Kafka |  | Director: Steven Soderbergh
Actors: Jeremy Irons, Theresa Russell, Joel Grey, Ian Holm, Jeroen Krabbé
Studio: Paramount
Category: Video
Buy New: CDN$ 77.99
as of 7/31/2010 10:29 CDT details
New (1) Used (1) from CDN$ 49.95
Seller: writersinresidence
Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 11353
Format: NTSC
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: VHS Tape
Discs: 1
Running Time: 98 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6302622948
UPC: 097361512433
EAN: 9780792124979
ASIN: 6302622948
Theatrical Release Date: November 15, 1991
Release Date: April 3, 2001
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
From Amazon.com
The sophomore effort by Steven Soderbergh (sex, lies, and videotape) is an audacious and stylistically impressive experiment in a completely different direction from his debut. Working from a script by Lem Dobbs, Soderbergh follows the miserable day-to-day existence of Franz Kafka (Jeremy Irons), an insurance clerk in a large, impersonal company. Hiding out in his garret at night, he writes material he assumes no one will ever read. But then he happens upon clues that make him believe there is some plot afoot to suppress thought and he follows the trail into a hidden sanctuary, at which point the film abruptly shifts from shadowy black and white to jarring color. It doesn't all work, but it is never less than intriguing, with a cast that includes Alec Guinness, Ian Holm, and Joel Grey. --Marshall Fine
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| Customer Reviews:
 "A" for ATMOSPHERE February 23, 2004
Penelope Schmitt (Wilmington, NC United States)
If understanding a writer's mind means that you want to go be in his world, this is your movie. While I am defeated by the impossibility of 'making sense' of what happens here in any real way that involves logical explanation, I believe the film well-represents the scary furnishings inside Franz Kafka's mind. It doesn't move back and forth between dream and reality. Instead, it combines the two seamlessly. Only in one scene, a 'pure' dream, does the film move into color. The rest of the time it is a beautiful, grainy-foggy-textured black and white. Prague is gorgeously captured in the b/w universe. The zither score reminds one of The Third Man, another film about the ruin and corruption of Europe. I especially like that the nightmare localities, particularly the Castle interior, are imagined and furnished as 1919 phenomena. As a tour de force of reliving the interior imaginations that might have haunted a writer like Kafka, it's pretty impressive. But as a connected plot or statement, it's not much account. I'd call it intensely and sensitively atmosphere-of-Kafka, but to murky and nebulous to rise too far above that.
 Kafka In A Kafkaesque Situation February 12, 2002
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Savaged by many critics when it first came out Steven Soderbergh's KAFKA is a rather ingenious film that is not a biography of Kafka the writer. It is a work of fiction that places Kafka in a Kafkaesque situation that is both thriller and head spinner. Situations and characters from Kafka's stories are deftly blended to produce a tale that can best be described as Kafka Noir. The script also throws in a few subtle tongue in cheek references to German silent horror films. It may all seem strange but it works surprising well. In brief a co-worker of Kafka vanishes and Kafka intends to find out why he vanished and why the authorities are not overly upset by it. Irons as Kafka is ,rare for him, the center of sanity while characters mysterious and strange flutter in and out . Joel Grey as a time fixated manager ala Alice's White Rabbit, Alec Guinness as a Kafka's wise office manager (Obi Wan Kenobi as bureaucrat), Armin Mueller-Stahl in grand form as a sinister police inspector and the always fine Ian Holm as a doctor with not so charming plans on how to improve efficency are a few among many. Filmed in black in white (but trust me you'll need a color set)in Prague's old city the atmosphere of 1919 Prague is nicely captured. Cliff Martinez's score nicely compliments the film. His opening theme is sort of like the theme for THE THIRD MAN on drugs. All in all the film is a fine ensemble effort with an imaginative script to keep the viewer on their toes. Well worth your time.
1919 Baroque Prague in shadows,black and white... January 24, 2002
S. Henkels (Devon, Pa United States)
..With all the surreal paranoia one might expect, with Irons doing a terrific job as the lonely Kafka working in a large insurance office. Also, Alec Guinness as his mysterious boss in one of his best later roles. The entire movie is beautifully filmed in black and white, until the sci-fi part later turns to color. This movie is worth a 2nd look,which I'll do soon. It's part noir Orson Welles/Carroll Reed (Welles did a version of Kafka's TRAIL, which has its similarities; KAFKA also is reminiscent of this duo's THE THIRD MAN,filmed in a similiar looking Vienna.) Part REDS, with its ardent young revolutionaries, a touch even of Sherlock Holmes,1919 Prague not unlike London with cobbled streets,vast buildings, bridges and a river that could be the Thames. Irons could do a nice job as Holmes, in KAKFA investigating some strange goings on. Throw in the HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and FRANKENSTEIN, AND YOU HAVE A CLASSIC ,but with originality, fine acting, terrific sets you can be sure this has a haunting beauty all its own...The final brew includes allusions to much of Kafka, including stories like THE TRIAL, THE CASTLE, IN THE PENAL COLONY. If you can find it, don't miss it!
Soderbergh's Kafkanian Nightmare December 29, 2001
Alysson Oliveira (Sao Paulo-- Brazil)
Steven Soderbergh is such a very peculiar moviemaker that he does not follow any pattern. Each one of his films is one of a kind. And "Kafka" is not an exception. More than a cinebiography of the writer, the movie is a mix of many kafkanian situations, that adds up situations from some of his published work and events of his life.Jeremy Irons plays the title character, who woks in a insurance company and writes during his spare time. He is a very lonely soul, and he has no family or friends at all, but he doesn't seem to care about it very much. But his life takes a spin when he finds himself in a conspiracy after the disapeareance of a work mate. In order to investigate it he gets more and more involved with a group of rebels. The film is brillantly phographed in Black & White by Walt Lloyd, but be ready for a surprised in a key sequence. The screenplay smartly mixes up many excerpts from Kafka's writings and thigs thac actually happened to the late writer.It is hard to classify because most of the time it is thiller but it has some philosophical and sci-fi inserts. As I said, the film alludes to many Kafka's works, but you do not need to have read or even know Kafka in order to enjoy and appreciate the picture. If you know him, you will have much more pleausure when watching the movie and you will get most of the references. If you don't know Kafka, you will probably get excited about him and you will look for reading some of his work and watching the film again afterwards.
great opportunity to nap July 22, 2001
If you are having trouble sleeping, pop this into the VCR for a natural sleep-enhancer. The movie does have some appeal: Jeremy Irons; the idea of Kafka, the great author, coming to grips with day-to-day benality and the realization that he is part of that world; some great photography and music. Otherwise, I am still trying to figure out why I just did not buy a pizza.
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