Kafka works during the day at an insurance company, where events lead him to discover a mysterious underground society with strange suppressive goals.Kafka works during the day at an insurance company, where events lead him to discover a mysterious underground society with strange suppressive goals.Kafka works during the day at an insurance company, where events lead him to discover a mysterious underground society with strange suppressive goals.
- Awards
- 1 win & 2 nominations
Hilde Van Mieghem
- Female Anarchist
- (as Hilde Van Meighem)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJust before going to the Castle, Kafka (Jeremy Irons) ask Bizzlebek (Jeroen Krabbé) to burn his manuscripts if he never came back. Bizzlebek replies "such an extraordinary request". This is in reference of the real request Kafka asked his friend Max Brod before dying. Brod couldn't go with the request, and had Kafka's work published.
- GoofsIn Gabriela's house, Inspector Grubach holds a record with a label of the Czech recording company Supraphon. The Supraphon name was first trademarked in 1932, eight years after Kafka's death.
- Quotes
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.
- SoundtracksEddie's Dead (Main Title)
Composed by Cliff Martinez
(p) & © 1992 Virgin Records America, Inc.
distributed by WEA through arrangement with Atlantic Records.
Featured review
Definitely not a case of "sophomore slump"
Some see this film as a step down from Steven Soderbergh's brilliantly-constructed debut feature, "sex, lies and videotape." I see it as a significant step in his artistic development (even if its commercial and critical failure limited the audiences for his next several films). Certainly no one expected him to follow the low-key, character-driven "sex, lies" with such a complicated, stylized film as "Kafka."
An inspired script by Lem Dobbs and a great cast drive Soderbergh's visually rich film. Besides the leads, of note are Joel Grey as the self-important bureaucrat Burgel, Brian Glover as the menacing Castle Henchman, and Keith Allen and Simon McBurney as Kafka's side-splittingly incompetent "assistants." And Cliff Martinez's score (inspired by "The Third Man") is ingenious.
To call this film underrated would be a severe understatement.
An inspired script by Lem Dobbs and a great cast drive Soderbergh's visually rich film. Besides the leads, of note are Joel Grey as the self-important bureaucrat Burgel, Brian Glover as the menacing Castle Henchman, and Keith Allen and Simon McBurney as Kafka's side-splittingly incompetent "assistants." And Cliff Martinez's score (inspired by "The Third Man") is ingenious.
To call this film underrated would be a severe understatement.
helpful•162
- craigjclark
- Oct 3, 2001
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $11,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,059,071
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $40,814
- Dec 8, 1991
- Gross worldwide
- $1,059,071
- Runtime1 hour 38 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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