The "Criterion Collection"/Mark J. Lovas

(an additional note added 2 September appears at the bottom of the page)

The other day I happened to notice some references to Milan Kundera's book "the Unbearable Lightness of Being" and the movie with the same name. The texts/web pages made it sound like the book and the movie were connected, but the author, Kundera, disavows that connection....

In an author's note to the Czech Edition of the Book-- (I think he wrote it in Czech first, but these days I think he writes in French)--he says that the move has very little to do with the spirit of the book or the spirit of the characters.

And, he goes on to say that after the experience he no longer allows his works to be adapted.

(The experience of this movie, I take it)

Now I added that information to a review at something called "the Criterion Collection", where they
sell the movie...

But if you Google my full name, you get a little bit of text where I seem to praise the movie.

I would like to change that, but don't know how. Hence this note....

Incidentally, it's hard to believe that this bit of deception is a mere coincidence. (It's not that I"m a famous movie reviewer, but still, it is misleading. And I don't like my name being associated with an aesthetic judgment that I would reject.)

For what it's worth, here's what I wrote (cut and pasted from the site)....

The author, Milan Kundera, has said that this movie has very little to do with the book—either the spirit of the characters or the spirit (see Note immediately following) of the book itself. Indeed, after this film he no longer allows any adaptations of his work.

note immediately following; I now think "spirit" is too weak as a translation; better to say "heart" or "soul". I apologize if I've misled anyone by my poor translation.

How come that doesn't come up in google?

Let's try this: I am going to add

Mark J. Lovas Criterion Collection

Maybe this entry will come up now....

REFERENCE

Milan Kundera, nesnesitelná lehkost bytí, Poznámka Autora, Paris 2006; no place of publication is indicated, but the publisher is Atlantis.

Note added 2 September:

Note, too that on the page which asserts Kundera's copyright 1984, there occurs a sentence which I will now translate: All adaptation whatsoever, whether it be in film, theater or television is forbidden.

One is inclined to draw the conclusion that Kundera was not only unhappy with the film "based upon" his book, but that he disliked the film so much, that he would no longer trust anyone to attempt any sort of translation into any other medium of any of his works. Of course, the story of his disappointment with linguistic translations is (or should be) well-known.