The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“Suddenly, sex seemed a little less mysterious to me …”Some will point out that the furniture-toppling first encounter between Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis) and sudden skating partner Tereza (Juliette Binoche) is this movie’s most beautifully erotic scene for its joyful unbridling of Tereza’s pent-up desire. But when I saw this film in college, I was struck most by the intimate sparring between Tomas and Sabina (Lena Olin) near the film’s opening. Sabina tells Tomas that his philandering ways are the opposite of kitsch. “In the kingdom of kitsch, you would be a monster,” she tells him. Whereupon he flips her over so her head hangs off the bed, places her great-grandfather’s bowler atop his head while enjoining her, and scoots a chair from in front of the dressing mirror so she can see. “What am I now? A monster.” I didn’t know sex could have jokes and giggling in the middle. I always believed that once the music started to play, you got up on that stage and performed your piece, concentrating not to forget the moves. Suddenly, sex seemed a little less mysterious to me, a shy youngster who believed that being attracted to a woman and being comfortable with her were pretty much mutually exclusive.
This article appears in August 11 • 2000.