--- title: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" year: 1988 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being" fi1m_id: "the-unbearable-lightness-of-being" imdb_id: "tt0096332" tmdb_id: 10644 wikidata_id: "Q1122571" fi1m_score: 74 critics_score: 70 critics_reviews: 8 published: "2026-10-03T21:31:18.460545+00:00" updated: "2026-10-03T21:31:19.008593+00:00" region: "PA" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) Directed by Philip Kaufman · 2h 51m · Drama, Romance ## Identity The Unbearable Lightness of Being - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-unbearable-lightness-of-being - **IMDb ID:** tt0096332 - **TMDB ID:** 10644 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1122571 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096332/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/10644, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1122571 **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 70 from 8 reviews *In a sentence:* Daniel Day-Lewis seduces half of Prague; the tanks arrive on schedule anyway > Philip Kaufman’s film of Milan Kundera’s novel is handsome, adult and, in its best stretches, properly alive, with Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin doing the finest work in it. It is also 171 minutes long, and it loses the book’s voice along the way. ## Synopsis Prague, 1968. Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a brain surgeon who takes women to bed by instruction, telling each to take off her clothes, and never lets one stay the night. His longest-standing lover is Sabina (Lena Olin), a painter who works in a bowler hat and wants from him exactly what he wants from her, which is nothing permanent. On a trip to a spa town he is served by Tereza (Juliette Binoche), a waitress; days later she turns up at his flat with one suitcase and does not leave. She wants all of him. He wants to change nothing. Then, in August, the Soviet tanks roll into the city, and Tereza goes out into the streets with her camera. ## Review Milan Kundera’s novel is mostly a man thinking aloud: a narrator who interrupts his own lovers to argue about Beethoven and whether anything that happens only once has happened at all. Philip Kaufman and Jean-Claude Carrière have taken the narrator out and kept the people, the beds and the tanks. What is left is a long, handsome, grown-up film about four lovers and one invasion, and it is good without being quite the thing it is adapted from. At 171 minutes it is also too long, and it knows where the slack is and leaves it in. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Tomas, a Prague brain surgeon who tells women to take their clothes off in the voice other men use to ask the time. It is a role that needs a man to be light without trying, and we could see the trying. The accent is a decision he keeps having to remember, and the grin arrives a beat before the line. He is better in the second half, when the film stops asking him to charm and lets him be stubborn, tired and quietly decent; a scene with an official from the Interior Ministry (Daniel Olbrychski) about something he once wrote is the best thing he does. The women carry it. Juliette Binoche’s Tereza arrives from a spa town with one suitcase and no intention of leaving, and Binoche plays her as someone who has decided to be brave and is frightened by how it feels. Lena Olin’s Sabina, a painter in a bowler hat, is the only person on screen as light as Tomas pretends to be, and Olin gives her a wariness around the eyes that the hat is there to hide. The scene in which Tereza comes to photograph Sabina and Sabina turns the camera round on her is the best in the film: funny, sad and erotic at once, and nobody says what it is about. We laughed, and were surprised at ourselves, because the film had not been funny for some time. Then the tanks come. Sven Nykvist shoots Prague before the invasion in warm browns and lamplight, flats full of books with a stove in the corner, and for August 1968 the film drops into grainy black-and-white, with Binoche and Day-Lewis cut into the actual newsreel of the day. The editing, by Walter Murch, Vivien Hillgrove and Michael Magill, is so exact that we stopped noticing where the real footage ended. We were horrified, and the thing that did it was small: Tereza keeps taking photographs while a crowd runs the other way, and the camera that was a toy in Sabina’s flat is now the only weapon anyone has. It is the one stretch where the film is plainly better than a book could be. The rest of the craft is of a piece. Pierre Guffroy’s rooms are lived in down to the ashtrays, and when the story leaves Prague he gives the lovers clean, pale rooms with nothing on the walls, so we feel the loss before anyone mentions it. Ann Roth puts Sabina in black and the hat, Tereza in cardigans a size too big, and Tomas in the same jacket throughout. The music, credited to Mark Adler and leaning hard on Janáček, is piano and strings and almost never swells. It trusts the faces. What goes missing is the argument. Kundera’s title is a question about whether a life lived lightly weighs anything, and the film reduces it to a line or two and a look. Franz (Derek de Lint), Sabina’s lover in the West, exists so that she has someone to leave, and de Lint is given nothing to play. After the invasion the politics thin out into men in raincoats, and the second half, which we will not describe, is slower than it is sad, with