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The Unbearable Lightness of Being

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Drama · Romance · 1988

Successful surgeon Tomas leaves Prague for an operation, meets a young photographer named Tereza, and brings her back with him. Tereza is surprised to learn that Tomas is already having an affair with the bohemian Sabina, but when the Soviet invasion occurs, all three flee to Switzerland. Sabina begins an affair, Tom continues womanizing, and Tereza, disgusted, returns to Czechoslovakia. Realizing his mistake, Tomas decides to chase after her.

Movie details

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“A lovers’ story.”

1988 Drama · Romance 2h 51m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.2 / 10

40.2K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

86 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

73 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.8 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Successful surgeon Tomas leaves Prague for an operation, meets a young photographer named Tereza, and brings her back with him. Tereza is surprised to learn that Tomas is already having an affair with the bohemian Sabina, but when the Soviet invasion occurs, all three flee to Switzerland. Sabina begins an affair, Tom continues womanizing, and Tereza, disgusted, returns to Czechoslovakia. Realizing his mistake, Tomas decides to chase after her.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Unbearable Lightness of Being?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Philip Kaufman

Written by

Jean-Claude Carrière · Philip Kaufman

Daniel Day-Lewis

Daniel Day-Lewis

Tomas

Juliette Binoche

Juliette Binoche

Tereza

Lena Olin

Lena Olin

Sabina

Derek de Lint

Derek de Lint

Franz

Stellan Skarsgård

Stellan Skarsgård

The Engineer

Erland Josephson

Erland Josephson

The Ambassador

Pavel Landovský

Pavel Landovský

Pavel

Court is in session

Put The Unbearable Lightness of Being on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.