The Unbearable Lightness of Being (film)

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The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Poster
Directed by	Philip Kaufman
Produced by	Bertil Ohlsson Paul Zaentz Saul Zaentz
Written by	Milan Kundera (novel) Jean-Claude Carrière Philip Kaufman
Starring	Daniel Day-Lewis Juliette Binoche Lena Olin Derek de Lint Erland Josephson Pavel Landovský
Music by	Mark Adler Ernie Fosselius
Cinematography	Sven Nykvist
Release date(s)	5 February 1988 2 March 1988 1 April 1988
Running time	171 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a 1988 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Milan Kundera. Like the novel, it is set in Prague in 1968 and details the lives of artists and intellectuals in Czechoslovakia in the wake of the Prague Spring and the subsequent invasion by the USSR.

The film is a United States production and was directed by an American, Philip Kaufman, but it has a largely European cast, including Daniel Day-Lewis (British), Juliette Binoche (French) and Lena Olin (Swedish). It was filmed in France rather than Czechoslovakia; in the scene depicting the Soviet invasion, real archive footage is combined with material shot in Lyon for the film. The movie was moderately successful in North America and much more so in Europe.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Adaptation

Kundera considers his novels unsuited to being turned into movies; in his opinion, they lose their essential qualities in the process, leaving only the accessory stories to produce any intrigue. However, Kundera served as an active (but uncredited) consultant during the making of the film. In fact, the poem Tomas whispers into Tereza's ear as she is falling asleep was written specifically for the film by Kundera.^{[citation needed]}