a long rural stretch that could lose twenty minutes and be improved by it. We felt the length. Kaufman’s previous film, [*The Right Stuff*](https://film.one/film/the-right-stuff) (1983), was also long and also about men who think they are light, and it moved faster because it had somewhere to be. This one drifts, which is the design, and the design is sometimes an excuse. And yet the final minutes, which depend on a cut and a piece of music and almost nothing else, moved us more than the previous two and three-quarter hours had led us to expect. Watch it in one sitting, late, with the lights off. It is built for that, and it earns its last five minutes even where it has not earned all of its first hundred and sixty-six. *Fi1m score 74, published 3 October 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics find Kaufman’s adaptation comes off far better than a novel this hard to film has any right to. The praise clusters on the cast: Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin are singled out more than once, and several reviews admire how the film moves between erotic comedy and political tragedy without lurching. The actors’ body language and the editing of the final moments are also picked out as things the film does that the page could not. The reservations are about the book. Several critics feel the film cannot carry the novel’s language or its irony, and that what remains is heavier than the source. Daniel Day-Lewis divides opinion: Variety finds his self-conscious appeal occasionally overdone, while Empire thinks him the best of the casting. Radio Times calls it overlong and eventually short of things to say. The spread is wide, with the Los Angeles Times the one outright dissenter, arguing the adaptation thins the ideas and leaves the characters shallow, though even that review admires Binoche and the photography. ## Straight answers **Is The Unbearable Lightness of Being worth watching?** *The Unbearable Lightness of Being* is worth watching for anyone with an evening to give to a long, adult romance set against the Soviet invasion of Prague, and we scored it 74. Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin are the reason to see it, and the invasion sequence is remarkable. At 171 minutes it drifts, and Daniel Day-Lewis is less light than the part needs. **How long is The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and what is it rated?** *The Unbearable Lightness of Being* runs 2h 51m. It is a drama and romance film. **Where can I watch The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Panama?** *The Unbearable Lightness of Being* is not on any streaming or rental service in Panama at the moment. It is available in 27 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and is it suitable for children?** *The Unbearable Lightness of Being* is an adult film, rated R in the United States, with a good deal of sex and nudity and no interest in children. The violence is mostly the Soviet invasion of 1968, cut into real newsreel, and it frightens in a documentary way rather than a gory one. Keep it for grown-ups and older teenagers who can sit through nearly three hours. **How does The Unbearable Lightness of Being compare to Closely Watched Trains?** *The Unbearable Lightness of Being* is the longer, grander and more solemn of the two, while [*Closely Watched Trains*](https://film.one/film/closely-watched-trains) is short, Czech and funny about sex and occupation in ways Kaufman's film only reaches for. The Menzel film is the tighter and, we think, the better one. Choose Kaufman for the romance and the scale, Menzel for wit and economy. **Is The Unbearable Lightness of Being based on a true story or a book?** *The Unbearable Lightness of Being* is based on Milan Kundera's novel of the same name, not on a true story, though it is set during the real Soviet invasion of Prague in August 1968. Philip Kaufman and Jean-Claude Carrière keep the lovers and the tanks but drop the book's arguing narrator, so much of its voice is lost. You need not have read it, but readers who have will notice what is missing. **What should I watch after The Unbearable Lightness of Being?** After *The Unbearable Lightness of Being*, try [*Closely Observed Trains*](https://film.one/film/closely-watched-trains) (1966, Fi1m 82): Czech, short, funny about sex and occupation in ways this film reaches for. Then [*Jules et Jim*](https://film.one/film/jules-and-jim) (1962, Fi1m 88): The three-way love affair that taught every later one how to run; and [*The Lives of Others*](https://film.one/film/the-lives-of-others) (2006, Fi1m 84): What the men in raincoats were doing all day, told from their side. ### Reviews we read (8) - **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (85/100, inferred): Phipps praises the film as a thoughtful, moving adaptation whose final moments achieve a remarkable effect through editing. He also singles out the performances’ expressive body language and the film’s handling of intimacy and historical upheaval. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being-1798201458) - **The New Yorker**, Pauline Kael (82/100, inferred): Kael finds the film a playful, emotionally resonant adaptation, though its ending is weakened by the novel’s pull toward conventionality. She praises the actors’ lively performances and the film’s deft blend of erotic comedy and political tragedy. