"Love in Prague"-the unbearable lightness of life

Ryleigh 2022-01-07 15:54:05

The name Milan Kundera became a household name when I was very young. Everyone extolled his good name, saying that his literary works had won the Nobel Prize for literature, and that his works contained profound philosophical principles. But I have never been lucky enough to read it. I have read a few famous quotes in his book. The sentences in the impression are beautiful and connotative. I am deeply moved. I just don’t know what the inspiration comes from, and I always treat him with words. There is the closest feeling of strangeness between the lines. I don't know why, maybe this is the initial touch of philosophy. Milan Kundera’s most famous work is "The Unbearable Lightness of Life". The name itself is contradictory. Almost everyone is praising the book's greatness, even those who cannot read it. • Kundera is profound and great. I know that people in the world are not completely arty. Someone must have understood it. I also believe that this is a good book. Although I have not read this book and never understood it, I I am always curious in my heart. It wasn't until one day that I met the movie "Love in Prague" that I discovered that this movie was adapted from Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Life". So I watched this more than three-hour old movie with questions like "What is the lightness of the unbearable lightness of life, and why can't our lives bear the lightness". Although I can't say that the movie fully presents the original appearance of the novel, but more or less, I suddenly understand what the unbearable lightness of life is. In the play, love is mainly used to express the lightness and importance of life, followed by patriotism. Love involves four characters, Thomas and Theresa, and Franz and Sabina. The lightness and weight of Thomas and Theresa. Before meeting Teresa, Thomas had fun every day, wandering on the beds of various beauties, enjoying life in a bohemian manner. After meeting Teresa, he seemed to understand what love was but still refused to give up the entire forest. He always believes that life is light, love is also light, everything has no deep meaning, he lives freely. Teresa lived a heavy life, valued love and life, and even loved dogs deeply. Teresa can't accept that Thomas sees love and desire so clearly, she doesn't understand how love and desire can be separated, so her love for him is so heavy that she can't breathe. At the beginning of the play, Thomas told Sabina that he never went to a woman’s house or let a woman spend the night in his house, and then he took in "like being put into a resin-coated straw basket, drifting along the water." "The baby in front of his door", Teresa, he told himself that he was just sympathizing, but he saw Milan Kundera’s "Unbearable The explanation of the word sympathy on P15-16 in "The Lightness of Life" will understand that sympathy is "a kind of the strongest emotional imagination and heart-inspired stress, and it is supreme in the level of feelings." This kind of supreme feeling is the easiest to shake Thomas' view of life "light", Teresa's arrival gradually changed him, making him finally start to value life. Sabina later asked Thomas why he wanted to take in Teresa. Thomas replied: "If I have two lives, one life I could invite her to stay at my place, and second life I could kick her out, and I could compare and see which thing is the best to do. But we only live once, life is so light, like an outline that we could never...fill or correct to make it better. It's frightening." In Thomas’ subconscious, he never met Teresa started his life from "light" to "heavy". Teresa, who could not bear the weight of her life in Geneva, chose to leave Thomas and return to the war-torn and weak Czech Republic. When she left, she left a letter with the following content: "Thomas, I know I'm supposed to help you, but I can't . Instead of being your support, I'm your weight. Life is very heavy to me, and it is so light to you. I can't bear this lightness, this freedom. I'm not strong enough. In Prague I only needed you for love. In Switzerland I was depending on you for everything. "Theresa thinks life is important, Thomas thinks life is light, but Teresa can't bear this "light" weight. Thomas, who finished reading the letter, fell into contemplation, Teresa should have left. It made him feel relaxed, but he felt heavy, because he valued Teresa, so he chose to follow Teresa back to the Czech Republic. Just before that, Sabina said she was going to the United States, let Thomas be with her, Thomas only I think she was joking. I guess Sabina was joking at the time, but there is sincerity in any joke. It is difficult to tell whether it is more genuine or more joking. But I am sure that Thomas loves Teresa but does not love Sabine. Na. The film repeatedly shows Thomas and Sabina physically blending together, and the scenes of Thomas and Teresa lying on the bed. This is a different embodiment of Thomas' desire and love, and it is also the expression of love he has explored in his life. As the book says: "Love is not manifested by the desire to make love (this can be the desire for countless women), but by the desire to sleep with her (this can only be the desire for a woman) from. "As the old saying goes: "Hold your hand and grow old with you." "The most beautiful and romantic thing in the world is that as soon as I open my eyes, I can see the sunlight shining through the curtains and the face of the lover bathed in the morning light. The years go by, but you are always there. Shrouded in gunpowder and darkness. The Czech Republic once again made Teresa feel suffocated, so they went to the country and led a seemingly boring but carefree rural life. In the pub, Teresa danced with friends, and Thomas looked at Teres