The Unbearable Lightness of Being is in the beginning a very sexy movie. Erotic might be a better term for a movie review, but erotic is too affected a choice for this film. It is just sexy, light, and fun. Tomas is a young exuberantly handsome brain surgeon in Prague who enjoys his success with women,and also the pleasant envy he arouses in his male co workers who marvel at the ease and freedom of his sexual adventures. A surgeon is most likely to be successful when he has a quick light touch because his patients heal faster. Tissue does not do well, if it is handled a lot and with a heavy hand. this ability spills over into his love life…light, quick, and the young willing women do not have a broken heart from which to recover because an emotional entanglement is never part of an experience with Tomas. Perhaps the women would like that, but the way to seduce Tomas is to accept his needs for sex without strings attached in a pleasant way or he will move on to others who are also willing. this is a charming man very assured in his success with women.
Sabina, his mistress, is playful,intelligent and would like to have more from their relationship…but in a witty accepting way, she takes what is offered and tries to lay a foundation for something more. He likes her a lot but never limits his excursions to solely her.she accepts that and asks him if he ever spends the entire night with a woman in her place. the answer is no. “and when the woman is in your place. He explains that he claims insomnia,his bed is narrow, and it simply doesn’t happen.
Tomas is sent to a spa in a village to perform an operation when a colleague can’t make it. It is a spa that combines those needing just rest and vacation, and also really sick people . Outside in the courtyard of this large beautiful fortress like building.., a quasi military style band plays sprightly marches and tunes. Inside Tomas is scrubbed , doing head surgery that requires a drill, and does his intense work humming along with the band, and occasionally whistles the tunes. Tomas relies on his youth and quick intellect to carry him through what might be a concentrated time for one not so endowed with self assurance and past luck.Surgery over, he takes a tour to look over the women, and they in turn, view him with energetic hopeful appraisals. He sits by the side of the pool engrossed in a chess game on a board floating in the water with a group of middle aged men seriously concentrating on their moves. A big splash tosses the game into the water, and amused Tomas watches the slim figure of a woman deftly swimming across the pool. As she emerges, he walks over and through a semi transparent glass that somewhat conceals a dressing area, watches her towel dry herself and change from bathing suit to a sweater and skirt. She leaves, and he follows her to the bar where she appears to be the bar maid. She is reading a book as there seems not to be a demand for her services. He sits at a table and stares at her.. covering his gaze with reading also. He mouths to her, “cognac” which she brings to him.their conversation is brief …”can I charge the drink to my room”…of course. He shows her his key..his room is NO.6. what a coincidence she offers, with an enigmatic appealing smile. 6 is the time that I am off of work.”Too bad”, the Czech Don Juan says…I have to be back in Prague at 6. Looking at her disappointment, he smiles…well, about 6, he offers.
There is an electric chemistry between them. She is a very young girl, and has an appearance of school girlishness, innocence,provincial and simplicity. but make no mistake. She is not actually going to be seduced by this man. She wants him, and when it happens the question will be, who is the seducer?
At about 6 he is sitting on a bench in the yard….she rushes over, sits by him, and announces again a coincidence. The bench he has selected to sit on, is actually her appointed ben that she sits on every day. He meets this announcement with a knowing smile. He is very used to having woman throw themselves at him. She confides that she comes there to read. What are you reading?, he wants to know.
Tolstoys, Anna Karenina, she tells him.
a sly smile from Tomas..and he says, Oh, THAT anna Karenina. And they sit happily enjoying their little playful joke…knowing that just as in anna Karenina, a story involving them is going to unfold.It also will have love,possessiveness and infidelity.
He says he has to get back to Prague after he learns that this gorgeous girl lives with her mother. He has gone over his options. He gets in his car, and she hangs on to as many minutes as she can repeating, well, goodby, and with a sigh he leaves.
He is taken with this girl. A lot. Sabina, his mistress notices his lack of attention to her seductive games. It alarms her.something new has happened.Semi dressed she puts on an old bowler hat that they have used to set a humorous scene for their love play. She wants to know what he likes best about her. While undressing,this gorgeous woman eyes him while exhibiting as much sensuousness as she can. He says what he likes best about her is her hat. She takes off the Bowler, makes a lot of suggestive moves,preparing for intercourse atop a mirror, and tells him the hat is very old and belonged to her great grandfather.He is treading on a woman with a family and history and substance…not some fly by night, nothing of a girl she has been hearing about. Is that so?, he considers.
Tomas’s lightheartedness belongs only to him when it comes to Sabina.She is a good actress and plays the game as she wants him so much.But her needs and interests do not match his, and she accepts the abuse of his womanizing. The woman that is distracting him now, is however, a more serious problem.His reaction to her and to their lovemaking is decidedly different.
