Especially now, as Steven Soderbergh is still riding high on the box-office success and critical acclaim of his Erin Brockovich and Traffic, it is interesting to take a look at his older movies. One of them being Kafka, the story of surrealist writer Franz Kafka seemingly put in one of his one twisted tales. Now, first of all, despite Kafka himself being the lead and despite some real life events Kafka experienced woven into the story, this is not your basic biopic. Of course, there's stuff on Kafka's relationship with his father, his illness and his telling Bisselbeck to destroy his works after his death. There are even verbal references to his works (there's a recurring joke about Kafka's Die Verwandlung, where a man finds himself waking up as an insect). But this is not the focus of the story. We learn about Kafka and his works through the world in which he becomes embroiled. This world is built from elements out of Kafka's books, the most prominent of those being the everpresent threat of totalitarian authorities, the paranoia and constant references to 'the castle'. There's probably a lot more like this which I failed to notice, as I'm not the most avid Kafka fan.
It's an interesting concept, mixing fact and fiction to create a relatively coherent story, which is certainly more interesting than a by-the-numbers retelling of Kafka's life. That said, I would imagine that for someone totally unaquainted with Kafka this would be a mystifying and mystifyingly stylised work . Using black-and-white and colour cinematography in one film, to me, always feels very stylised (loved the way it was used in Schindler's List, though), and it felt extremely stylised in this one. On the other hand, the black-and-white cinematography does bring across the peculiar atmosphere of the literary work it's based on, and the switch provides an interesting metaphor (I think the colour scenes represent finding truth). O yeah, and it's just plain beautiful to look at. Steven Soderbergh's films are always stylised, but in such a way that it marries the content, which is probably the single most important thing I appreciate him for.
Another thing he's often appreciated for is his use of actors (Julia Roberts and Benicio Del Toro, anyone?). Unfortunately, it doesn't really work out here, though. All characters apart from Kafka himself have hardly any depth and Jeremy Irons' Kafka is well but also coldly portrayed. Again, keeping in line with Kafka's work (and perhaps reality), sure, but his performance and the extremely stylized approach can make this too cold and therefore sometimes uninvolving a movie.
In short: a great concept, a good script and a style which marries it are let down by some cold acting. Fascinating, but at times curiously uninvolving.
Rating: 7/10
It's an interesting concept, mixing fact and fiction to create a relatively coherent story, which is certainly more interesting than a by-the-numbers retelling of Kafka's life. That said, I would imagine that for someone totally unaquainted with Kafka this would be a mystifying and mystifyingly stylised work . Using black-and-white and colour cinematography in one film, to me, always feels very stylised (loved the way it was used in Schindler's List, though), and it felt extremely stylised in this one. On the other hand, the black-and-white cinematography does bring across the peculiar atmosphere of the literary work it's based on, and the switch provides an interesting metaphor (I think the colour scenes represent finding truth). O yeah, and it's just plain beautiful to look at. Steven Soderbergh's films are always stylised, but in such a way that it marries the content, which is probably the single most important thing I appreciate him for.
Another thing he's often appreciated for is his use of actors (Julia Roberts and Benicio Del Toro, anyone?). Unfortunately, it doesn't really work out here, though. All characters apart from Kafka himself have hardly any depth and Jeremy Irons' Kafka is well but also coldly portrayed. Again, keeping in line with Kafka's work (and perhaps reality), sure, but his performance and the extremely stylized approach can make this too cold and therefore sometimes uninvolving a movie.
In short: a great concept, a good script and a style which marries it are let down by some cold acting. Fascinating, but at times curiously uninvolving.
Rating: 7/10