There are different ways in which to understand “being” as “unbearably light”. And I don’t pretend that my way should be yours. Or even, from time to time, that it should be mine. I only know that in my mind [here and now] it revolves around “being free unto death”.
But this being “in the movies”: it is inevitably experienced first and foremeost by the beautiful [and scripted] people.
Look for the narratives before and after the Soviets invade. Look for lives to change forever.
But men like Tomas and women like Sabina merely adapt.
And where is Czechoslovakia today? Gone.
IMDb
In 1989, the film was shown in Russia for the first time. Screenings were low-key, and held at midnight. Still, more than three thousand people attended each showing, with another thousand being turned away at the door. Many of the people had seen the Czech invasion footage before from the Soviet point of view - reedited to show the Soviet invaders as the heroes and the Czechs as the rebels. For many Russians, this was the first time they’d seen the point of view from the other side.
The assumption being of course there is only one right point of view.
Milan Kundera didn’t particular care for this version of his novel and refused to do publicity for it.
…
Jean-Claude Carrière’s original script deviated drastically from the final film version. Philip Kaufman feared it was too ‘arty’ for a commercial audience. Milan Kundera read Carrière’s original script after seeing the film and said, ‘That’s how it should be done.’
The unbearable lightness of the film industry as it were.
From wiki [regarding the book the film is based on]:
[b]Challenging Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence (the idea that the universe and its events have already occurred and will recur ad infinitum), the story’s thematic meditations posit the alternative; that each person has only one life to live, and that which occurs in life occurs only once and never again — thus the “lightness” of being. In contrast, the concept of eternal recurrence imposes a “heaviness” on our lives and on the decisions we make (to borrow from Nietzsche’s metaphor, it gives them “weight”.) Nietzsche believed this heaviness could be either a tremendous burden or great benefit depending on the individual’s perspective.
The “unbearable lightness” in the title also refers to the lightness of love and sex, which are themes of the novel. Kundera portrays love as fleeting, haphazard and perhaps based on endless strings of coincidences, despite holding such significance for humans.[/b]
Is the film then faithful to these assumptions? Well, how heavy or light is your own perspective here?
THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING
Directed by Philip Kaufman
[b]Tomas: Take off your clothes.
…
Tomas: I must go.
Sabina: Don’t you ever spend the night at the woman’s place?
Tomas: Never!
Sabina: What about when the woman’s at your place?
Tomas: I tell her I have insomnia… anything. Besides, I have a very narrow bed.
Sabina: Are you afraid of women, Doctor?
Tomas: Of course.
…
Sabina: I really like you, Tomas. You are the complete opposite of kitsch. In the kingdom of kitsch you would be a monster.
…
Chief Surgeon: Tomas? They called from Geneva. They are still offering you that job.
Tomas: Why should I go to Geneva? Everything’s fine here.
Chief Surgeon: Well… I hope so. You think the Russians won’t interfere? Think about what happened in Hungary.
Jiri: They couldn’t. The world wouldn’t allow it. Besides, we have socialism with a human face. Who could be against it?
…
Tomas [to Sabina]: If I had two lives…with one, I’d have her stay at my place. With the other, I’d kick her out. Then I’d compare and see which was best. But we only live once. Life’s so light…like an outline we can’t ever fill in or correct. It’s frightening.
…
Sabina [to Tereza]: I always try not to get too attached to a place, to objects. Or to people.
…
State official [marrying Tomas and Tereza]: I have to tell you this. Don’t think a life is a walk on a sunny meadow. Life isn’t a walk on a sunny meadow, and life isn’t a walk on a rose garden. Our socialist country has done much for you. Now it’s up to you.
[Mephisto the pig causes a commotion]
State official: I make you laugh?
Tomas: No… no.
Official: You are laughing at me?
Tomas: I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
Offical: I refuse to go on. In this country, is nothing sacred anymore? If you can’t be serious, you don’t deserve to be married![/b]
I think this is an important scene in differentiating the old from the new. Who are they laughing at—the pig or the official’s authority?
Tomas: Tereza, what are you talking about?
Tereza: I know you see other women. I know it! You can’t hide it from me. Every day, I try to tell myself, “Well, it’s nothing. It’s not important. He’s just playing around. He can’t resist it. But he loves me. I’m sure about that. He loves me. He loves me!” But I can’t stand it. I tried hard. I just can’t. Take me to them. Don’t leave me alone!
Tomas: Tereza, calm down. Stop talking. Try to sleep. You need some sleep now.
Tereza: I don’t want to sleep. You’re tired of me. I know that. I can see it in your eyes.
But of course: She is wrong. He wants her. He wants them. Always both.
And then the tanks come.
How brave would you be?
[b]Speaker: The invasion of our country constitutes a clear act of aggression against an independent country. 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.
Sabina: So why did you emigrate? Go back and fight. It’s easy to tell other people to fight.
…
Franz: My name is Franz. I came to that meeting to listen. No, no, I’m not from the police. I’m a professor at the university.
Sabina: I have nothing in common with these people. The only things holding them together are defeats and the reproaches they address to one another.
Franz: It’s hard to be in exile. People feel abandoned. They feel a lack of understanding. They feel at a loss, lonely. Your country’s occupied. Are you indifferent to that?
Sabina: I can’t stand pointing fingers and raised fists.
Franz: So what do you want to do?
Sabina: I want to go to lunch. I’m hungry.
…
Franz: What happened to your country is a tragedy.
Sabina: You think so?
Franz: Of course. There was hope. They killed it.
Sabina: You’re not going to become boring, are you?[/b]
And she is beautiful enough to ask this of course.
[b]Sabina: Waiter? Can you stop that noise?
Waiter: Noise?
Sabina: Yes…what you call music.
Waiter: I’ll have to ask the manager.
Sabina [to Franz]: Everywhere music’s turning into noise. Look. These plastic flowers…they even put them in water. And look out there. Those buildings—the uglification of the world. The only place we can find beauty is if its persecutors have overlooked it. It’s a planetary process…and I can’t stand it.
…
Tereza [in letter to Tomas]: 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. 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.
…
Tomas: I suppose a lot of them have signed these letters. They’re kept on file. They know they can be published at any moment, so they keep quiet, see? They can’t say anything anymore. They accept everything. Cowardice slowly becomes a rule of life.
…
Tereza: I don’t understand how someone can make love without being in love.
…
Tereza: Are you sure he was from the police?
Former government official: I’m not sure of anything. Anybody can be from the police. Maybe your engineer is a real engineer. Who knows? They know. And now they have what they wanted. Now you are afraid.
…
Mailman: I got a special delivery here for you, from Europe.
Man: What is it? Bad news?
Sabina [now in America after reading the letter]: Some friends died. They were coming back from spending the night in some small hotel there, gone there to dance, and they…It was raining, and the brakes on their truck didn’t work. They were killed instantly. I was…I was their closest friend.[/b]
Contingency. Chance. Change. Coincidence. Big ones. Small ones.
Tereza: Tomas, what are you thinking?
Tomas: I’m thinking how happy I am.
And [of course] irony.