One night as he is dressing to leave after lovemaking he cannot find one black sock.She suggests he came without it. Ridiculous..I came here wearing 2 socks,he says. She offers to loan him one of hers, and gives to him, a seductive blue net stocking ,which he puts on, and says, you expect me to wear this? He leaves, and she thoughtfully dangles the black sock she has kept from him. That part of him that wears the sock,so much this man’s identity she wants left with her.And she is becoming insecure about that.
One night Tereza, the young girl from the spa appears at his door. She has left home. She is in Prague on business. She confesses the business is actually that she needs employment. she is not going back to the village. She coughs, and he says maybe I better take a look. As he lifts her sweater, and she shudders, he says, its okay, I’m a doctor.He is also at the same time lifting her skirt.
One thing leads to another and by the time they are grappling each other in hot embrace, her kiss to him leaves no doubt about her intentions in coming to Prague.
He had bragged to Sabina that no woman ever spent the night with him, but when his alarm goes off at 7 am, he is in his bed with Tereza sound asleep, he hand tightly gripping his. He carefully opens the fingers to remove his hand, and looking for something to replace her grasp, he reaches for the book from his night table. It is Sophocles…the tragedy of Oedipus. Even without reading Czech, the title is recognizable.
Tereza is now living with him.And she needs a job. Tomas’s best friend is Sabina, his mistress and he asks her for her help. This is the price Sabina must pay to keep this man she loves.Tereza is unskilled, uneducated, but she is a bit of a photographer. Sabina shows her photos taken by Man Ray who Tereza never heard of, and suggest she photograph people on the street with no posing, but just as they appear.
She takes street scenes of beautiful Prague in 1968 which are fun to see….Czech faces, beautiful,contemplative, laughing, talking..as she snaps the camera, the film turns to black & white, and we see newsreel photos of 1968 in Prague. quite lovely.
Her pictures are published in the newspaper, and to celebrate, one night they go with Sabina, and male colleagues to a dance hall. Their spirits are high.The dance hall is noisy with young people dancing the latest dances in 1968..a happy scene. Over their drinks they notice a group of men, dressed in black business suits, drinking a lot at a table near the bar. they recognize them as Russians, and consider that they are born scoundrels.One of the Russians goes to the bandleader and whispers to him.
the band starts to play his request…a patriotic Russian song. the Czechs boo loudly and leave the dance floor.Their insistence on their Russian song, inappropriate for the dance hall, confirms them a s scoundrels His friends have been making many loud comments about the Russians declared innocence…they claimed they didn’t know anything..when news leaked out that hundreds of thousands of people were killed in their regime.
Tomas say he thinks much on the story of Oedipus when he sees the Russians. He tells the story of tragic Oedipus who when realizing he has killed his father, and that he is sleeping with his mother, puts out his eyes to atone for his sins.
Tomas says the difference between the Russians and Oedipus is that Oedipus acknowledged his error/sins and paid for it with the loss of his eyes, even though he didn’t know what he was doing at the time.He is a moral man, but the
Russians claim they didn’t know anything about it, so because of that they are innocent…so they are scoundrels They don’t allow themselves to see what they did,or use the rationalization of ignorance to absolve them from responsibility and they contain no guilt or responsibility.This settles the discussion on what makes a scoundrel.
The respected head of Thomas’s department has suggested Tomas put this theory into an article to be published, which he does.Freedom from responsibility is an issue that directs Tomas’s life expressed in his sexual experiences, and his absorption with Oedipus tells us he is struggling with that. It is one of the major themes of the movie.
The Russians look at the bump and grind dancing,the blatant sexuality, especially at one couple sort of dancing with the boy’s hand firmly on the girl’s buttocks (skirt pulled up) and they walk out in a self righteous anger. Tomas sits quietly at his table with Sabina who asks him what is he thinking. No answer. But his gaze is on Tereza dancing her own abandoned style of dancing with one of his colleagues.
The next day, at home, he appears deep in thought. Tereza, looking at his serious looking face asks whats wrong? He says nothing a number of times, but she persists. He hesitantly says, when I saw you dancing with another man, I thought he could be your lover.
She looks at him and laughs. You’re jealous! He denies that and the more he denies it the more she laughs and teases him with a sing song, “you’re jealous”. He shakes his head, and she sings children’s songs, dancing around him, but only with the teasing words, “you’re jealous”! Playfully she drags him out of his chair, across the floor, always singing, “you’re jealous, you’re jealous”!…laughingly lays on top of him, and continues the tease. “Marry me” she says..”no”, he replies, but in the same teasing sing song, she persists, “marry me”…and he says “yes”.
