Product: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Two-Disc Special Edition) (2006)
Rating: 5.0
Unbearable to miss, totally illuminating
This movie adaptation of Miles Kundera's book, which I haven't read yet, is a lengthy and illuminating study on freedom versus captivity, strength versus weakness as seen in the interractions between a handsome womanizing surgeon, Tomas, his lover and the woman who understands him most, the artist Sabena, and a Tereza, bright young waitress Tomas meets after performing an operation at a spa-town. Tereza shows up in Prague and unlike his character, they get married, complete with a piglet wearing a necktie whose squeals cause them to giggle uncontrollably at the ceremonyThe movie is set during the Prague Spring, that brief shining moment when a liberal communism under Alexander Dubcek's socialism with a human face, seems possible. To which Tomas mentions the ill-fated uprising in Hungary (1956). Tomas himself contrasts King Oedipus to the Soviet leaders. Oedipus couldn't bear the sight of what he had done to bring about the plagues in Thebes, so he plucked his own eyes out and left. The Soviet leaders though, were unlike Oedipus. Their defense at Stalin's crimes after his death was "We didn't know." Morality also changed since Oedipus. Tomas then says that the Soviet hardliners stayed in power when they should have plucked their eyes out. He writes an article to that effect, something that will cost him dearly later.At one point, the table and glasses rumble as Tomas and Tereza are arguing. An earthquake? Tomas follows Tereza outside. The source of the tremor is then seen. Pushing its way aggressively down the alley towards them is the menacing shadow of a Soviet tank. Yes, it's 20 August 1968.A great highlight is when the picture turns to b&w; portion during the demonstration in Wencesclas Square, soldiers atop tanks, people climbing on top of them, chants of "Dubcek" and "svoboda", the fire of machine guns and people fleeing, bodies covered with Czech flags, with Tomas and Tereza in the thick of the action, marching, fleeing, or in Tereza's case, snapping pictures like mad. The scene ends dramatically with a Soviet soldier warning her, pointing his pistol at her through the lens.Sabena, and later Tomas and Tereza flee for Geneva, but things don't work out. All three journey again, the latter two back to Czechoslovakia, where under the reinforced hardliners under the thumb of Leonid Brezhnev and Gustav Husak, their part in the uprising becomes a liability.Sabena is compatible with Tomas's sex opposed to love. She asks him, "Are you only searching for pleasure or is every a woman a new hat whose secrets you want to discover?" She is sexually independent, strong-minded, and the mistress of her destiny. This is demonstrated when she meets Franz, a married lawyer, in Geneva. At a cafe, she comments on how music becomes noise, that even the plastic flowers are in a filled vase, and points to the building behind her as the "uglification of the world. The only place we can find beauty is where its persecutors have overlooked it. It's a planetary process, and I can't stand it." She becomes Franz's lover, but when he leaves his wife to be with her, she fears for her freedom, realizes she has left one cage behind only to become prey to a different one. But ultimately, freedom leads to another cage, that of loneliness, and the lack of happiness.Tereza wants a monogamous relationship with Tomas, but finds esteem in doing something fulfilling, being a faithful wife who does her part. She can't adapt to Geneva so returns. In doing so, though, it's back to political captivity, back to a totalitarian regime, but at a lower status. If freedom/loneliness doesn't yield happiness, does that mean captivity and community yields it?Yes, there is quite a bit of sex and nudity here, but nothing gratuitous or pornographic. It's more a tasteful erotica, i.e. the much ballyhooed scenes of Sabena and Tereza photographing each other. Sabena comes off as haunted, serene, grave, at times a twinkle of mischief in the photos.Lena Olin gives the strongest performance here, exuding a strong, enigmatic, sensuous aura as the sexually independent Sabena. She would've been a strong candidate as an Oscar nominee. Praiase also to Juliette Binoche's sweet, shy, sensitive, loving Tereza, the role that boosted her to the spotlight. Daniel Day-Lewis's Tomas becomes more developed and human in the film's second half. One of those memorable movies that makes one think in depth.