The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) of the American Standard Collection The Criterion Collection DVD Cover
At some point, human beings will also treat some talented people with a double-standard attitude, such as Daniel Day-Lewis when he was young, he was a proper "scumbag", when he was young, as long as he saw the actresses in the crew, he had to "try", and the reputation of "flower pickers" was by no means covered.
But everyone seems to the actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor three times in film history that he can "not blame the past" for his past love history, and some people even think that those actresses can talk to him and make love, which is their luck!? I feel that this is a way for him to get "acting".
Daniel Day-Lewis in the film My Beautiful Laundrette (1985).
Daniel Day-Lewis's legend began in 1982, when he made a major breakthrough on the London stage at the age of 25, and after the release of My Beautiful Laundrette /My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and The Room with a Blue Sky with a View (1985), Daniel Day-Lewis rose to prominence in the British film scene.
At that time, he was associated with Helena Bonham Carter in "The Room with the View.".
Daniel Day-Lewis in the film A Room with a View (1985) in the film Room with a View and a View with a View./Room with a View (1985).
In the four years prior to the filming of The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), he had only traveled to France to take over the film "Dangerous Relationship Nanoo" (1986), and only played the third male in it.
During that time, he didn't seem to be too keen on acting, and liked to be helena Bergham Carter's little follower between the various crews.
When American director Philip Kaufman received the film project "Love in Prague" in March 1987, he positioned it as a work that imitated the style of European films, so before shooting, he and the investors decided not to use Hollywood actors, but specifically looked for some actors with European backgrounds.
From left: Daniel Day-Lewis, producer Saul Zaenz and director Philip Kaufman Philip Kaufman
Because in the script of "Love in Prague", the performance of sexual scenes is frequent and bold, contrary to the obscure and implicit methods of American films at that time, and European actors show their flesh and perform these scenes without any burden and are very real.
At the same time, it also solves the problem that if you hire Hollywood actors to play, they have to consider their own image and the future market, and they also need a series of safeguards such as doubles, and it is not a problem to hire European actors.
Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliet Binoche in the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988).
Daniel Day-Lewis was one of the first to be appointed in the film Prague Love, and director Philip Kaufmann felt that he was suitable for the image of the Prague surgeon Thomas in the novel by novelist Milan Kundera, and arranged for Daniel Day-Lewis to learn Czech, although the film was shot in English.
Lena Olin is a Swedish actress who participated in Ingmar Bergman's (1918-2007) film Efter repetitionen (1984). In "Love in Prague", director Philip Kaufmann thinks that Lena Orin is suitable for playing Sabina, a painter who desperately pursues independence.
Stills from the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Daniel Day-Lewis and Lena Olin
The role of the waitress Teresa in the film has not landed until the week before the filming begins, and there have been hundreds of young actresses who have come to audition for this role, but there has never been a candidate who satisfies director Philip Kaufman.
At this time, a friend of producer Saul Zaentz (1921-2014) and Daniel Day-Lewis also recommended a young French actress to the director, juliet Binoche, 23.
Juliet Binoche was already well-known in France at the time, and had already produced two iconic works, Love in Paris/Passion Rendez-vous (1985) and Bad Blood/Bad Leper Mauvais Sang (1986).
Images by Juliet Binoche and Daniel Day-Lewis in the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988).
After the audition, director Philip Kaufmann immediately made the decision that Juliet Binoche was the waitress Teresa.
"Love in Prague" is based on Milan Kundera's most famous work of the same name, which the New York Times once commented on as the most important classic of the 20th century.
The film is a love film set against the backdrop of the "Prague Spring", so it also determines the film's strong political color.
In the spring of 1968, the "Prague Spring" movement in Czechoslovakia provoked war with the former Soviet Union. In the depths of this water, every star and a little bit of human light will create unexpected miracles. Love is the most dazzling bundle of them.
Stills from the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988).
Thomas, who has a bohemian life in private, has countless women with whom he has an affair, but only Sabina is introduced by him as a confidant. Once, Thomas met Teresa, a pure love girl at a health resort, and introduced her to Sabina.
With Sabina's help, Teresa mastered photography, and later, Teresa married Thomas. However, Thomas's mercurial nature has not changed.
On this day, Thomas and his wife, Sabina and several friends went to the restaurant to eat and met some government officials. Thomas wrote an article bashing these officials and threw it into the newspaper for publication. The Soviets invaded Prague, and Sabina and Thomas moved to Switzerland.
Stills from the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Lena Olin and Juliet Binoche
In order to make a living, Teresa and Sabina worked as models for each other and took many nude photos. The two women photograph each other in a choreographed scene that turns into an erotic ballet.
Soon, Sabina travels to the United States alone to get rid of the emotional distress brought to her by the Swiss Franz (Drake de Lint) and the Thomases return to Prague.
Thomas's article caused him a lot of trouble, but he refused to write a letter of repentance for that article, so he was expelled from the hospital, and the couple had to go to one of Thomas's former patients, an old man living in the countryside, and lived in isolation.
One night, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas and a group of villagers drove to a neighboring town to drink and have fun, and died in a car accident on the way back.
The male protagonist, surgeon Thomas, distinguishes between love and the desire to make love whether or not to share a bed with the other person. In the film, we can see the difference between Thomas's treatment of his lover Sabina and Teresa.
His lovemaking with Teresa was like a hilarious game, just to prepare for the subsequent sleep together, and the camera mostly focused on the scene of them snuggling up and falling asleep together. As Thomas's closest lover, Sabina, most of the scenes in front of the camera together are spent naked in lovemaking.
Not long after the film opens, Sabina and Thomas show a scene of flesh intercourse in front of the mirror.