They are married in a laugh filled joyful ceremony witnessed by one of his long time patients,a farmer, who brings along his pet squealing pig that disrupts the ceremony.
It is all lighthearted and fun and joy.A woman comes into the restaurant, selling puppies. Tereza selects one. Tomas says to name it Tolstoy as she was reading that when first they met. But she examines the dog, and discovers its female. Tolstoy will not do. How about Anna Karenina? No, Tomas says…”it is too masculine a face. It is a man’s face”. They decide on Karinon.It is a happy time.
But the lightness of Tomas’s dictum of how he chooses to live…is changed forever. He is in love.His actions are of consequence to another person besides himself.
Tomas finishes his article, titled King Oedipus and takes it to a publisher friend who loves it. He exclaims that it is just what is needed. Prague needs free press..in fact freedom in every legal way.the Communists must leave, the publisher states.
Tomas has some doubts that that will be easy. His friend says, why wouldn’t they? We don’t want them here? they know that. why would they continue to stay?, he naively wants to know.He is going to publish Tomas’s’ article and is going over some details. But Tomas scarcely listens…his wandering eye has fallen on an attractive secretary who is letting him know that his visual compliment to her is returned.He goes into her office, flirtatiously whispers in her ear…she laughs with delight and shock. He has probably told her to take her clothes off.His carnal appetite, never too hidden has returned, and we know that he is once again giving in to his lustful needs….perhaps compulsive.
Tereza knows he has started sleeping with other women, just as she knew the first time she walked into Sabinas studio, that the two were lovers. She has a dream that she is swimming, and a lineup of female swimmers are posing in suggestive manners at the end of the pool. Down into the water she goes, to erase the scene, but when she comes up , there they are but now with no clothes on.This lineup of young nameless women are her competitors.
One late night Tomas ,shoes in hand, slips into his bedroom softly to not wake Tereza. But she is sitting up in bed, and tells him to take her to them.She repeats this several times,and he wants to know what she is talking about.She says she wants him to take her to his women. she will bathe and undress them, and bring them to him. She will serve him in any way but she doesn’t want to be abandoned.The discussion becomes a little angrier and she walks out of the apartment. In a state of shock that she left, he finally answers the phone that has been ringing incessantly. He exclaims what!! what!!! and rushes out to find her .The Russians have invaded Prague and huge army tanks are pressing down the city streets,smashing vehicles, buildings, shooting innocent civilians.
Now we have a merging of many scenes during this period. The menacing Russian tanks continue, people are killed, and all through it the Czechs are fighting, chanting…they are resisting the invasion. this is not the Anschluss of Vienna in 1938. The Czechs are resistant, and they pay a terrible price for it.Tereza is busy..everywhere taking pictures with her camera… which she gives to an onlooker from the Netherlands to get them published.There are many scenes from the newsreels of the time with Tomas and Tereza superimposed on them…but the news reels are actual, and very disturbing. The movie however, was filmed in France and Switzerland, and not in Prague.Tereza eventually ends up in court being chastised by a Russian dignitary who tells her that they, the Russians love her and her people and always have. why would she do anything like this?…taking horrid pictures of dead people. they let her go.
As soon as this turmoil started Sabina left for Geneva.Some time later when Tereza realizes the seriousness of the situation and she is in political jeopardy, she and Tomas join a long line of cars, carts, people, and they, too emigrate to Geneva.
In Geneva, beautiful Sabina attends a political talk with fellow Czechs and meets Franz, a French professor, from the university who is very attracted to her. She starts an affair with him, after learning that he is married. She considers herself in her large mirror with panties, bra,sexy hose and her bowler hat on her head that she seems to be the 3rd sexual addition to married men as the story of her life. Sabina is not without depth, and we can see, the knowledge is felt with mixed feelings as she also treasures her freedom.
One day Franz walks out of her apartment…we know that its just after lovemaking…and walking in the direction of the door, on the sidewalk, is Tomas. Franz turns the corner and Tomas rings the bell. Sabina opens it and not a word is said. His intention is clear. He smiles at her, comes in…they look at each other for a long time.
How are you?
I’m fine. how are you?
I’m fine.
Did Tereza come with you to Geneva?
Of course.
How is she ?
Oh…she is so…so…she is fine . She is looking for a job.
Sabina says, I have met a man. He is the brightest, most handsome, best man I have ever met.
Good.
He’s married.
Good
There’s only one thing wrong with him, she continues. Tomas raises an eyebrow.
He doesn’t like my hat.
He smiles, and says well, I’ll call you. I’ll see you sometime and he turns towards the door.
