bythe way

In the past I have commented on the fact that Milan Kundera, author of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" was unhappy with the film adaptation of his book.

In Květoslav Chvatík's The World of the Novels of Milan Kundera (Svět Románů Milana Kundery), she summarizes the author's complaints:

1. Tomas, the character in the novel is an adult, a surgeon. (Indeed, all of the principal characters in the book are adults.) In the movie, he is a young man, a medical student.

2. In the novel Sabina is an intellectual painter, obsessed with her art. In the film she is changed into a hysterical erotomaniac.

3. In the novel there is a meaningful parallel between the two couples: Tomas-Tereza::Sabina-Franz. This does not exist in the film. Instead, there is merely a traditional lover's triangle.

4. Meditative passages from the novel are eliminated/suppressed ("potlačena") in the film.

5. The philosophical eroticism of the original novel was transformed into conventional pornography in the style of "Playboy".

In addition there have been successful film adaptations of Kundera's works. One characteristic of Kaufmann (in contrast to J. Jires's filming of "The Joke") is that instead of achieving a unique film language of his own, Kaufmann was satisfied with the most common Hollywood commercial phraseology.

The above is largely paraphrase, partially translation from Chvátik. p. 146. Her source is an interview with M. Kundera ("It's not my film") which appeared in "Lidove Noviny" in 1990.

I am not a professional translator or a Slavicist--as will be obvious to professionals. I have taken the time to write the above only because it seems worth making it common knowledge....