Kafka (1991)

Director:

Steven Soderbergh

Writer (WGA):

Lem Dobbs (written by)

Release Date:

15 November 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

Kafka, an insurance worker gets embroiled in an underground group after a co-worker is murdered. The...

Plot Keywords:

Insanity | Alternative Reality | Conspiracy | Expressionist | Human Experimentation

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Jeremy Irons	...	Kafka
Theresa Russell	...	Gabriela
Joel Grey	...	Burgel
Ian Holm	...	Doctor Murnau
Jeroen Krabbé	...	Bizzlebek
Armin Mueller-Stahl	...	Grubach
Alec Guinness	...	The Chief Clerk
Brian Glover	...	Castle Henchman
Keith Allen	...	Assistant Ludwig
Simon McBurney	...	Assistant Oscar
Robert Flemyng	...	The Keeper of the Files
Matyelok Gibbs	...	Concierge
Ion Caramitru	...	Solemn Anarchist
Hilde Van Mieghem	...	Female Anarchist
Jan Nemejovsky	...	Mustachioed Anarchist

Also Known As:

Kafka (France)

Runtime:

98 min | Germany:92 min (TV version)

Country:

France | USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White | Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Argentina:13 | South Korea:15 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Filmove Studio Barrandov, Prague, Czech Republic

Company:

Baltimore Pictures

Quotes:

Doctor Murnau: You despise someone like me - because you despise the modern. But you are at the very forefront of what is modern. You write about it, you document it... Unlike you, though, I have chosen to embrace it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Blood Pact: The Making of 'Blade II' (2002) (V)

A thing of warped beauty

This is a strange creature: for a start, the first half is in black and white, then from a certain point the whole thing continues in colour. But more importantly, the real-life character of the writer, Kafka, has been bound up in an adventure story that he could have penned himself! The effect is of a whimsical, noire cartoon through which our hero stumbles, lost, for most of the time. But it is his bemused, everyday-ness which is his best defence against the hidden powers which are organised against him. In a way, it is disappointing when Kafka's paranoia is proved to be justified... the warped journey to this point is more fun than the pay-off. But this is a brave and playful film, at once terrifying and hilarious. The scene where the hero clumsily fights with an evil minion across the surface of huge magnifying glass, beneath which is a twitching, bloody brain undergoing maniacal experiments, is particularly bizarre, horrible and funny at the same time. 8/10