The Unbearable Lightness of Being
存在の耐えられない軽さ
The Moonlight essay
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The whole story, ending included.
A Prague surgeon, his wife and his lover through the 1968 invasion; the bowler hat scene.
Prague, 1968. Tomas is a gifted surgeon who sleeps with many women and commits to none. His closest bond is with Sabina, a painter who asks no more of him than he asks of her. Sent to operate in a spa town, he meets Tereza, a dissatisfied waitress hungry for something more; soon afterwards she turns up in Prague and moves in with him. Sabina helps her find work as a photographer, and although Tereza realises that Sabina and Tomas are lovers, the two women become friends. Tomas marries Tereza in a small ceremony at which neither can stop laughing, but he does not stop seeing other women, and his affairs give her nightmares.
During the Prague Spring he writes an article comparing the country's Communist leaders to Oedipus, who at least punished himself when he learned what he had done, and a newspaper prints it. In August the Warsaw Pact armies invade. Tereza photographs the protests and hands her film to foreigners to smuggle to the West. Sabina leaves for Geneva, and Tomas and Tereza follow. There Sabina begins an affair with Franz, a married professor, and leaves him when he tells her he will give up his family for her. Tomas goes on seeing Sabina and other women. Tereza, who finds no place for herself in Switzerland, returns alone to Prague and leaves him a letter: life is heavy to her and light to him, and she cannot bear the lightness.
Tomas follows her, and his passport is taken from him. He refuses to sign a retraction of his article, is barred from surgery and becomes a window cleaner. Tereza, trying to understand his affairs, spends a night with an engineer, finds no pleasure in it and then fears he was an informer for the secret police. They leave Prague for the farm of a man Tomas once operated on, and there they are happy. In America, Sabina receives a letter: Tomas and Tereza have been killed in a road accident. The film ends just before it, with the two of them driving a farm truck down a country road in the rain, and Tomas telling Tereza how happy he is.
Starring
Daniel Day-Lewisas Tomas
A brilliant Prague surgeon who keeps love and sex apart and cannot give up other women, even after he marries.
Tomas’s story
Tomas moves through Prague in 1968 sleeping with whom he likes, his one lasting bond with Sabina, until Tereza follows him from a spa town and moves in. He marries her, laughing through the ceremony, and goes on seeing other women though his affairs give her nightmares. His article comparing the country's leaders to Oedipus marks him once the tanks arrive. In Geneva he keeps seeing Sabina. When Tereza goes home, he follows her across the border and loses his passport; refusing to retract the article, he is barred from surgery and cleans windows. At last he leaves Prague with her for the farm of a man he once operated on. Both are killed on the road; the film leaves him on that last drive, in the rain, telling Tereza how happy he is.
Juliette Binocheas Tereza
A waitress from a spa town who follows Tomas to Prague, marries him and photographs the invasion.
Tereza’s story
Tereza is waiting tables in a spa town when Tomas passes through, and she follows him to Prague and stays. With Sabina's help she becomes a photographer; she sees that Sabina is his lover, is fascinated and jealous, and becomes her friend. She marries Tomas, and his other women give her nightmares. When the tanks come she photographs the protests, is briefly arrested, and gets her film to the West. In Geneva her pictures are admired but no longer news; she goes back to Prague alone, leaving Tomas a letter about the lightness she cannot bear. To understand his affairs she spends one joyless night with an engineer, then fears he was a police informer. She persuades Tomas to leave Prague, and on the farm they are happy until the road accident that kills them both.
Lena Olinas Sabina
A painter and Tomas's lover, who guards her freedom and leaves Franz when he decides to give up his family for her.
Sabina’s story
Sabina asks nothing of Tomas that he cannot give, and wants to be tied to nothing. When he brings Tereza to Prague, Sabina helps her into photography and becomes her friend, though Tereza knows what Sabina is to him. After the invasion she is the first to leave for Geneva, and Tomas and Tereza follow. There she begins an affair with Franz, a married professor, and still sees Tomas. When Franz tells her he will give up his wife and family for her, she leaves him, leaves Switzerland too and goes to America, where she lives as freely as before. There a letter reaches her: Tomas and Tereza have been killed in a road accident. She weeps, alone, far from home.
Derek de Lintas Franz
A married university professor in Geneva who falls in love with Sabina and decides to leave his family for her.
Stellan Skarsgårdas The Engineer
A stranger who propositions Tereza in Prague, and who may have been working for the secret police.
Why it matters
The Unbearable Lightness of Being sets a question about sex inside a question about history. Tomas believes love and sex can be kept apart; Tereza cannot live that way, and the film treats neither of them as simply wrong. Around them the Prague Spring ends under Warsaw Pact tanks, and the private question of fidelity sits beside a public one: whether to sign a lie in order to keep working. Kundera's title names the choice between weight and lightness, commitment and freedom, and the film does not settle it. Sabina keeps her freedom and ends up far away in America; Tomas and Tereza find happiness only by giving up almost everything else. Kundera advised on the production, but later wrote that the film had very little to do with the spirit of his novel, and that after it he would allow no more adaptations of his work.