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The Unbearable Lightness of
Being (1988)
Co-writer/director Philip Kaufman's erotic epic, adapted
and based upon Czech novelist Milan Kundera's novel, centered on
the themes of passion, love and freedom (sexual, personal and political).
It was set in the late 60s in Prague, Czechoslovakia (and then in
Switzerland) during the time of the Russian tank invasion and take-over
of the city (the Prague Spring). It was nominated for Best Adapted
Screenplay and Best Cinematography (Sven Nykvist). On an overblown
budget of approximately $18 million, the film failed spectacularly,
and made only $10 million (worldwide).
The romantic drama (171 minutes in length) told about
a complex love triangle between a libertine, suave and playboyish
Czech doctor and his two lovers (reversals of each other) - his naive
country-bred wife, and his free-spirited mistress/painter. During
the film, the male lover repeatedly and arrogantly entreated: "Take
off your clothes." It featured
open and liberated adult sexuality and many erotic scenes although
little explicit sex (it was regarded by Rolling Stone as "the
most openly sexual American film in ages"). Its tagline was simply: "A
Lovers Story."
- in the film's opening set in 1968 in the city of
Prague in the Central European country of Czechoslovakia, a title
card introduced the main protagonist: "In Prague, in 1968,
there lived a young doctor named Tomas..."; the Czech 'Don-Juanish'
neuro-surgeon Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis) seductively stated the phrase: "Take
off your clothes" to co-worker Nurse Katja (Pascale Kalensky)
in a hospital locker room; she complained that he had already seen
everything the previous night
- the next title card: "But the woman who understood
him best was Sabina..."
- in an extended love-making scene, philandering Tomas
was also with his longtime sex partner and kindred liberated lover
and free spirit Sabina (Lena Olin) - ("the woman who understood
him best") - a carefree painter-artist who simply enjoyed
the pleasures of sex; she asked him: "Don't you ever spend
a night at the woman's place?"
He answered: "Never"; she confided in him: "I really
like you, Tomas. You are the complete opposite of kitsch. In the
kingdom of kitsch, you would be a monster," as she
placed her great grandfather's bowler hat on his head
- Tomas responded by turning
Sabina around on top of the bed so that her head hung off the side,
while coupling with her legs completely spread-eagled and pointed
outwards; he made her view themselves in that pose in her dressing-mirror
reflection across the room, and then asked:
"What am I now? A monster"
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Tomas With Free-Spirited Sex Partner Sabina (Lena
Olin)
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- the next title card described: "Tomas was
sent to a spa town to perform an operation...", as the titles
began to appear; in the provincial village where Tomas was called
to perform a brain operation, he met his future wife Tereza (Juliette
Binoche, in her English-language film debut) who dove into the
resort-spa's swimming pool in a black one-piece bathing suit,
splashing a floating game of chess by a group of elderly men;
he followed her to the resort's connected provincial bar-restaurant
where she worked a shift as a waitress; after he charged his
cognac drink order to his room (Room # 6) - a significant fact
for later, she regarded it coincidental that her shift ended
at that time
- although he claimed he was due back in Prague
at 6 pm, he remained in town and met up briefly with Tereza after
her work day on a nearby park bench, where she told him that
she sat every day; she was reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina;
after a brief conversation, he didn't pursue seduction after
learning that she lived with her mother; he told her: "Maybe
I'll come back sometime"; he learned she was hungry for discussions
on literature and other stimulating topics
- after returning to Prague, Tomas and Sabina continued
to playfully make love with the bowler hat and their mirror images,
when they conversed together: (Sabina: "Are you only searching
for pleasure, or is every woman a new land whose secrets you
want to discover? You want to know what she's going to say when
she makes love? Or how she will smile? How she will whisper,
groan, scream?" Tomas: "Maybe the very smallest, unimaginable
details. Tiny things that make one woman totally unlike any other." Sabina: "What's
my detail, Doctor?" Tomas: "Your hat, Sabina");
he encouraged her to view herself with her distinctive bowler
hat, reflected in the round mirror placed flat onto the floor,
before they succumbed to more love-making
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Further Sex Talk and Play
Between Tomas and Sabina With a Mirror
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- soon after, Tereza surprised Tomas by appearing
at his door; she had moved from her small town to Prague to find
a new job, see friends, and to be with Tomas - to become one
of his lovers, complicating matters for him further due to his
many dalliances; on her first night in Prague, he had her undress
