CommentsXp Best movie ever!
Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation
Alasdair Orr Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
SnoopyStyle It's 1919 Prague. Kafka (Jeremy Irons) is an insignificant insurance worker under the thumb of his arrogant manager Burgel (Joel Grey). His co-worker friend Edward Raban is murdered for a picture of Doctor Murnau (Ian Holm). Inspector Grubach investigates. Kafka gets Raban's promotion. Co-worker Gabriela (Theresa Russell) brings him into an underground group battling a secret controlling organization.It's Steven Soderbergh's next film after his breakout indie 'Sex, Lies, and Videotape'. It certainly shows a maturity of filmmaking. The black and white cinematography looks terrific. It doesn't hurt to have the great Jeremy Irons. I also feel like the movie misses the mark slightly. I want Kafka to be in a web of unknowable bureaucracy with no way out and no reason for his predicament. The movie kind of gives a reason and that takes it down a notch.
robertguttman Franz Kafka is off to see the Wizard, but rather than the Emerald City of Oz, instead discovers The Castle. Devotees of the writing of Franz Kafka will love this film, although all others will probably be somewhat perplexed. Nevertheless, this is an amazingly clever and inventive film. It combines a truly clever and literary script with stunning visuals, and features an amazing cast. Franz Kafka, working at a drab job as a clerk in a large insurance company in an equally drab and unnamed city, spends his evenings writing fiction that nobody ever reads, and that he sincerely hopes nobody ever will. When one of his few friends fails to show up for work one morning Kafka attempts to find out what became of him. In doing so he opens up a proverbial "can of worms" that eventually leads him to an incredible conspiracy.This is not your average thriller. It is a thriller based upon ideas, rather than upon car chases and spectacular pyrotechnics. Nevertheless, Kafka will keep the viewer on the edge of his seat, trying to figure out what it is really all about.
ShootingShark Kafka, a clerk at a Prague insurance firm, is upset when a friend mysteriously vanishes. Investigating the disappearance, he uncovers a group of terrorists trying to expose a secret police state where all non-conformists are kidnapped and murdered.This is a terrific mosaic of a picture; part biopic (Franz Kafka was a clerk, did not get on with his father, asked a friend to destroy his manuscripts and died of tuberculosis), part adaptation of Kafka's fiction (notably The Castle and The Trial), part homage to German expressionist cinema (Holm's character is called Murnau), and an enjoyably scary Gothic thriller with a great mad cast. Irons is a perfectly repressed hero, Russell is as gorgeous and intimidating as ever, Krabbe steals his scenes as a canny gravedigger, Mueller-Stahl is a copper from forties film-noir complete with razor-blade voice, Glover is an iconic villain and Allen and McBurney have a whale of a time as two pratfalling assistants. The script is a bit disposable, but it captures the essence of Kafka's nightmarish scribblings perfectly - hideous bureaucracy, impotent heroes, monstrous cabals, devious conspiracies and an overwhelming sense that truth and beauty are beyond our grasp. Shot in Prague in glorious black-and-white on fantastic period locations and stunning sets by production designer Gavin Bocquet. This is a great filmmaker's film - it's impossible to imagine it existing in any other form of expression, and it manages to be richly artistic but at the same time extremely enjoyable and completely lacking in pretension. Soderbergh is a bit of an enigma to me - this is a great movie, as is his subsequent film, King Of The Hill, but both bombed financially, whereas many of his later more commercial and critically-lauded movies are much less interesting. Check out Kafka though - it's got style, scares and terrific performances, and it's about the greatest paranoid fantastist that ever lived.
BroadswordCallinDannyBoy This is a really weird movie. People will instantly recognize that it is an adaptation of Franz Kafka's writing, and that's exactly what it is. It isn't an adaptation of any one book of his, but rather of his writing as a whole. All the Kafka-esquire things you'd expect are here: conspiracy, paranoia, mystery, and the like. What is so amazing that they come together absolutely fantastically. The cinematography is especially ingenious and really captures the mysterious and cryptic look and feel of a Kafka tale. The use of color and B&W is pretty simple, but very effective. In fact the whole movie is pretty simple, there are no spectacular stunts or extraordinary set pieces, just a relentless, nail-biting, suspense as Kafka searches for answers to who murdered his friend. He receives help from a supposed rebel group who talks of a secret order and conspiracy that works from the confines of a mysterious looking building outside of town, but they are soon murdered...so Kafka goes to find the truth for himself. First-rate suspense all the way. 10/10Rated PG-13: some violence and grim content