affectionately. Leisa, eyes are full of spoiling love, he never needs to find happiness from other women, because his happiness is by his side. On the way back, the road slipped on a rainy day, the brakes failed, and they both passed away. The movie At the end, the director did not directly show us the car accident footage. We saw the green mountains in the drenched rain through the window glass of the wiper. Thomas and Teresa murmured and laughed. Thomas’ mouth was shallow. Laughing revealed his deep happiness, even his eyes were full of bright light, Teresa asked him what he was thinking, and he said he was thinking about why he is so happy. I love this ending, this is in tragedy It still makes people feel warm and romantic at the end. But can you say that this is really a tragedy? Maybe they didn't live a long life, but they were happy when they died, and they were always together, endless, life and death. This love is also immortal. Franz and Sabina’s lightness and weight, Sabina and Thomas are actually the same kind of people, they both firmly believe that life itself has no meaning, and feelings and everything are heavy burdens. They want to live. Have to be relaxed, so they never show mercy. So they are the most A good lover, of course, the appearance of Teresa has changed Thomas. If Thomas is exploring the meaning of life and finally feels that life has changed from "light" to "heavy", then Sabina is almost "light" in the entire movie. "The perfect embodiment. She never stayed in one place for a long time. In her words, she didn't want to have feelings for one place, whether it was for people or things. She is beautiful and free. When the motherland was in distress, she resolutely left. When Franz was preparing to spend the rest of her life with her to divorce her and his wife, she was frightened and fled to the United States. After that, she herself had a leisurely life in the United States. Yeah, how could a beautiful and smart woman be unhappy? When Franz dragged the box to her house, she smiled back and held Franz with a tearful smile. She was moved. For a moment, she was also shaken. She also thought that maybe she could find a man she could rely on. It's not bad to live a lifetime like this, but in the end she chose to leave without saying goodbye. I actually admire such a woman, but I feel sorry for her. How could a person survive the world without feelings at all, or why would she be moved by Franz? At the end of the movie, Sabina, who was far away in the United States, received a letter from Europe that said the death of Thomas and Theresa. Tears shed unconsciously. When a friend asked her what the letter said, she turned her face full of tears. Said her closest friend died. So, even if she was unwilling to do this subjectively, she still had feelings for them. This is the "lightness" that Sabina can't bear in her life, the "lightness" that cannot be resisted but can't be endured. In addition to the "light" and "heavy" about love, there is also a patriotism in the movie. For example, Thomas once openly mocked the authorities and even wrote words to mock their kitsch. Later, the relevant personnel threatened him to confess his mistake. In the face of intimidation and truth, he resolutely chose the latter. He said that many people did not understand him, but Teresa said she did. Thomas seems to despise life, but in essence, he still values ​​life. The reason why he despised life before was because he did not meet the right person, but in his bones he always valued feelings, otherwise he would rather lose it. Such a high-level position as a brain surgeon is just to retain the tiny but powerful love for the motherland in my heart. He is noble, no matter how you say it. There is another plot in the film that I like very much, that is Karenin’s death, or Karenin’s smile. Karenin is the pet puppy that Thomas gave to Teresa at the wedding. It has witnessed their love and life from birth to death. Dogs have no language, and they seem to have no expressions. We can only perceive their current emotions from their actions. Karenin was dying of cancer, Teresa couldn’t bear it. After tears, Thomas made euthanasia with his own hands. In the face of death and illness, it wagged its tail slightly (we all know that the dog wagged its tail because of happiness), and Teresa simply said that it was smiling. It went very peacefully, and the process of its departure was not very painful, and it did not make us very painful. On the contrary, a warm air rose in our heart, which was transported by blood to every part of the body, warming. we. Death is terrible, but the attachment and indifference in the face of death can still make people feel happy, just like the death of the hero and heroine in the movie. While doing Karenin’s euthanasia, Teresa’s hand has been gently stroking its hair, and she said to Thomas with tears: "I was forced to love my mother, but not to love this dog. You know, Thomas, maybe, maybe I love her more than I love you. Not more, I mean in a better way. Don't be jealous of her. I don't want her to be different. I don't ask her for anything back. "Theresa's words give us a new understanding of love. That is to love subjectively without being affected by any objective conditions, and regardless of whether it can be repaid. People can have such selfless love for pets, but Why do people’s love for people always have conditions and expect to be rewarded? The famous and outstanding feature of "The Unbearable Lightness of Life" is not only because it is a good love story, but more importantly, it contains In order to understand profound philosophical principles. Milan Kundera’s thoughts have a strong existential tendency. Therefore, in "The Unbearable Lightness of Life", the author's concern for the fate and value of life is the theme of the book. The question of the existence