with his typical come-on: "Take off your clothes" (as an excuse
to treat her cold: "Perhaps I'd better take a look at you...I'm
a doctor") and soon after, they were making love; when he awoke
at 6:45 AM the next morning, she was next to him in bed, clasping
his hand in hers; he replaced his hand with a thick copy of the
book Oedipus Rex
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Womanizing Doctor Tomas Treating Tereza's
Cold - And Making Love to Her
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- at work, Tomas was offered a job transfer to Geneva
by his boss Chief Surgeon (Donald Moffat), but he declined ("Everything's fine here") - he
unwisely didn't anticipate any political problems with the Russians;
his colleague Jiri (Tomek Bork) concurred: "We have socialism with
a human face. Who could be against it?"; he also met with former
patient Pavel (Pavel Landovský), a farmer who brought his piglet
Mephisto; in the locker room, Tomas' sexy nurse friend on the side was angry with him for putting off
their date, due to his new female roommate: ("So what I heard was
right. Somebody has moved into your place")
- in the next scene, Tomas was having
vigorous sex with Sabina in her apartment, but she noticed how absent-minded
and distracted he was, always glancing at his watch and in
a hurry; he sensed that she was blaming his stress on
his new girlfriend Tereza; Tomas expressed the difficult dichotomy
of his life to Sabina: "If I had two lives, with one life, I could invite her to
stay at my place. And in the second life, I could kick her out.
Then I could compare and see which would be the best thing to do.
But we only live once. Life's so light. Like an outline we can't
ever fill in, or correct, make any better. It's frightening";
Tomas even asked his frequent sex partner Sabina if she could help him by assisting Tereza in finding
work as an amateur photographer ("She takes beautiful pictures"),
and Sabina was taken aback: ("You want me to help her?"); Tomas
was repeatedly torn between being free to exercise his womanizing
spirit with Sabina and being dutifully loving to the innocent Tereza
- shortly later, the three met in Sabina's apartment,
where Sabina showed Tereza some classic black and white nude photographs,
to demonstrate how professional photographers were "searching for
a new beauty" - Tereza added: "Something higher" - on a higher
level than her typical "pictures of what's going on in the streets";
later in the middle of the night, Tereza experienced a troubling
nightmare of Tomas forcing her to watch him make love to Sabina
in her studio - "You made me watch...It hurt so much. Why did you do it to me?"
- the threesome celebrated the publication of Tereza's
2 page spread of candid pictures in a magazine by visiting a night-club
dance-hall, where Tomas publically stated his political distaste
for the Communist government to his Chief Surgeon boss and his
colleague Jiri; although he said he was apolitical, he compared
Soviet "scoundrels" and their atrocities to the story of "King
Oedipus" who he felt rightly punished himself (after unintentionally murdering
his father and sleeping with his mother) by plucking out his eyes
- unlike the Communists who allowed Stalin to take power; at the
same time, stern-looking Communist officials at one of the tables
had coerced the pop band to play a Soviet song, causing some in
the crowd to vacate the dance floor
- later in the evening in
the nightclub, Tereza danced with Jiri and later was surprised
to learn that Tomas was capable of jealousy; she playfully teased
him and then impulsively asked: "Will you marry me?" - and soon
after, Tomas and Tereza were married, with Pavel and his piglet
present as a witness; the presiding priest cautioned: "Life isn't
a walk on a sunny meadow...", but then ended the ceremony; the
shy, bookish, waiflike, innocent and timid Tereza became his ever-faithful
and monogamous wife; that evening while celebrating the marriage
in a bar-restaurant, they bought a young puppy together: (Tereza:
"It will make us happy") and named it Karenin (a character in the
book Anna Karenina that she was reading)
- Tomas also attracted unwanted attention by writing
a satirical article about his political views on the Russians in
an essay to the dissident journal, comparing them to Oedipus; the Czech
editor (Bruce Myers) encouraged Tomas' writing on seeking emancipation
from the Russians; as Tomas was leaving the office, he flirted
with journal's pretty secretary Eva
- meanwhile, Tereza feared Tomas' continued unfaithfulness
and infidelities, symbolized by her disturbing vision of bowler
hat-wearing Tomas poolside at the resort, supervising a female
exercise class in session - with entirely naked women
- as Tomas returned home in the middle of the night,
Tereza awakened; unlike Tomas who was able to easily separate
his sex life from his married life, she begged him: "Take
me to them....To the other women. Take me to them when you make
love to them. I'll undress them for you. I'd like to. Really. I'll
give them a bath, and I'll bring them to you. I'll do anything
you like. Other women's bodies will be our playthings...I know
you see other women. I know it. You can't hide it from me...But
I can't stand it. I tried hard. I just can't. Take me to them.