She puts the bowler hat on her head, and as he turns to say goodbye, she gives him a big welcoming smile.
He rushes towards her, and they lock in an embrace. they wildly kiss each other…they laugh…they roll around and around. they are together again and the happiness flows.
Tereza has been looking for a job..as a photographer. She takes her political photos to a magazine editor and is told that there are so many of those on the market now, that no one will be interested.
The editor says you photograph the female body in beautiful ways. Why don’t you get a model and photograph female nudes. We could use that. Other than that I can send you to our garden editor and you can do cactus pictures, It bothers Tereza that she would be taking pictures of naked women so she starts photographing cactus, which is not going to absorb her in any way.
Some time after they have been there, and Tomas has taken up with Sabina again, Tereza appears at Sabinas studio, and tells her that it was suggested to her that she do nudes. Well, says Sabina, lets start that with a drink, and pours some whiskey for them.They drink sitting on couches across from each other, and silently observe each other. Now and then a smile appears, and then a giggle. Sabina says well,and starts to remove her clothes. Camera at her eye, Tereza is busy clicking every move. When Sabina is totally nude Sabina awkwardly pushes her this way and that…on the floor, on her stomach, on her back, and takes numerous pictures. They are breathless, and look at each other. Sabina says now its your turn..grabs the camera and says take off your clothes. Tereza says no, I don’t like to be naked and runs away. Sabina runs after her , and Tereza crouches down behind a couch and removes all of her clothes except for her panties. Sabina is not as awkward as Teresa was…more self confident, and poses her….when on the floor she gently runs her hand down Tereza’s back and pushes the panties down..and the camera shifts.We don’t know the end of that scene. They are up and running around and laughing a lot when the door opens and in comes Franz, Sabinas new lover. He is startled to see nude Tereza who immediately runs for cover , and starts to dress. Sabina says this is a friend from Prague, and that she is modeling for Sabina. Franz is intense . He tells Sabina he has left her. What are you talking about? He explains that he has left his wife for Sabina…the wife didn’t seem to upset or alarmed, reminded him to take his tuxedo. Franz wants to know if he comes tomorrow with his things can he move in with Sabina for awhile. She listens to him with tears in her eyes. She really likes him, but this obligation and relationship with him she doesn’t like. She says come back tomorrow. As soon as he leaves, she kindly says to Tereza, I need you to leave now. I have things to do. The women tenderly kiss each other good bye.
The next day when Franz arrives, of course the place is empty. Sabina has fled. We see Tomas hurriedly walking down the sidewalk to an apartment building. He goes in, rings the bell of one of the flats and a welcoming Sabina opens the door for him, and they are together as always . After their lovemaking Sabina tells him that she is leaving Geneva…perhaps going to Paris, but maybe to America. Wouldn’t you like to see America ,she asks. Sometime, he says, and they part.
When he returns to his apartment, the dog is not there, nor Tereza, but a note for him. the note explains that she feels she is a burden to him , he is so light and she is a weight around his neck.She is heavy and he is light. In Prague he only had to support her. In Geneva he has to do everything for her. She writes that she is weak and she is going back to the land of the weak. She apologizes for taking Karenin, the dog.
He is devastated and lonely, and goes back to Prague to return to her which is now a military police state. He knows that he will never be able to leave again, but he is very dependent on Tereza. He loves her…..only her.
He comes to where she is living. The dog smells him and joyfully races to the door. When she sees him, they are both overcome with joy of being reunited and in great happiness and delight go to bed and make love. He has come home to her.
He goes back to get his old job at the hospital. The chief tells him that he wants him very much, and he needs him,but there is a problem. Do you remember the article you wrote about Oedipus the King..that the Russians should put out their eyes because of what they did. Oh, he has forgotten, Tomas says.
Well, the Russians haven’t. Here is a retraction.all you have to do is to sign it…there doesn’t have to be a public declaration. Tomas, you are a doctor, a scientist..what do you care about this? You are not a writer, a savior of your country.
Tomas leaves with the paper and walks down the hospital corridors where he meets his former friends. One asks him if he has signed the retraction. Evidently they all know about it , and want him to sign. They want him back. He sees them looking at him and whispering in small groups.He doesn’t sign, and says to Tereza. Cowardice has become a national attribute. they all want me to sign.to accept, to not cause trouble. She says they all want you to sign but I don’t .
Next we see him at work in a street drop in clinic for old and poor people with a variety of complaints. A well dressed man comes in to see him. He tells Tomas he is from the Ministry of the i
Interior. He says you are one of our best brain surgeons. It is terrible to see you here. All you have to do is to sign this. Surely you don’t want the communist party to put out their eyes. You’re a doctor who heals . how could you want such a thing? . Tomas explains that that isn’t what he meant but that is a bureaucrat sent to do a job. He doesn’t come equipped with a philosophical mind.
