Das Schloß

THE CASTLE (2 outta 5 stars) I guess you movie is alright if you *really* need to see a dull, lifeless screen translation of Franz Kafka's prose. It always strikes me when I read passages from Kafka's "The Castle" that all the characters in it should have been played by The Marx Brothers. The endless circular dialogues and ridiculous bureaucracy... it is really funny stuff! But, of course, Kafka is a "serious" author and so, we get this "serious" film adaptation. It's not that terrible, I guess... there are a few well-done scenes... and Maximilian Schell does a fair job of portraying a newly-hired land surveyor who can't seem to gain admittance to "the castle" where he is supposed to report for work. It's all very soberly acted and directed... what it really needs is more of a Monty Python-esquire quality. Maybe Terry Gilliam needs to give this material a shot?

Franz Kafka died without finishing the book but that makes no difference; the story is never-ending. The whole story is about the efforts of a professional man, who has been hired to work in the castle, to actually get in. The bureaucracy in the adjacent village must be dealt with before he can enter but it is wholly without any ambition to succeed at anything. This is an essay on futility and frustration but it is totally engrossing. The film is similar in nature to Johnny Depp's Dead Man, except that he is faced with anarchy rather than bureaucracy.

The protagonist is called to a castle somewhere to do some work as a land surveyor. A small village is outside the castle, which is where he stays while attempting to make contact with various officials attached to the castle in some way, so he might know just what he is supposed to do.

It is winter. The landscape is snow covered. The castle, massive and forbidding, dominates the top of the hill. The seat of government is supposedly in the castle. Various officials and government workers of varying descriptions are around and about. The land surveyor asks questions, official procedures are described, leading to more questions...

This 1968 effort by Maximilian Schell to put Franz Kafka's novel on film is for me one of the pinnacles of cinematic achievement. This is a film where I think it would be impossible to write spoilers into a review. This is very far away from most films in style, narrative and delivery. It is not perhaps accessible to everyone, hence the decidedly negative reviews also found here. But it blows me away not for being so different, but for being so so true, so prescient.

I was really lucky to find and see this movie.It has proved to me that as the art of cinema is followed by stars,awards,promotional work and glamourous appearances there are also "hidden diamonds"."Das scloss" until this time is my greatest example of this meaning.Besides M.Schell and the famous Kafka's "Castle" all the other members of this production are unknown and without any career highlights.(R.Noelte seems to me like..a ghost with one brilliant film and no other appearance,at all,in movie making.From the beginning of this film you feel that the atmosphere is covered with mystery.A kind of mystery absolutely different than the types you can find in classic mystery movies.An enigmatic atmosphere that becomes out from the magnificent music score,the great photography,especially at the snow scenes,the short phrases from Schell,the bureaucracy that paralyzes every desire that "k" has and every action he does in order to be a member of the castle.But most of all this film shows the unexplained suspicion that is created in a group of people who have their own rules and beliefs and they cannot accept in our society any other person.Also shows the man,the lonely person who is frustrated by other people,by fate,shows Kafka. There isn't any end,this story couldn't end.It's just a screaming at the snows,in the place that this story began.Amazing...

Saw this movie one time only in June 1983 and have never forgotten it. Have been looking for it for years after. Even have been, every year or so, suggesting to the Criterion Collection that they may buy the rights to release this long lost gem. No luck so far on either account ....

I am a retired U.S. government employee, and can tell you there is, in this movie, apt illustrations of the way it can sometimes be within a sometimes inefficient bureaucracy.

Maddening truths. Brilliant portrayal.

If anyone has an in on this flick, please let me know when, where, how.

Thanks,

Greg