Don't leave me alone!"
- at the same time, Russian tanks were invading into
the streets of Prague, as Tereza raced outside; she daringly decided
to capture photos of the deadly invasion; later she slipped her
film rolls to a Dutch foreigner-tourist to have them published
in the Netherlands - a crime punishable by death; one of her photos
was of a Russian soldier threateningly pointing his pistol at Tereza;
Tereza's camera and photos were confiscated after she was questioned
by a Russian official (László Szabó), and
she learned that they were identifying dissidents from photos
- meanwhile during the invasion, Sabina had fled Prague
for Geneva, Switzerland due to the dangerous political situation;
soon after, Tereza and Tomas also joined the mass exodus ouf of
Prague to also go to Switzerland
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Sabina's New Affair-Partner - A Married
University Professor Franz (Derek de Lint)
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- in a political meeting in Geneva, the exiled Sabina
listened to a pompous Czech emigrant urging everyone to
resist: ("Our Czech people had the right and the duty to fight
against the aggressor. People who don't have the courage to fight
with arms in their hands do not deserve freedom"); she challenged
the hypocritical speaker to "Go back and fight" against
the Russian aggression instead of just talking about it; and then
outside, she was approached by married university professor Franz
(Derek de Lint) who admired her words; she reiterated: "I
can't stand pointing fingers and I can't stand raised fists";
at lunch together, she further complained about the background
music ("noise") and the plastic flowers at their table; she volunteered to join him for
a train ride to Torino where he was due to give a lecture the next
day ("I love trains. They are so erotic"); the wild-spirited Sabina
initiated a passionate affair between them (even though he admitted
to her that he was married)
- in Geneva, Tomas took a new medical position,
but Tereza was unable to profitably work as a news photographer (she
was told: "It's too late...The events are too remote now. It's
over"); however, Tereza was urged (due to her photographic poses)
by blonde Swiss photographer (Anne Lonnberg) to try fashion photography
- during Sabina's continuing affair with Franz, he offered
to take her to Amsterdam, but she resisted; unlike Tomas,
he was uninterested in her bowler hat; he explained why
he was too inhibited to have sex with her in Geneva, because unlike
Sabina, he "couldn't go from one bed to another the same day" - it
would be "humiliating"; Sabina reluctantly agreed to join him in Amsterdam
- after Franz' short visit, Tomas appeared at Sabina's
door to continue their sexual relationship (even though he was married, and she was cheating with an adulterous
husband); she admitted: "I met another
man. He's the best man I've ever met. He's bright, handsome, good,
and he's crazy about me"; as a come-on to Tomas, she donned
her bowler hat and they had a frenzied, twirling session of passionate love-making
Sabina to Franz: "Why don't you ever want to make
love to me in Geneva?"
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Sabina (reluctantly) to Franz: "I'll come with you"
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Sabina's Tempting Come-On to Tomas - Her Bowler Hat
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Twirling, Passionate Love-Making With Tomas
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- soon after, Tereza met up with her erotic female
friend Sabina, to ask her to be her nude model for some "nude
shots";
the two enjoyed a sensual photographic session between them in
Sabina's art-studio apartment, after a drink; initially, Tereza
photographed a nude Sabina, a long mostly dialogue-less scene during
an impending thunderstorm; afterwards Sabina ordered the reluctant
and initially-hesitant Tereza to switch positions: "Take off
your clothes....Now it's my turn...Take off your clothes" (using
Tomas' favorite line) as they seductively switched roles between
photographer and subject, culminating in a hide-and-seek nude romp
The Sensual Photography Scene Between Tereza and
Sabina
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- Franz interrupted their giggling romp, and told
Sabina that he was leaving his wife for her - and "couldn't live
in lies anymore - we have to live in truth"; Sabina listened
as he asked if he could bring his belongings and stay with her
beginning the next day
- the next day when Franz entered Sabina's place,
he saw that she had completely vacated her apartment, with pieces
of broken mirror on the floor; Tomas met up with Sabina in a local
hotel room, where she greeted him wearing undergarments and her
bowler hat; after another fling with Tomas in bed, Sabina confessed
to him that she had some second thoughts about leaving, but then
asserted that she couldn't stay in Switzerland, but preferred to run off to Paris
or America; she prophetically told him: "Maybe I'm seeing you for
the last time"
- once Tomas returned to his own apartment, he found
a note Tereza had written to him - about how her life was unbearably
heavy, while he regarded life as light-hearted, untangled and emotionally
unencumbered: (voice-over) "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,
and it is so light to you. I can't bear this lightness, this
freedom, I'm not strong enough. In Prague, I only needed you for
love. In Switzerland, I was dependent on you for everything. What
would happen if you abandoned me? I'm weak. I'm going back to the
country of the weak. Goodbye. I'm sorry, but I've taken Karenin") - a
