The Unbearable Lightness of Being Movie Review
Daniel Day-Lewis plays Czech surgeon Tomas, who makes love with Sabina (Lena Olin) and falls in love with Tereza (Juliette Binoche). The backdrop is Prague, 1968. Just before Russia invades Czechoslovakia, Tomas and Tereza escape to Switzerland. Tomas has spent his entire adult life avoiding politics and serious involvements; now events beyond his control require him to confront both. Being launched Binoche, then 24, as a very romantic international star, culminating in the Academy Award she received for 1996's The English Patient. Being also added to the universal perception that there was NO part that was beyond the range of Day-Lewis, as he demonstrated in his Oscar-winning interpretation of Christy Brown in 1989's My Left Foot. Philip Kaufman's previous films (The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, The White Dawn, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Wanderers, The Right Stuff) gave little indication of the masterpiece that he would make by the time he was 52. Many seemed shocked that an American director (oh, come now!) could make such a sensitive, sensual picture. His follow-up movie, 1990's Henry and June, virtually invented the NC-17 rating, but 1993's Rising Son was more like the popular entertainment Kaufman had made earlier in his career. Unlike What Happened Was, The Unbearable Lightness of Being is ideal for a romantic video date Hmmm…maybe not on the very FIRST date…. Based on the novel by Milan Kundera.
1988 (R) 172m/C Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin, Derek De Lint, Erland Josephson, Pavel Landovsky, Donald Moffat, Daniel Olbrychski, Stellan Skarsgard, Tormek Bork, Bruce Myers, Pavel Slaby, Pascale Kalensky, Jacques Ciron, Anne Lonnberg, Laszlo Szabo, Vladimir Valenta, Clovis Cornillac, Leon Lissek, Consuelo de Haviland; D: Philip Kaufman; W: Jean-Claude Carriere, Philip Kaufman; C: Sven Nykvist; M: Mark Adler, Ernie Fosselius, Leos Janacek. British Academy Awards ‘88: Best Adapted Screenplay; Independent Spirit Awards ‘89: Best Cinematography; National Society of Film Critics Awards ‘88: Best Director (Kaufman), Best Film; Nominations: Academy Awards ‘88: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography. VHS, LV, Closed Caption