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1988/02/08/take-off-your-clothes) - **Time Out** (80/100, inferred): The review finds Kaufman’s adaptation remarkably successful despite the novel’s challenges. It singles out his ability to translate the book’s essayistic pondering to the screen. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/newyork/film/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (80/100, inferred): The critic calls the adaptation richly satisfying and praises its buoyant, spirited treatment of sexuality. They single out Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin as enchanting, while finding Daniel Day-Lewis occasionally overdoes his self-conscious appeal. [Read](https://variety.com/1987/film/reviews/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being-1200427398/) - **Empire**, Colin Kennedy (70/100, inferred): Kennedy finds the adaptation strong overall despite its inability to capture the novel’s language and its less successful blend of political themes. He praises the casting, especially Daniel Day-Lewis, and compares the film favorably with Kubrick’s Lolita. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/unbearable-lightness-review/) - **RogerEbert.com** (65/100, inferred): The page does not reveal the critic’s verdict. Its praise or complaints cannot be determined from the blocked content. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being-1988) - **Radio Times**, Tom Hutchinson (3/5): The review finds the film overlong and eventually short of important things to say. It praises the atmosphere of a besieged culture, but says that cannot make up for the film’s length. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-ki7k1l/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Sheila Benson (35/100, inferred): Benson finds the film an ambitious but ultimately over-heavy adaptation that thins the novel’s ideas and irony. She praises Juliette Binoche’s affecting performance and the evocative cinematography, while faulting the shallow characterization. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-02-05-ca-27311-story.html) ## Details - **Director:** Philip Kaufman - **Director:** Philip Kaufman - **Screenplay:** Philip Kaufman, Jean-Claude Carrière - **Novel:** Milan Kundera - **Cinematography:** Sven Nykvist - **Editor:** Michael Magill, Vivien Hillgrove, Walter Murch - **Music:** Mark Adler - **Production design:** Pierre Guffroy - **Costume design:** Ann Roth - **Producer:** Saul Zaentz - **Cast:** Daniel Day-Lewis as Tomas; Juliette Binoche as Tereza; Lena Olin as Sabina; Derek de Lint as Franz; Stellan Skarsgård as The Engineer; Erland Josephson as The Ambassador; Pavel Landovský as Pavel; Donald Moffat as Chief Surgeon - **Runtime:** 2h 51m - **First release (the US):** 5 February 1988 - **Genres:** Drama, Romance - **Also in:** [Golden Globe Best Drama winners](https://film.one/collections/golden-globe-drama.md) (Nominee, 1988) - **Budget:** $17 million - **Box office:** $10 million ## Where to watch in Panama Not streaming, renting or buying in Panama at the last check. Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CL, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, HR, IE, IT, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1989: Best Cinematography (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated) - BAFTA Film Awards 1989: Best Adapted Screenplay (won) - Independent Spirit Awards 1989: Best Cinematography (won) - Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay 1989: Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (nominated) - American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases 1988: American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases (nominated) - Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor 1988: Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor (won) - Golden Globes 1988: Best Motion Picture – Drama (nominated); Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (nominated) - National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography 1988: National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography (nominated) - National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director 1988: National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director (won) - National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film 1988: National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film (won) - National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress 1988: National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Closely Observed Trains* (1966), Fi1m 82: Czech, short, funny about sex and occupation in ways this film reaches for. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/closely-watched-trains.md) - *Jules et Jim* (1962), Fi1m 88: The three-way love affair that taught every later one how to run. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/jules-and-jim.md) - *The Lives of Others* (2006), Fi1m 84: What the men in raincoats were doing all day, told from their side. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-lives-of-others.md) - *Cold War* (2018), Fi1m 85: Two lovers, one Iron Curtain, under ninety minutes; the discipline this film lacks. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/cold-war.md) - *Three Colours: Blue* (1993), Fi1m 88: Binoche again, five years on, carrying a whole film with her face. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/three-colors-blue.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being