Well here is my entry into ChrisJarmicks . Erotic Film Write Off . This film seems appropriate for that write-off, touted as it was as being the most erotic serious film since "Last Tango In Paris".

I've recently been reading Female Chauvinist Pigs, by Ariel Levy- a very awakening if unsubtle book about the state of modern woman in the modern world of rampant sexuality, pornography, conformity and the dumbing down of our media. Of the many points she raised, she pointed out how ultimately cold and unsensual this abundance of pornography and meat marketing is, since it is all based on gratification and disposable consumerism. The last point was one I find myself especially bearing in mind when I watched this film.

In focusing on permissive sexuality, the film Unbearable Lightness of Being presents an antidote to the modern "Girls Gone Wild" type of sexuality. Far from being cold, the scenes of foreplay have a strong warmth about them. There's something very soothing and comforting about the scenes of seduction here that reignites the fire and joy of sex into something beyond gratification and indulgent excess. It doesn't hurt that the naked women on display here do not look genetically modified by nip or tuck but look real, warts and all. The film also has a kind of persevering sense of dialogue and interaction and human interest that makes the wonderful chemistry between full or part time lovers. I have said this often whenever praising films that deal with sexual content whilst maintaining a human interest for me, but this is especially the case here- this is a strong film because the passion within the scenes of sex is so overpowering, it speaks for love and longing and human needs. It elevates the female characters beyond disposable sperm recipients into people we want to know and care for, and lets it be known that these women can be assertive and refuse sexual advances if they chose to. Which is very important indeed and sorely neglected in the easily consumed trash of modern mainstream porn.

The film is set in Prague in the late 1960's, and initially focuses on the exploits of the local surgeon and skilled womanizer Tomas (Daniel Day Lewis). With time he comes to marry the meek Tereza (Juliet Binochet) but that doesn't put a stop to his lecherous ways. However their marriage takes place at the backdrop of the political turmoil of Czechoslovakia, where the country's homegrown Communist regime has been overthrown only to be re-implemented by Soviet Russian imperialism.

The strength of the film is hard to describe- it has a strange sort of undefineable beauty that's hard to put into words, but its a combination of great elements of film. Daniel Day Lewis -from British cinematic greats such as My Beautiful Laundaurette and In The Name of the Father- brings to his role a sense of sharp-eyed cunning and perception within a calm exterior and delivers his lines with quietly commanding aplomb. His movements are spot on and his emotional aspect is subtlely conveyed by facial acting. Juliet Binochet (who I've fancied ever since seeing her in The English Patient) likewise has the kind of expressive performance that really stayed with me after viewing. She conveys such an endearing element of meekness and modesty and child-like fascination with everything new she comes across- like in The English Patient, she represents carefree innocence in times of political belligerence. Hers is a performance that touches the hard to reach areas of the cynical heart and made me want to bunch up and love the character. But from there it guides the character to a very unhappy plain, as she despairs of Tomas' continuing infidelities and speaks of how mentally tortured she is by it all- the script makes a wonderful economy of dialogue by which characters can articulate their feelings in vivid detail and give the film a strong sense of intimacy. Whilst she is perhaps in a position of dependance on Tomas despite his unfaithfulness to her, her brave outspokenness about the way he is treating her makes her come across as actually being quite strong in some ways and makes her someone to raleigh on and this makes me sympathise with her character without pitying her to the degree of seeing her as a hopeless cause.

The cinematography of Prague is beautiful without really lavishing itself in the scenery. It plays it low key, the settings simply a place of living with landmarks that gradually become familiar to the audience as they bring the characters to a welcome home. Something about the way the film is shot makes the characters who inhabit it feel somehow fragile, maybe it is the light and pale colour scheme that gives the film a ghostly look.

What we have is two characters in love who dominate the picture. Their relationship, their friendships with others, their long progression of life and their anxieties take centre stage, much like in Boyz N' the Hood- the civil unrest and violence is treated largely as peripheral and only rarely ever comes into the screen, but somehow that works perfectly.

In terms of the scenes of civil unrest somehow less is more. We concentrate squarely on the characters and in giving them a full pulse through superb acting and literate dialogue from a book that immediately gets to the character's souls and feelings. Somehow the sense of insecurity over their relationship speaks for and spills over properly into a countrywide insecurity over the communist invasion. They represent family and how home is where happiness and the heart is, that speaks for the hollow sadness of being displaced by political force and made to become refugees. Even the sex itself, particularly the infidelity is a representation of the passions surrounding this social turmoil. Taking the steps towards engaging in sex is shown vividly as something that can be frightening, and committing infidelity leads to paranoia and both of these represent the unease of living in the repressive regime with its invasive spies and draconian police enforcement.

As I said this approach works wonderfully, for in the few moments that we see Tomas and Tereza in life or death encounters with the Communist Military, the moments are uncontrived and unsensationalised but we find ourselves really fearing for Tomas and Tereza's safety. Somehow as people they seem so alive and so ordinary and inexperienced at violence, and we know that because we have seen a long stretch of their lives, that we really feel as though what goes down here really could spell the death for them in an instant. The scene where Tereza, working as a journalist is photographing scenes of military junture and is repeatedly taking photographs of a general who is pointing a gun right at her, barking orders at her to point her camera away, is one such moment that really makes you hold your breath.

The film represents something truly special in the middle of the 80's as a film that is neither cheesy or pretentious or heavy handed- just very mature cinema, able to easily go through the motions of spirited humour, happiness, sadness, love, fear and loss. It is a political story seen through the eyes of apolitical characters and it is as captivating as life itself.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age