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The Unbearable Lightness of Being
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The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.3/10   10,893 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 2% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Philip Kaufman
Writers (WGA):
Milan Kundera (novel)
Jean-Claude Carrière (screenplay) ...
(more)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Unbearable Lightness of Being on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
5 February 1988 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Romance more
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. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 5 nominations more
User Comments:
Just a love story more

Cast

  (in credits order) (complete, awaiting verification)
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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
 

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Additional Details

Runtime:
171 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
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 more

Fun Stuff

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. more
Goofs:
Anachronisms: DX-coded film was not invented until the 1980s. more
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]
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Sex at 24 Frames Per Second (2003) (V) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
13 out of 17 people found the following comment useful:-
Just a love story, 16 July 2007
6/10
Author: TrevorAclea from London, England

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.

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SPOILER Was Tomas finished with other women? fentress
Ending MrAndersen
Awful, bad, horrible movie. schtrunfe
Soviet Invasion Footage LAH-2
I've heard DDL say... honeybabyplease
Lena Olin was robbed. Network1976
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