Writer Milan Kundera devotes a great deal of time to the relationship between Sabina and her other lover, Franz, which is brushed over due to time constraints, but in the original book, Franz's presence triggers a series of gender reflections. Sabina's appearance also made Franz's previously unknown personality traits slowly unfold in front of people.
Sabina's relationship with Franz is completely different from the love of Thomas and Teresa. That relationship is entirely the product of the contradiction and exclusion of spirit and flesh.
Stills from the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliet Binoche
Movies adapted from famous books have always been in a difficult situation, with the pearl jade of the original book in front, people's requirements are very harsh, and there is a big difference between words and images, and it may be fairer to get rid of the original and look at the film alone. So if you don't think about Milan Kundera's so-called "lightness of life", put aside the philosophical discussion in the novel, and look at "Prague Love" with a relaxed attitude, this is indeed a very good film.
The overall structure of "Love in Prague" is not much different from the original work, but as far as the film itself is concerned, Philip Kaufmann adds an innumerable beauty that belongs only to the film lens, with music in the background, accompanied by a long period of character facial expression freeze-frame, blurred background, the real historical event - the main line that constructs the fate of the characters, but pale and unimportant.
Philip Kaufmann's "Love in Prague" may be only a small part of Milan Kundera's novel, but it is this small part, when presented to us in the image, that leaves us with questions to ponder, like the endless mirrors in the film, which are within reach but cold and attacking.
At the end of the movie, Thomas and Teresa and their friends come to the little shop to drink and dance, not knowing that their lives will end the next morning, and they are partying at the end, drinking wine and dancing.
One of the most fascinating scenes in the film appears, when Teresa seems to be walking towards Thomas with a somewhat drunken dance step, her loving eyes, happy love revealed on her face, Thomas hugs her towards the hotel room, Number 6, which corresponds to the chance of the two in the town at the beginning of the movie.
The last shot, which looks unusually serene, is the most shocking. The blurred trail stretches infinitely under the wheels with no end. The camera moves slower and slower, Teresa looks at Thomas sweetly, Thomas looks at Teresa with a smile, and she whispers in his ear thomas, what are you thinking?
Image from the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988).
Thomas continued his charming smile, just looking faintly into the distance, without a word, the happy love has been engraved in the hearts of the two, indelible, even if the notes of life come to an abrupt end, even if this happiness is so hard-won, it is so easy to pass away, but it will always exist forever...
The main thing philipp kaufman's "Love in Prague" is to express the lightness and heaviness of life, which is different from the deep and dignified exposition in the novel, and the director is simple enough to simply use the long and warlike love between Thomas and Teresa to tell us the answer to this philosophical question, Teresa's feelings for Thomas, at first she was just simple love and dependence.
Director Philip Kaufman (right) directs a scene of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia on location in the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) on location in the film Prague Love/The Unbearable Lightness of Life (1988).
Director Philip Kaufmann is very good at extracting the most propaganda themes from the novel, and in his later "Juneflower/Henry and Joan Henry & June" (1990), he showed love and desire, and "Goose Quills/Sex Book Madness Quills" (2000) was spirit and flesh, both of which are the most important parts of the original novel.
Love in Prague appeared in the era of gradual transformation of the scale of American film performance, and its birth marked the return of American cinema to the mature stage of the past, so it ignited the spark of in the United States. The film is about life and death, love and responsibility, morality and power. Philip Kaufman told an American audience a simple story about love in the style of a European film.
He broke the original rigorous and avant-garde structure and profound ideological discourse of Milan Kundera's novel, but instead of hastily adapting it into a superficial love drama, he perfectly combined political implications with love stories to meet the tastes of audiences at different levels.
Milan Kundera's Love in Prague is one of the deepest, most powerful, and most insightful works of literature of the 20th century. However, as one already knows or will soon discover: fiction and film are completely different mediums.
European film critics believe that director Philip Kaufmann's vision is elegant, eloquent and mysterious. This is necessary to visualize Milan Kundera's novel.
Stills from the movie "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", by Lena Olin and Juliet Binoche by Juliet Binoche
But this film has never been able to dig deep into the innermost emotions and contradictions of the characters, it just tries to show the helplessness and helplessness of the characters in the era through large sections of erotic scenes.
It is recommended to understand what "Prague Spring" is before watching "Prague Love". In the spring of 1968, the Czech reform movement was in full swing and was trying to break away from the control of the former Soviet Union.
As a result, the Warsaw Pact army led by the former Soviet Union invaded the Czech Republic, occupied Prague overnight, and detained Czech party and government leaders. The Czech people were furious, they took to the streets to demonstrate against the aggression of the former Soviet Union, and many went into exile.
Stills from the movie "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" from Prague's Love/The Unbearable Lightness of Life
After that, the Czech Republic carried out a great purge, and many intellectuals were persecuted. This is the historical background of "Love in Prague", which also determines the strong political color of the film.
The cast in "Love in Prague" is a key factor that makes the film unforgettable to this day. Thomas, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, has a detached temperament, and this detachment from the environment should come from his aversion to the miserly commitment of the women around him. He had a thin, intelligent face and didn't look like a greedy man.
To him, sex seemed like a form of body meditation rather than strenuous activity with another person.
At that time, Juliet Binoche's acting skills seemed to be a little immature, not as deep as the deep temperament of the later works, but it was very suitable for the role of Teresa, a young girl from a country town who had just opened her heart. She tries to reconcile her love with the detachment of her lover, which may be the core of the film.
Sabina, played by Lena Orin, has a plump, sexy body; whether it is a bold sex shot or a delicate emotional change, it gives an unforgettable impression.
All three of the bold shots in the film "Love in Prague" are "real guns", especially the passion scenes of Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliet Binoche, and it is said that when the director shouts "stop", they are still in a state of absence. It was also this investment that made the two become lovers in life at that time because of this movie.
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