Product: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Two-Disc Special Edition) (2006)
Rating: 5.0
Unbearably sad film......
I don't know what Kundera was trying to say in his book, and reading all the reviews others have written I am persuaded we are like the blind (wo)men and the elephant. Each has his or her own interpretation. I didn't like Kundera's book, I found it silly, disjointed, and boastful. Perhaps I could find some meaning in it if I set my mind to the task. I'm pretty good at assigning meaning when there is none. Perhaps the book suffered in translation. Perhaps one had to experience the coffee houses of Prague during the spring to understand.Philip Kaufman's film THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING is wonderful and awfully sad. The film is wonderful because of the three main actors: Daniel Day Lewis, Lena Olin, and Juliette Binoche. In THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING DDL plays Tomas a doctor with women on his mind--another character for his diverse vita. BEING is about beautiful young people who seem unfulfilled as human beings until it is too late. I was young and restless once--in the 1960s--and I think it's very hard to be happy when you are young. You suffer from these foolish notion that you can change the world--or you can't. You start revolutions--or you don't. Mostly, you try to figure out what the heck life is about.Tomas has frivolous things on his mind. Or does he. After all, procreation is the stuff of survival and he is just the right age to be at the mercy of his survival instincts. Does Tomas think of women too much? Is he a lothario or is he trying to find himself? I think Tomas is Tomas and you either like him or you don't. I don't think he thinks about woman more than any other man his age. If you're a woman, you get involved with Tomas or you don't. He does have a way with women. But, Tomas is not happy--he is a cynic until it is too late.Why does Tomas marry? Maybe underneath it all he wants a "regular" life. Or, maybe Tomas wants his cake and he wants to eat it too. Apparently, he wants a wife as he acquires one. And he wants to keep on seeing other women because he does. I am sure most of the men who saw this film and thought it was a very good film did so because they would like to be like Tomas or at least fantasize they are like Tomas. I am sure some of these very intelligent and educated men can find rationalizations for why this is a profound film.Actually, I think Philip Kaufman has his tongue in his cheek. HENRY AND JUNE (another of his films) is simply the reverse of THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING. Anais Nin wanted to have her cake and eat it too. She wanted a husband and a full range of sexual experiences with other men (and women). Apparently she did just that. Nin's diaries are much more explict than Kundera's books and good bedtime reading. Nin started a revolution--for women.I recommend HENRY AND JUNE. Uma Thurman is wonderful as June and Kevin Spacey also stars in this very funny film, though he is not Henry Miller. TROPIC OF CANCER--now there's a book they ought to ban in Boston.