Unbearable Lightness Of Being - 2 Disc Special Edition [DVD]

Unbearable Lightness Of Being - 2 Disc Special Edition [DVD]

This movie has haunted me for years, and I was delighted to find it priced so well here at Amazon UK. As the extras continualy state, the project of filming Milan Kundra's etherial novel was formidable. The original written work was anecdotal, prosaic, and poetic. More of a memoir full of vigniettes. Phillip Kauffman, however, has bound this together in an unforgettable narrative, which ends the entire advemtire om a manner lighter than a floating feather. It has to be seen to be appreciated.

I would have given this five stars if it were not for the idiotic marketing tactic on the DVD cover. "Most erotic film since "Last Tango In Paris". This may be so at a superficial level, but if you're considering buying this as an artistic skin flick, I think you'll find yurself like the precosious teen I was at the end of the first act of the stage version of "Hair", after all the clothing was taken off.

Where's the beef?

Indeed. At a superficial level, this film concerns quite erotic sex scenes, but is far from being consumed by the subject. It's about "The Unbearable Lightness of BEING", not copulating. As such, this is a stunning movie which will leave you pondering about the protagonists'lives, and your own, well after the credits roll.

A true MUST HAVE for a collector of fine films.

This is a Classic Film make no mistake about it. Yes, it is slow but it is meant to be.

Is it a faithful adaptation of the book? I would say yes considering the source material. The book contains whole sections of intellectual pondering regarding the internal struggle involved in passionate love. These passages are unfilmable.

What we have here is a very European film dripping with cold sexuality and emotional torture. The Actors, the Director and all involved in this production should feel very proud of what they have achieved.

The Direction is confident and fresh. The performances are faultless. Juliette Binoche is truly a remarkable actor. Her desperation is beautifully played. I have to say that this is one of the best displays of acting I think I have ever seen ("I know he loves me, I know he love's me!"). Only a cold heart could not be moved by such a truthful and outstanding performance. On top of that she is also incredibly sexy.

Daniel Day-Lewis plays his part with such realism that he seems almost not to be acting. That is the art of the game. Lena Olin is also outstanding. She is one of the most attractive and sexually alluring women ever to have graced the screen. The scene in which she complains about the music is, I feel, a classic moment and so true. It is played to perfection.

I love this film, and that's what it is, a film. Not a book. This Film seems to tap into something truly moving and touching. Thank you to all the crew involved. A Classic of Cinema.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is one of those occasional attempts by American filmmakers to make a European arthouse 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 defense 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.

Annoyingly the film has been split across two discs, although the break isn't quite as abrupt as on some other discs. The DVD boasts a good transfer with an interesting audio commentary and good half hour documentary that illustrates that even if they didn't entirely succeed at least the filmmakers were trying to create something of real substance.