reference to the film's title
- due to Tomas' continued womanizing, Tereza returned
to Prague on the train with their dog Karenin; before leaving the
train compartment, Russian guards confiscated her passport and
camera; now without either Tereza or Sabina, the aimless and lonely
Tomas drove back to Prague; as he entered the heavily-guarded border
entry into Czechoslovakia, he was stripped
of his passport, presumably due to his political views
- after driving through the dark and dismal streets
of the city, he was reunited with Tereza in their old apartment
- she and Karenin were pleased to see him - and they made love;
the Chief Surgeon urged Tomas to sign a government retraction letter
and privately denounce the anti-Russian views that he had espoused
in his published article about King Oedipus; Tomas pondered
whether to sign it or not, and told Tereza why he might not: "Cowardice
slowly becomes a rule of life"
- in his doctor's office, Tomas was
visited by a sinister member of the Ministry of the Interior (Daniel
Olbrychski), who wanted Tomas to name the publisher of the article,
but Tomas wasn't very cooperative or helpful; he was handed a retraction
letter (to admit his "temporary error" and vow his support
for the Communist Party) and he was threatened: "Nobody requires
a doctor to understand politics. Of course, we can't allow a politically
suspicious man to operate on brains"
- ultimately (off-screen), Tomas refused to give
in and sign the retraction; he became
regarded as a political dissident, was blacklisted, and lost
his clinical doctor position; he was forced to take a window-washing
job while Tereza was employed as a waitress in a small bar
- Tomas was still having occasional flings; one day
as he was washing apartment windows, he was invited into
the apartment of a Tall Brunette (Consuela De Haviland) who asked:
"You're a doctor, aren't you?"; the married woman offered him a
glass of wine and payment for a consultation about her back pain;
she slowly offered him a striptease after he ordered:
"Take off your clothes"; she sat provocatively in a chair with
her back to him; there was photographic evidence in the room that
she was the daughter of a high-ranking Communist Party official
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Tomas With Tall Brunette (Consuela De Haviland)
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- when Tomas returned home and was retiring in bed
with Tereza for the night, she could smell his infidelity: ("Your
hair smells of - of another woman's sex"),
and asked why he kept seeing other women when it upset her: ("I thought
you had come back here for me"); she knew what his explanation
would be: "There is love and there is sex. Sex is entertainment,
like football. I know it's light. I wish I
could believe you. But how can someone make love, without being
in love? I just don't know. Let me try. No. You'd reject me if
I tried. I wish I could be like you: Insensitive, strong..."
- earlier, Tereza had been propositioned by an Engineer
(Stellan Skarsgaard) - one of her bar customers, who had asked
her: "What is a beautiful girl like you doing in this terrible
part of Prague?", and then gave her his address; now, to test
her own lightness toward sex, she visited him in his apartment
and regretfully accepted a one-time unfaithful sexual liaison with
him; as he touched her breast through and under her clothing, she
became uncomfortably paranoid about a drawn curtain and the presence
of someone else in the room; he demonstrated that no one else there;
he stripped her of her panties as she laid lifeless and passive
under him, looking straight upward; he removed his clothes and
laid on top of her, as she gripped her fist and tearfully let him
have his way
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Tereza During A One-Night Stand with an Engineer
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- after her uncomfortable and detached sexual encounter
with the Engineer, Tereza's nervous fears were exasperated
when she spoke to a former Ambassador (Erland Josephson) who warned
about how the Engineer might be a member of the secret police,
and that she ("a beautiful girl")
might have been set up by the Party - as a blackmail target (to
be filmed) in order to denounce both her and Tomas; he concluded:
"Now they have what they wanted. Now you are afraid"
- in the film's compelling ending, Tereza and Tomas (who could not leave
the country due to the political chaos and their confiscated passports)
were forced to vacate the politically-distressed and overrun city
of Prague, to find marital bliss in the countryside; Tereza urged
Tomas: "Prague has grown so ugly"; Tomas realized he must come
to terms with his profligate life of continual affairs, and
attempt to reconcile his fragile and tender relationship with
Tereza and become more emotionally fulfilled
- the two moved to live on the farm of commune
leader Pavel (one of Tomas' past patients)
and his grown pet pig Mephisto; sadly, a symbol of their happy
lives together - their dog Karenin - began to limp and was found
to be suffering from life-threatening cancer; Tereza spoke
about how her superior love for Karenin in some ways superceded
her love for Tomas: ("I was forced to love my mother. But not to
love this dog. You know, Tomas, maybe, maybe I love her more than
I love you. Not more. I mean, in a better way"); Tomas urged that
they shouldn't wait any longer, to put Karenin out of pain; Tereza
held and comforted Karenin with wonderful thoughts: "Don't be scared. Don't be scared,
Karenin. You won't feel any pain there. It will be beautiful there.