and value of life is a question that no one can escape. Life is just a process. In Milan Kundera’s view, life is a kind of pain. This pain comes from our wrong choice of life goals and misjudgments of the value of life. Everyone in the world is pursuing their goals, as everyone knows, the goals themselves. It is a kind of emptiness. Life has become vulgar because of "pursuit", and human beings have become slaves enslaved by "pursuit". In the name of "pursuit", whether we are wandering or following the rules, we end up repeating our predecessors endlessly. Therefore, there will be only two words left in the history of mankind—'kitsch'. The above evaluation is taken from Baidu Encyclopedia, but I have a different view. First of all, I strongly agree that life is just a process, and I also agree that life is a kind of pain, which is not only physical but also spiritual. Physically Needless to say, the pain of the spirit does not need to be said. As mentioned above, the pain of the whole life is caused by the wrong positioning of the goal of life. As for the emptiness, the goal is empty, and our life is also empty. But this emptiness does not mean that our lives are meaningless. Will Durant discussed the same question about the meaning of life in "On the Meaning of Life." He visited and asked many contemporary masters from all walks of life, and they A summary of the answers came to this conclusion. The general meaning is that life is meaningless, but those beautiful but trivial moments that are easily overlooked are actually the meaning of life. For example, you feel the breeze blowing in your ears. It’s refreshing, or you see the warmth of the sun passing through the shadow of the whirling tree and falling on your cheeks. These are not important details, but these are the meaning of our lives. Because life is meaningless, so feel every one of them with your heart. Life is full in an instant. The so-called "pursuit" is actually just a repeat of the previous behavior, which is meaningless. I have reservations. Maybe whatever we do is meaningless, anyway we After all, human beings must be extinct. Anyway, the universe does not necessarily exist forever, but is it because of this that everything is meaningless? Even if everything I do in this life is just copying and imitating the predecessors, but no matter what, this is my life, as long as I complete my pursuit of dreams, then it is meaningful to me, even if In the end, I didn't complete the pursuit of my dream. As long as I went all out in the process and gained something, it would still be meaningful. As for "kitsch", I think I have to admit that the entire history of mankind is indeed like this. Only a few "alternatives" are not, but in fact they are just not so "kitsch", "kitsch" is the shackles that no one can get rid of. In the story, Milan Kundera only uses the love between Thomas and Theresa to tell the so-called "light" and "heavy" in life, and the "light" that our lives cannot bear in love, but in reality this "Light" also has a deeper meaning. Milan Kundera is a person who has experienced World War II. We all know that the last century was almost a century shrouded in war. Humankind has never had such a large-scale war, and it happened twice in a row. Many people have experienced more than one war, some even twice, such as Will Durant I mentioned earlier. As for those who have not experienced war, their birth and growth are also surrounded by trauma and indifference. War has changed people's hearts and changed the world. Because of the war, most people are unhappy and live in melancholy all day long. Happiness is only a short-lived indulgence. Happiness is a distant and empty word. So we have postmodernism in literature and painting, and existentialism in philosophy. Existentialism started in Germany, but developed in France. When I read French history, I saw that there was a large section introducing French existential philosophy. At that time, I was still young and I only remembered the names of Sartre and Gide. Existentialism was four blanks for me. character. Please forgive me, the philosophy is too profound, I am stupid and unbreakable. In my junior year of French literature, I studied French postmodernist literature for a semester, because the teacher at the time was a doctoral tutor of literature at the Seventh University in Paris, and she herself received a doctorate in French postmodern literature. So I accepted the influence of Camus, Sartre, Beauvoir, and Duras for a semester. The writing is naturally difficult to understand, especially in French, but the interesting thing is that the course turned out to be in my four years of university. The highest score in French-related courses: 93 points. For literature, especially French postmodernist literature, this achievement is really high. Although I got very high grades, but said I really don’t know what the inexplicable words written by these people really want to express. Especially Camus mentioned repeatedly by the teacher, maybe because they are all Algerians. I admit it, Baidu Camus found that he was really handsome and tasteful. He was also versatile. It was a pity that he died at a young age. But the ghost knows what the "Outsider" is actually expressing. I still remember reading "The Outsider" repeatedly for the final exam, but I was always stuck in the first sentence. "Ma mère est morte. Hier ou aujourd'hui, je ne sais pas. I went to Baidu for a lot of information, about movies, about novels, about authors, and about existential philosophy. Then, at a certain moment when I was reading a lot of information, tears burst from my eyes, and suddenly I realized it. At that moment, I also felt uncontrollable sadness, just like people in that era. Human beings have faced two universes since their birth, and have been exploring these two universes all the