Franz
I wish I could say that I was familiar with some of Franz Kafka’s writing, but I really am not. My main points of reference to him is Steven Soderbergh’s criminally underrated 1991 thriller, “Kafka” (which takes elements of the writer’s work to spin a fascinating noir narrative), and Orson Welles’s phenomenal adaptation of “The Trial.” With “Franz,” I was hoping to really get more of a handle of the author, but co-writer/director Agnieszka Holland is not terribly interested in that. Yes, Kafka is the main character of the film, but we get modern reflections on the author’s life and works interspersed in between more traditional biopic looks at Kafka’s life.
One thing I appreciate about the work that Holland and screenwriter Marek Epstein do in this film is how they attempt to bring us into the mind of the enigmatic writer. Early on, we see Kafka put spoons over his ears during a haircut, and later, he is focused on the dripping of water in the office of a tax official, where he is in line for a job after turning up late. We see him doing a reading of one of his stories, and a visual representation- one of the most harrowing scenes in the movie- of the events he is reading. At the same time, we also get scenes with his parents that hint at a difficult life; connections with friends and lovers; and an idea of his final years dealing with tuberculosis, which would kill him just short of 41.
By using contemporary scenes showing memorials to his life, and work (which his friend, Max Brod (played here by Sebastian Schwarz), published posthumously against his wishes, Holland shows us a legacy and almost idolatry of the author that likely would have made Kafka (played as an adult by Idan Weiss) uncomfortable, but is idiosyncratic enough to where, yeah, it makes sense we see a patch of grass cordoned off where he liked to lie, or a wall of works that were inspired by Kafka’s life and writing, compared to the suitcase that houses his own work. In the dramatized scenes of his life, we see him in brothels, where his relations are not quite as energetic as those of the people he goes with. We see him with family, like his father (played by Peter Kurth) and one of his sisters (Katarina Stark), as well as his fiancee Felice (played by Carol Schuler). We see him in a sanatorium, and going to the movies with Felice, and every moment feels as a piece with what we know him with. “Franz’s” issues are that, the film almost feels like it keeps us at arm’s length, without us feeling a connection to the character. Weiss and Kurth give very good performances, but Holland seems more enamoured with the structural complexity they bring to the film than engaging us emotionally with the subject. Overall, though, I do feel like “Franz” is worth checking out if you’re interested in Kafka; it does have some interesting ideas at its core.
