"Kafka"

Sid 2022-04-11 08:01:01

1991 independent film directed by "Sexual Lies Video" director Stephen Soderbergh. It is neither a biography of Kafka himself nor an adaptation of his novel, but a fictional text of Kafka, who intervenes on the fringes of the incident through a suspense murder case, in which many famous and typical symbols in his works are referenced and metaphorized. For example: small people, company employees, castles, tombs, mind control authorities, murders, dossiers, etc., make the film's protagonist, the small staff Kafka, a fictional, but with a psyche similar to Kafka himself, the object. Transformed theatrical character "Kafka".

Most of the shots in the whole film are in black and white, and "Kafka" in daily life, a small clerk in an insurance company, is mediocre, neurotic and incompetent. But he was, on the other hand, a well-known writer who contributed to magazines, and believed that the side business of writing and the imaginings associated with it were the only joys in life. Everyday, his life in black and white is almost bleak, his fear of women and the resulting more bizarre neurotic fantasies made him involved in a headless murder case. As the imagination deepened, the bizarre became real, until he drilled into the tunnel leading to the mysterious castle - an empty tomb, the film suddenly appeared in color, Kafka's pale cheeks were close to flesh-colored, and his eyes were no longer Deep Concave——He strayed into the secret hospital in the castle where people were detained and disappeared, and he was almost pulled to perform a brain anatomy experiment. This used to be his dream place, the castle, a Kafkaesque concept, a true command of authority hidden from the common sense of society.

There, there is a psychiatric correction center, Dr. Strange is carrying out magnification observation and surgical transformation on the brain of every "disobedient individual", injecting various chemical agents into the body of the woman Kafka is looking for, causing her excitement, ecstasy or shock. It turned out that his disappearing companions and the psychotic manic killers who murdered at night in the city were all thanks to Doctor Strange and his huge machine. The real center of power in the city is here, closely monitoring the thinking of every living person. Kafka, who was on the list of being hunted by them, escaped from the castle and then returned to the real world along the way he came in the early hours of the morning.

The next day, he sat in front of the boss's desk and was terrified by last night's adventure, thinking that everything was no longer as usual, that the real authoritative secret had been understood by him, but the boss told him indifferently and calmly that it would never be the same day as usual. It was another day, as if the horrific encounter was entirely his delusion. Returning to the apartment, he suddenly fell ill, bleeding, and at the same time began to write, "To My Dear Father" and the immortal works in which everything he knew was a metaphor.

Although the director deliberately confuses fantasy and reality, and only points out the main point through the change of tone of the final film, but the audience with understanding should understand that whether it is true or false, it must be an unknown spiritual adventure of his own. A castle of metaphysical authority that is willing to infiltrate. Kafka has seen in his heart the spiritual aliens that other people have no chance to see, that is, the truth hidden under the skin of ordinary life. . So he had to cut open his gloomy chest with a pen, lift off the calluses covering his skin, and let the world see the lonely and trembling nerve endings buried under it.

"But Kafka, You are too sensitive." - The boss said

"Yes, sir." - Kafka

"Let the poor fellow rest in peace." - The boss

Kafka closed the boss's office blankly door.

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Extended Reading
  • Marcelle 2022-04-19 09:03:17

    The gloomy and dull atmosphere, the tight and blurred plot, he never had a smile from beginning to end, Kafka's inner distress and tragic fate were all condensed on that slightly thin face.

  • Vaughn 2022-04-21 09:03:53

    Interesting biography, different from previous biopics! ~

Kafka quotes

  • Franz Kafka: So, that's who the enemy is. Policemen and file clerks. Law and order, you might say.

    Gabriela: You think what we're doing is wrong? What would you suggest, then?

    Franz Kafka: Did any of you actually go up to the castle with Edward? You sit around twisting the facts to suit your inbred theories. In my experience the truth is not... that convenient.

  • Chief Clerk: Oh, I know you were friendly with that poor fellow, what was his name -

    Franz Kafka: Raban... Eduard Raban.

    Chief Clerk: Yes, yes, Raban. But he was too like you. Even more like you, perhaps, than you are yourself.