time. One of them is the extremely distant outer universe, and the other is the extremely deep inner universe. Our exploration of these two universes started at the same time, but the proportions of their exploration in different eras are different. In the epic era of heroes, people open up space and conquer nature, demonstrating great power that no other animal can match. And when our exploration and conquest of the outside world reach a certain level, human beings begin to cast their eyes on the essential meaning of life and the self-criticism of human nature. The world began to be connected as a whole in the development of human history for nearly 500 years. In the past 100 years, we have been able to explore the universe beyond the earth, and human exploration of the outer universe has developed unprecedentedly. The two world wars brought trauma to the world, so humans began to explore the inner universe more deeply while continuing to explore the outer universe. Indifference, sadness and loneliness, there is no better soil for the growth of philosophy, so we have existentialism in the 20th century. "The fundamental point of existentialism is to regard the irrational consciousness activities of isolated individuals as the most real existence and as the starting point of all its philosophy. Existentialism claims to be a philosophy that takes people as the center and respects human personality and freedom. Existentialism goes beyond the scope of pure philosophy, and affects all aspects of the spiritual life of Western society, and its influence in literature and art is particularly prominent." This is the explanation of existentialism given by Baidu Baike. In fact, Western philosophy has always been people-oriented and has always been studying people. I think existentialism studies people to the extreme. Existential philosophy is very interesting and profound. If you look at the existential philosophical views given by Baidu Encyclopedia, there are the following points: existence prior to essence, accidental absurdity, free choice, human relationship, tragedy theory, and theological relationship. Seeing these main points, I understand. Because of the cruelty of war, people are traumatized, lonely and helpless, and the deepest philosophy is always born in the most painful loneliness, so people start to think about the meaning of life, and start to explore some of the essence of human beings, so there is existence Ism. Because of the pain of injury, our perception ability is magnified, while the surrounding environment is blurred, and finally we think that existence precedes essence. In fact, it is the same. In the end, we will always go to nothingness in our whole life. It's just the inner feelings during this journey. What does the outside world do to me? So it is correct to say that existence precedes essence. As for accidental and absurdity, let alone, I think Camus’s "The Outsider" is the best example. Because the contingency and absurdity of life deeply hurt Camus, he must resist with absurdity. This is the general psychology of the people of his time. Think about it, I want to live a good life, but why is the age of my life full of wars? Why did I encounter such a thing? The word fate is not convincing. Since the world is so cruel to me, I have to respond with indifference in order to prevent myself from getting hurt. I think this is the reason for the indifference and behavior of "outsiders". Philosophers believe that human beings are essentially free and human freedom is absolute, because people live in an isolated and helpless world, and people are "thrown" into the world. God, science, reason, morality, etc. treat people. They are irrelevant, that is to say, they can not tell us the truth of life, the way of life, and at the same time, they have no control or restraint on people. So there is freedom and choice. However, it is impossible for people to have real freedom in the society, so the relationship between people becomes tense and delicate. That's why Sartre said: "Others are hell." Because others affect their freedom. To be busy thinking and closing emotions does not mean that we will not be hurt; absolute freedom only exists in theory and it is impossible to achieve in the real world; no matter what we do, we cannot escape the ultimate destination of mankind-death, so in the end life is A tragedy. Existentialism denies theology and denies belief. This is actually very scary. Although religion is indeed a product that is conducive to the rule of the ruler, it may be superstitious, but we cannot deny its great significance to us ordinary people. If we do not firmly believe in the existence of God, our The happiness index may be lower. For many people, God is everything to him, and denying God may destroy a person’s soul. But I understand why existentialism does not believe in the existence of God. It seems that everyone who believes in God will firmly believe in a principle that no matter what kind of predicament we face, God will come to save us. If God does not come, then God is testing us. That is God's will, but as long as we firmly believe in God's existence, we can definitely be saved. I still remember a legend that said that if a person is seriously ill, just take the "Bible" blessed by the gods and put it on the sick person, and the person who loves him will pray religiously, then the sick person will be healed. Perhaps because of such legends, in the war years, too many people prayed for their lovers, but only the corpses of their lovers were obtained in exchange, and some even even The corpse is also timeless, they finally no longer believe in the existence of God. Yes, if God really exists, where has he gone all these years? How could he tolerate his children suffering torment in hell, the world is devastated, the earth flows into rivers, the human