KAFKA (1991)

After a game-changing debut in SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE/’89, Steven Soderbergh’s sophomore pic was just as sophomoric as its title suggests . . .  but not in a bad way.  Juvenile & pretentious (Lem Dobbs’ script reeks of film school term project), but not dumb or jokey, it’s surprisingly entertaining.  (Though just once, couldn’t someone tackle Franz Kafka without Kafkaesque trimmings?)  Here, in moody b&w, Franz, buried in paperwork at the huge expressionist insurance building he works at, gets an unexpected promotion when an office mate goes missing.  Searching for him in the expressionist back streets & warehouses of a permanently crepuscular Prague leads him to an underground world of political radicals (led by Theresa Russell, less bad than usual) and later to a secret lair of endless political files & experimental torture in the restricted expressionist confines of the mysterious Castle.  Here, the film moves briefly from expressionist b&w to color, a la THE WIZARD OF OZ, right down to a film stock transition made by opening a nearly color-free door.  (Alas, sans three-strip TechniColor, visual shock much diminished.)  It sounds jejune, but Soderbergh moves relentlessly forward, deploying a stellar cast with Jeremy Irons a funny, frightened, touching Kafka while a merry band of supporting luminaries deliver standout turns (Alec Guinness, Ian Holm, Joel Grey, Jeroen Krabbé, Armin Mueller-Stahl).  Involving, and far less chilly than you suppose.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Woody Allen’s not dissimilar SHADOWS AND FOG/’91, made the same year, held back to avoid possible competition.  (Not that it mattered: FOG made nothing; KAFKA half of nothing.)  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/09/shadows-and-fog-1991.html   OR: See where a lot of this stuff comes from in Orson Welles’ very personal take on Kafka’s THE TRIAL/’62, a difficult, underrated film.  OR: Even closer to Kafka, Béla Tarr’s WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES/’00.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/04/werckmeister-harmonies-2000.html