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Kafka

1991

Drama / Mystery / Sci-Fi / Thriller

12
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 55% · 22 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 72% · 2.5K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.8/10 10 10930 10.9K

worker writer co-workers relationship kafka

Plot summary

Kafka, an insurance worker gets embroiled in an underground group after a co-worker is murdered. The underground group is responsible for bombings all over town, attempting to thwart a secret organization that controls the major events in society. He eventually penetrates the secret organization and must confront them.

Director

Steven Soderbergh Photo
Steven Soderbergh

Top cast

Jeremy Irons Photo
Jeremy Irons as Kafka
Ian Holm Photo
Ian Holm as Dr. Murnau
Jeroen Krabbé Photo
Jeroen Krabbé as Bizzlebek
Joel Grey Photo
Joel Grey as Burgel
720p.BLU
902.99 MB
1280*682
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  ro  
23.976 fps
1 hr 38 min
Seeds 20

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by fishermensmell 6 / 10

Enjoyable as a neo-noir, but ultimately trivializes Kafka's work

An engaging and intriguing thriller that cobbles together elements of The Castle, The Trial and others and then places Kafka in the heart of the mystery. Most of the film is shot in black and white in a German expressionist style with plenty of long shadows and awkward angles and features some excellent set design. The predominantly British cast are very enjoyable with the likes of Irons, Alec Guiness, Ian Holm, Brian Glover, Keith Allen and others putting in solid performances. The ending brings it all to a somewhat overly neat, story-driven and action-filled conclusion with a slightly sci-fi/horror element and stock dystopic, totalitarian characters and dialogue that feels rather adolescent. So, whilst the film celebrates Kafka's work, it paradoxically trivializes it by subjugating it in deference to a tonal shift and plot-driven ending that panders to audience/producer needs. Hence, it ends up scuppering its potential and feeling a bit more like 'Brazil' than a serious examination of Kafka and his works' themes. It's not apparent whether everyone involved had a clear vision of what this film is supposed to be and who it is geared towards.
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Reviewed by siderite 8 / 10

Great movie, hard to get

This film is a tribute to Franz Kafka, with a plot inspired from his writings. Without reading at least one book by Kafka, the film is totally incomprehensible. A writer that lived at the end of the 18th century and the start of the 19th, he wrote about the depressing world of oppressing capitalism, the same mass oriented philosophy that inspired fascism and communism alike. His books were never happy and their ending was often depressing.

So why should this film be any different? The plot is kind of shifty, but the acting, cinematography, location and music are great. After seeing this film, I can't imagine anybody else but Jeremy Irons in the lead role.

Bottom line: it's about the feeling. The same dark feeling that Kafka expressed through his books is expressed by this movie. The story (a mix of Kafka subjects) is just a pretext. Be warned, though, that it is not an easy movie. It is a noir and heavy film.

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