XCheck
Veteran
You old-timers know what will follow, right? :evil:
That's right - a little bit of Bohemian propaganda from this ex-Czecho nut, combined with some musing on life, love, sex, and politics (ouch! I really, really don't want this thread to be banned, so I'll tread lightly).
So - I picked up a copy of the recently released two-disc special edition of Unbearable Lightness of Being. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a gem - the 'sexiest serious film of the year', as someone put it.
Directed by Philip Kaufmann, edited by none other than Walter Murch, the film is an adaptation of a novel by Czech author Milan Kundera, who was forced out of Czechoslovakia after the Soviet invasion of 1968, and whose novels I used to read secretely from carbon copies back in my university years. What I didn't know that it was originally supposed to be directed by Milos Forman (Amadeus, One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest), my famous compatriot. Milos refused because even in mid 80s, Kundera's books were still prohibited in Czechoslovakia, and Forman didn't want to piss off the CS government because he still had family in Prague.
I first saw this movie in early 1990s, and I remember it as a very painful experience. After all, the whole atmosphere of fear and distrust that followed after 1968 were my formative years, and the primary reason why I left the country. At the same time (or perhaps above all), it is a beautiful love story, that is so much more poignant when juxtaposed against the background of gratuitous sex, military occupation, and general lack of freedom. One reminder that life and politics can't be so easily separated (nudge, nudge, wink, wink:thumbsup: ).
I found it interesting that seeing it more than ten year later, I was touched by the film in quite a different way than the first time. I focused much more on the love story, less on the politics (could it be that I've matured? no - that can't be!). Still, scenes of tanks rolling down the streets of Prague brought tears to my eyes, and made my heart hurt. Why, oh why did NATO, the UN, do nothing? The unoficial explanation is Vietnam (US to USSR: we stay out of Czechoslovakia and you stay out of Vietnam)... the official one - who knows?
Personally, growing up, I would have preferred American liberators over Russian (and mostly home-grown) oppressors, which probably says a lot about my views on the state of current geopolitical affairs, but then again, this gem of a film would probably never be made. It's strange how beautiful things have the tendency to sprout out of conflict...
Anyway - the Special features (interviews with Saul Zaents, Philip Kaufman and Walter Murch) are fascinating! One sentence says it all: 'How the hell did they manage to shoot this film in Prague?' (remember, it was made before the fall of communism). If you really want to know, go get a copy.
If anyone has seen it, let me know what you think.
:beer: Cheers!
That's right - a little bit of Bohemian propaganda from this ex-Czecho nut, combined with some musing on life, love, sex, and politics (ouch! I really, really don't want this thread to be banned, so I'll tread lightly).
So - I picked up a copy of the recently released two-disc special edition of Unbearable Lightness of Being. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a gem - the 'sexiest serious film of the year', as someone put it.
Directed by Philip Kaufmann, edited by none other than Walter Murch, the film is an adaptation of a novel by Czech author Milan Kundera, who was forced out of Czechoslovakia after the Soviet invasion of 1968, and whose novels I used to read secretely from carbon copies back in my university years. What I didn't know that it was originally supposed to be directed by Milos Forman (Amadeus, One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest), my famous compatriot. Milos refused because even in mid 80s, Kundera's books were still prohibited in Czechoslovakia, and Forman didn't want to piss off the CS government because he still had family in Prague.
I first saw this movie in early 1990s, and I remember it as a very painful experience. After all, the whole atmosphere of fear and distrust that followed after 1968 were my formative years, and the primary reason why I left the country. At the same time (or perhaps above all), it is a beautiful love story, that is so much more poignant when juxtaposed against the background of gratuitous sex, military occupation, and general lack of freedom. One reminder that life and politics can't be so easily separated (nudge, nudge, wink, wink:thumbsup: ).
I found it interesting that seeing it more than ten year later, I was touched by the film in quite a different way than the first time. I focused much more on the love story, less on the politics (could it be that I've matured? no - that can't be!). Still, scenes of tanks rolling down the streets of Prague brought tears to my eyes, and made my heart hurt. Why, oh why did NATO, the UN, do nothing? The unoficial explanation is Vietnam (US to USSR: we stay out of Czechoslovakia and you stay out of Vietnam)... the official one - who knows?
Personally, growing up, I would have preferred American liberators over Russian (and mostly home-grown) oppressors, which probably says a lot about my views on the state of current geopolitical affairs, but then again, this gem of a film would probably never be made. It's strange how beautiful things have the tendency to sprout out of conflict...
Anyway - the Special features (interviews with Saul Zaents, Philip Kaufman and Walter Murch) are fascinating! One sentence says it all: 'How the hell did they manage to shoot this film in Prague?' (remember, it was made before the fall of communism). If you really want to know, go get a copy.
If anyone has seen it, let me know what you think.
:beer: Cheers!