heart is empty, and the cold wind blows in. After understanding existentialism, it is not difficult to understand postmodern art, literature, painting, music, and drama. . . Everything in that era was full of absurdity, everyone felt hurt and hopeless, and there was negative energy everywhere. I finally understood why the 15-year-old Duras had a beautiful youthful face but an old heart inside, why she was looking forward to love but didn’t believe in love when she was a young girl; why the absurd drama "Waiting for Godot" Will resonate with so many people. Will Godot come today? Countless questions and long waits, Godot did not appear in the end, just like a painful man hoping for God's salvation sincerely, but God never came. People who are not in that era will not understand this kind of pain, and those who have not experienced war will not understand the depth and wounds of the helplessness and despair of life. After the Second World War, the entire world was paralyzed. Sixty years later, we are still fighting. Although no world war has broken out, many people have been living on the battlefield from birth to death. Fortunately, I am not one of them. Unfortunately, war is a tragedy for the entire human race. Even if I'm not there, even if I can't feel the same, I feel sad. In 60 years, we have passed through a cycle based on the Chinese zodiac, it seems that all things can start again, so now we, who have not experienced war, choose to forget the pain of history and live happily. The best way to deal with pain is not to think, not to feel, to forget. At the end of the last century, Milan Kundera felt worried after seeing the world slowly recovering after the war and people's happier lives. The war has passed, so we have forgotten it. So he wrote the book "The Unbearable Lightness of Life". "Because the things they involved no longer return, so the bloody age of the revolution has become nothing more than words, theories, and research. It has become lighter than a feather and can't scare anyone." This is the author at the beginning of the novel. Once directly mentioned the word "light", this text is an evaluation of the French Revolution. Later, it talked about "the hatred for Hitler finally faded away, which exposed a profound moral degradation in the world... In this world, everything is forgiven in advance, everything is ridiculously allowed." This part of the text, It reminds us that another meaning of "light" is "forgetting." In addition to the unbearable "lightness" of life and the "lightness" of feelings, there is also "forgotten". Neruda said: "Love is so short, and forgetting is so long." It's not just love that we forget. In the history class, the teacher said: "Forgetting history means betrayal." At that time, we were studying the Opium War section of modern Chinese history. I especially disliked this history because I thought it was a humiliating history. History is over. All I see are the gray pictures, thin words, and cold numbers on the books. Everything is pale and has no meaning to me. At that time, at most, when I saw the reparation of land and compensation, we sighed that we were too bad. I think I am a betrayer, because I don't want to remember this history. I underestimate history. Because this history is not good, I treat it as if it never happened. Anyway, I haven't experienced it. "People can only recognize everything, including the guillotine, by the dim light of recollection." "For many years, I have been thinking of Thomas. It seems that only by refraction of recollection can I see him clearly." Kundera not only recalled himself. , And, I want to bring his readers to recall, let people remember, remember history, and remember how people in history have lived in secret. "Lightness", which means "forgetting (betrayal)", of course makes life unbearable. "Things that only happen once are things that haven't happened at all (because of forgotten)." The history of the Czechs will not repeat itself, nor will the history of Europe repeat itself. History, like human life, is too light to bear. A feather, because it is too light to fall to the ground, can only be blown by the wind and floats to the sky, never returning. I don’t know if it’s because of this that the French especially like to make movies with the theme of World War II. Is it to remind our future generations not to forget history? If you still can't understand what the unbearable lightness of life is, maybe you can watch Cameron's movie "Gravity", or spend money to experience the feeling of simulated weightlessness at the Science and Technology Museum. The physical weightlessness is absolutely "light", but this "light" is unbearably heavy. 2014-01-14 19:23

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Extended Reading
  • Louvenia 2022-03-26 09:01:10

    Thomas said that love is the desire to sleep with the same woman. Teresa said: Life is so heavy for me and so easy for you, my life cannot bear this lightness, this freedom. At last I know what Karenin's smile means, because love is giving up strength, giving up everything, giving up nothing and life.

  • Briana 2022-01-07 15:54:05

    I have always felt that this film is just a popular adaptation of Kundera’s novels. After the scholars’ guidance, I admired the director’s subversive use of the previously criticized male gaze to achieve the display of female desires and indirect political orientation. It is enough to prove the skill of the adaptation; I have a deeper feeling of the two heroines filming each other. Not to mention the god editing of a section of the documentary. The rewatch after a few years is only more favorite.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being quotes

  • Tomas: Some people never change.Some people are always scoundrels.

  • Sabina: Maybe I am seeing you for the last time?

    Tomas: Maybe.