, although it deals well with the personal consequences of the political crackdown and the ending is quietly moving. Which, in a way, reflects some kind of emotional triumph – whereas for most of the film we don't really care for the characters, merely go along with them, by the end, like he hero, we have at least attained some genuine level of emotional commitment.

Whether that entirely justifies 171-minutes of screen time is debatable, though in its defence the film never feels that long. There are moments that grate, not least the sporadically clumsy integration of the main characters into archive footage of the Russian invasion that draws attention to itself by the crude device of adding scratches only to the new footage. The photography session doesn't quite work either despite an interesting start, not quite pulling off the shift of power and veering off into self-indulgence. The performances are slightly problematic too, especially with the Czechs limited to the smaller supporting roles in an Anglo-French-Swedish-American cast leading to a variety of composite accents (often more Germanic than Slav) and a feeling that the casting directors thought "Yeah, he sounds foreign, he'll do" at times. Daniel Day Lewis fares well as the coldly charismatic and fickle doc but still hadn't shrugged off that well-trained British stage actor feel to his performances; Juliette Binoche is genuinely appealing in one of her more open performances, although it's a bit of a stretch that her character never loses her naiveté; but as the more passionate of his loves Lena Olin is somewhat more problematic, her performance getting less convincing as the film progresses until rediscovering its humanity in her final scene. Of the supporting players, Erland Josephon has one good scene as a former ambassador reduced to being a janitor that underlines the way that even love and sex can be used as weapons of political oppression merely through the introduction of doubt – an idea that becomes strangely more powerful because of the way Kaufman frequently fails to summon up much in the way of eroticism because he generally regards sex as joyfully comic.