THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING is not a light film, but it is by no means unbearable either. Philip Kaufman, who makes very entertaining films, makes one that only sounds like an exception. 171 minutes of solid entertainment with a title you can use to impress your friends. Rating: +3.
It certainly sounded like it was going to be a drag: THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING. You can expect a bad time from a film whose title is sort of verbal fruit cocktail. It sounds like an obscure contemplate-your- navel sort of film. But on the other hand, it is directed by Philip Kaufman. He put together THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES, though Clint Eastwood took over direction from him. He did direct THE RIGHT STUFF. He directed the remake of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and co-wrote RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. These are NOT contemplate-your-navel films. These are really entertaining pieces. On the other hand, more than one good director has gone bad trying to produce his or her personal vision of what is art. Reluctantly, I went to our local art theater and saw the best film I have seen yet this year.
THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING bears no small resemblance to DOCTOR ZHIVAGO. Tomas is a young successful doctor who gets a wife and a mistress, finds his life upset by political events, and eventually finds a new equilibrium in spite of the political events. Where it differs is that the political event is the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia instead of the Russian Revolution and that in some ways the women are equally attracted to each other, so that the triangle really is a triangle rather than a "V". Attractive Czech surgeon Tomas (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) seems to collect lovers like stamps. His favorite phrase in both business and pleasure is "take off your clothes" and with remarkable regularity business turns into pleasure. In a trip to a nearby spa town, he tries to seduce a barmaid (Tereza, played by Juliette Binoche) only to find that she follows him back to his apartment in Prague. She enjoys sex with Tomas but is jealous of his other lovers, including an artist Sabina (attractive Lena Olin). There are hints throughout the film that Tereza may be a repressed lesbian who finds herself attracted to Sabina. On the other hand, Lena is a bisexual who does not repress anything but the will to make some sort of commitment. This triangle could have made for very high-level soap opera, but the Soviet invasion casts a new light on everything and forces each of the three to come to a better understanding of themselves, and also tests their character.
The eroticism of the film--if that is really what was intended--is little more than amusing. But you know that when you feel yourself actually missing a character whom you haven't seen on the screen for a while, you are watching a well-made film. And once again Kaufman has made a long film (171 minutes) that seems much shorter. Rate this film a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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