You'll have cows to chase. And Mephisto will be there. Don't be
scared"; they buried their beloved dog in an earthen grave near
the farmhouse
- as the film concluded, the farm group (Tomas, Tereza,
Pavel, Pavel's nephew and Mephisto) drove to the village tavern
40 kilometers away for a flirtatious night of drinking and dancing;
Pavel's nephew invited Tereza for a lively dance as Tomas watched;
to encourage Tomas to have a drink, Pavel encouraged him spend
the night there with Tereza, and drive the farm truck home the
next day
- in the next scene, Sabina was seen
near a beachside area in California, where she had taken up painting;
on a very sad note, Sabina learned through a letter from Pavel
sent from Europe about some tragic "bad news" - the
death of her two friends Tomas and Terez who were killed instantly
when the brakes on the farm truck failed on a slick rainy road;
she told friends what she had just learned and added: "I was
their closest friend"
Final Flashback of Their Last Moments Together
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An Overnight in the Tavern in Familiar Room #
6
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Tomas (Viewed Through a Rainy Windshield): "I'm
thinking how happy I am"
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- the film ended with a flashback to their last night
in the small tavern, and the couple's entry for an overnight into
familiar Room 6 just before their deaths; the next morning
as they drove down the road in the rain, Tomas (viewed through
a rainy and blurry windshield) answered Tereza about what he was
thinking: "I'm thinking how happy I am"
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Hospital Locker-Room - Womanizing Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis): "Take
off your clothes"
Tomas' Latest Conquest - Nurse Katja (Pascale Kalensky)
Bar-Restaurant Waitress Tereza (Juliette Binoche)
Meeting with Tereza Briefly on a Park Bench
Tomas Back in Prague with Bowler Hat-Wearing Sabina ("Are you only searching
for pleasure...?")
Tereza's Surprise Arrival in Prague to See Tomas (and Friends)
One of Tomas' Past Patients - Farmer Pavel (Pavel Landovsky) with His Piglet
Mephisto
The Threesome in Sabina's Apartment
Looking at Classic B/W Nude Photographs
Tomas Comforting Tereza After Her Nightmare
Tomas Denying That He Was "Jealous" of Tereza Dancing at the
Nightclub with Jiri
Tomas and Tereza Legally Married
Purchase of a Female Puppy Named Karenin
Tereza to Tomas: "Take me to them when you make love to them"
Tereza's Fears About Tomas' Womanizing Tendencies ("I can't stand
it"
Tereza and Tomas Watching the Invasion of Russian Tanks
Newsreel Footage Mixed With Current Day Footage - Tereza Snapping Photos
Tereza and Tomas Arriving in Geneva, Switzerland
Tereza and Sabina Giggling After Photographic Romp, Interrupted by Franz
Franz to Sabina: "I've left my wife"
Sabina Greeting Tomas in Her Hotel Room After Vacating Her Geneva Apartment
Sabina's Goodbye to Tomas: "Maybe I'm seeing you for the last time"
Tereza's Split From Tomas and Her Return to Prague on the Train
Tereza and Tomas Reunited Back in Prague
Sinister Minister of the Interior - Pressuring Tomas to Sign Retraction
Tereza Asking Tomas About His Continued Infidelity
"The Engineer" (Stellan Skarsgaard)
Tereza and Tomas Happily Living In the Country
With Their Beloved Dog, Terminally-Ill Karenin
During Euthanasia, Tereza Comforted Karenin: "Don't be scared..."
A Fun Night of Drinking and Dancing in the Village Tavern
"Bad News" In a Letter Written to Sabina From
Pavel
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