The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) (DVD) (*)

Out of Stock

Screened, competed or awarded at:
BAFTA Awards
Golden Globes
Oscar Academy Awards
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Arabic ( Subtitles )
Dutch ( Subtitles )
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
French ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
France ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
166 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 1988 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Philip Kaufman

Written By:
Milan Kundera
Jean-Claude Carrière

Actors:
Daniel Day-Lewis ..... Tomas
Juliette Binoche ..... Tereza
Lena Olin ..... Sabina
Derek de Lint ..... Franz
Erland Josephson ..... The Ambassador
Pavel Landovský ..... Pavel
Donald Moffat ..... Chief Surgeon
Daniel Olbrychski ..... Interior Ministry Official
Stellan Skarsgard ..... The Engineer
Tomasz Borkowy ..... Jiri (as Tomek Bork)
Bruce Myers ..... Czech Editor
Pavel Slaby ..... Pavel's Nephew
Pascale Kalensky ..... Nurse Katja
Jacques Ciron ..... Swiss Restaurant Manager
Anne Lonnberg ..... Swiss Photographer

Synopsis:

Tomas, a prominent young brain surgeon, is a bachelor and epic womaniser whose erotic philosophy stipulates that all love be excluded from his life. He meets his long-term mistresses only at intervals and never spends the night with a woman. Against all erotic principles Tomas marries Tereza but continues an established affair with Sabina, free from the commitment of love. 'The Unbearable Lightness Of Being' is a love story which begins during the Prague Spring, that dizzying liberalisation of communism which was crushed by the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.

Daniel Day Lewis stars as a playboy surgeon who falls in love and marries Tereza, whilst continuing an adulterous affair with Lena Olin. Set in Prague just before the 1968 Russian invasion, the three main characters cannot help but get involved in their countries' turmoil. They go to Geneva but return to Prague where Lewis is asked to renounce an anti-Communist article he wrote some years earlier, and in refusing he loses his job. Based on Milan Kundera's acclaimed novel.

Tomas is a doctor and a lady-killer in 1960s Czechoslovakia, an apolitical man who is struck with love for the bookish country girl Tereza; his more sophisticated sometime lover Sabina eventually accepts their relationship and the two women form an electric friendship. The three are caught up in the events of the Prague Spring (1968), until the Soviet tanks crush the non-violent rebels; their illusions are shattered and their lives change forever.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 27 February, 2019.