The Unbearable Lightness of Being

1988
R
2h 51m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

39K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

4,083

322

Lena Olin in The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

Drama Romance

A doctor in 1968 Prague struggles with monogamy to his wife's frustration, and then the Soviet invasion further disrupts their lives.A doctor in 1968 Prague struggles with monogamy to his wife's frustration, and then the Soviet invasion further disrupts their lives.A doctor in 1968 Prague struggles with monogamy to his wife's frustration, and then the Soviet invasion further disrupts their lives.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

39K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

4,083

322

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 7 wins & 14 nominations total

Pavel
(as Pavel Landovsky)

Donald Moffat

Chief Surgeon

Daniel Olbrychski

Interior Ministry Official

Stellan Skarsgård

The Engineer
(as Stellan Skarsgard)

Tomasz Borkowy

Jiri
(as Tomek Bork)

Bruce Myers

Czech Editor

Pavel Slabý

Pavel's Nephew
(as Pavel Slaby)

Pascale Kalensky

Nurse Katya

Jacques Ciron

Swiss Restaurant Manager

Anne Lonnberg

Swiss Photographer

László Szabó

Russian Interrogator
(as Laszlo Szabo)

Vladimír Valenta

Mayor

Clovis Cornillac

Boy in Bar

Director
- Philip Kaufman
Writers
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

7.2

7.8

7.2

7.0

6.3

6.8

My Beautiful Laundrette

6.7

Damage

5.4

Eversmile New Jersey

6.8

The Crucible

6.5

The Ballad of Jack and Rose

4.8

Stars and Bars

7.2

Bitter Moon

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
The first cut shown to the studio was under two hours in length and the story was confusing. Philip Kaufman was asked to add in scenes he cut. The next day they were shown the theatrically released version. It's believed Kaufman showed them a shorter and confusing version in order to get his almost three-hour final cut approved with no questions of cutting it.

Goofs
Mephisto the Pig, consistently referred to as "he", is a sow, as can be seen frequently, but particularly when the group enters the inn for dancing.

Quotes
Tereza: I know I'm supposed to help you, but I can't. Instead of being your support, I'm your weight. Life is very heavy to me, but it is so light to you. I can't bear this lightness, this freedom... I'm not strong enough.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Shoot to Kill/The Serpent and the Rainbow/She's Having a Baby/The Unbearable Lightness of Being/School Daze (1988)

User reviews161

Review

Featured review

6/10

A film seemingly anticipating the vevlvet revolutions of 1989

In 1988 praised as an erotic movie. In 2018 we can only see Tomas as a sex addict a la "Shame" (2011, Steve McQueen).

Noteworthy just the same is the fact that in the late '60s there were youth protests irrespective of the political system (North America: flower power and Woodstock. Western Europe: Student protests in Paris. Eastern Europe: spring of Prague.).

With respect to coping with a dictatorship the films shows three fundamentally different strategies. Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis) is trying to fight back, Sabina (Lena Olin) flights while Tereza (Juliette Binoche) adapts.

The film was made just before the velvet revolutions of 1989. More than twenty five years later I was reading the book "Dancing bears" (2014, Witbold Szablowski). This book describes that not everybody knows how to cope with the freedom that was conquered. Some people feel more comfortable when they are told what to do and how to behave. Somehow I had to think about Tereza when reading this book.