The minister continues ..you just have t o write a statement that you were influenced by ignorant so called intellectuals, and you only have the greatest admiration, respect and loyalty for the communist party.
Tomas crumples up the paper.
Now he is further demoted. Now he is a window washer…a good window washer, however, meticulous.
Tereza is working as a bar maid in a terrible part of Prague. One night a drunk gives her a hard time, and a man sitting at the bar gets rid of him. Then an older man comes up and accuses her of selling liquor to a minor (the drunk). She says no. She gave him lemonade. The man accuses her to adding liquor to the lemonade. the stranger at the bar ends this abuse also.He is very nice and polite. Wants to know why a beautiful girl like her in working in such a terrible place in this rough area of Prague He gives her a note with his address near by if she needs him.
A young woman opens the window where Tomas is washing them, and invites him in to examine her back. she knows he is a famous doctor. She seduces him.
That night in bed Tereza cries because she can smell the woman in his hair, and she wants to know why he keeps up with these infidelities. She knows that he has told her that sex is like football…play it and forget it.But she can’t accept it although she tries. It is destructive to her. She considers maybe better to understand him, she should live that way also.
She goes to the apartment of the engineer in the bar who was so protective of her. She has intercourse with him. During the whole thing her hand is in a tight fist. She leaves his apartment very depressed.She talks about the experience, to the Bar Janitor who used to be Czechoslovakian’s Ambassador to Austria. He says, “how do you know he was an engineer. how do you know it was his apartment? How do you know there weren’t hidden cameras and they will use what happened to blackmail Tomas?. She goes to the edge of a river.Above crossing the bridge, Tomas sees her, and runs to her . Was she contemplating throwing herself in the river? He is frightened.
She cries that she wants to leave Prague..it has grown so ugly.He says they can’t leave. their passports have been taken away from them. But she must leave she says.
Tomas gets in touch with the old patient who has a farm. They go to the farm to live with him.They work hard, and farm….a simple hardworking peaceful life, but they are not unhappy. Karenin the dog develops cancer, and Tomas puts it to sleep so it won’t suffer. They bury their beloved dog. The patients son dislocates his shoulder. Tomas gets it back in place and they in great spirits decide to go 40 kilometers that night to a tavern to dance…in the farm truck. They do that and it is a very happy time. So that he can drink (as he is driving) they spend the night and Tomas and Tereza very much in love,seem to have recaptured feelings they had long ago.
The scene shifts to America and we see Sabina in her studio with some customers for her art work. A mailman arrives with a special delivery letter for her. The letter tells her that Tomas and Tereza were driving a truck home in the rain when the brakes failed and they were both instantly killed…
We are taken for a final scene to that terrible time. Driving the truck in the rain, Tomas drives soundlessly. Tereza says ,what are you thinking?. He says reflectively, I am thinking how happy I am.
The movie is taken from Milan Kundera’s novel “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” in 1984.It was said to be the literary event of the year, and a milestone for Czech literature.It was translated into 20 languages and was on the best seller lists for a long time in France,Germany,Italy,Spain,Brazil,Chile and the U.S. It also found its way in the underground press in Czechoslovakia and the USSR.
The political explicitness of the film meant it could not be filmed in Czechoslovakia, but streets were found in Lyon, France that were so similar to Prague, that when shown to Kundera, he could not tell the difference. The same thing happened with the filming of the Russian invasion of Prague.
The exact tanks that were used then (in running order, no less) were found in the French Military Museum at Saumur, France, and French soldiers on leave were hired to drive them. The movies filming of the Soviet invasion is indistinguishable from the newsreel footage with which they were mixed.
Kundera, however, was unhappy with the film and felt the characters,and story missed what the novel was about. After this film he allowed no adaptations of his work.
For me the film has 3 parallel themes…Oedipus…not for its usual incestuous interpretations, but for freedom,ignorance and responsibility, guilt and morality.The other 2 are the freedom from responsibility in relationships,especially in the sexual one, and the
need for humans towards monogamy,possessiveness and a love object and the political…which discusses the loss of freedom and the demands and cost of repression and also guilt,ignorance and morality and hate.
The word that belongs to all 3 themes….is freedom,what is it?,its value,its loss.
But this is just a movie review. If you haven’t seen it…do….its a wonderful memorable movie.
The movie was released in 1988.
Tomas is played by Daniel Day-Lewis
Tereza is played by Juliette Binoche
Sabina is played by Lena Olin