Das Schloß

This is an extremely unusual adaptation of an unfinished novel. The breaks in Kafka's manuscript are actually left in the movie. This is surrealism to the max!

A land surveyor,K.,is invited to the Castle to do some work for the Count,but when he arrives at the Village,he finds that nobody is expecting him.K.'s attempts to get into the Castle are as unsuccessful as his attempt to settle into the local village.He is greeted by a compact reluctance from the villagers,who with a systematic inefficiency prevent him from any prospects of even approaching the castle.The harder the stubborn K.,tries,the farther he moves from his goals.The impenetrable,seemingly haphazard but strangulating bureaucracy of the castle hinders the clarification of his social and existential situation.K. remains what he was on the day of his arrival:a stranger who is barely tolerated...Haneke's film version of Kafka's famous unfinished novel is an unusually faithful and highly successful literary adaptation.Kafka is,with his absurd,pessimistic yet still very realistic idea of the world,a sort of soulmate of Haneke's.

I must confess: I've never read a book written by Kafka. But after seeing this (TV) movie I directly started searching up information about him, and yes, also bought the book.

Haneke is incredible when it comes to creating an atmosphere in his movies. Especially when it comes to creating a certain feeling of 'alienation' (it's called 'vervreemding' in my native language). 'Das Weisse Band' is an example of that, but also 'Das Schloss'. The narrator and long black pauses, ...

Unfinished works give rise to conjecture. How would Kafka intend to end this novel? Did he get tired of it? Did he avoid concocting an ending? K, a professional surveyor, arrives in a village during a winter storm. He is summoned by a Count whose castle overlooks that village. As might be expected in any Kafka story, K will not find the earl or perform any specific work. The castle of the title is not what you would expect, it is certainly not what the disappointed K expected to see, it is not even an old fortress or a new mansion, but a shady complex of countless small buildings close to each other. Swarms of crows circulate around the tower. It is clear that K's presence in the village is the result of a bureaucratic error. A surveyor had actually been requested by the Count some time ago, but the order had been canceled long before. Only Kafka would be able to explain why K does not leave the village - and only he would know how (or if) he intended to finish this unfinished masterpiece.

This film is certainly not for everyone. Maybe for Haneke completists only.

It is based on one of Franz Kafka's three novels, and it can basically be described as a satirization of bureaucracy.

K (Ulrich Mühe - Georg in Funny Games) arrives for a job and is met with resistance. The next day two assistants arrive (one is Artur (Peter from Funny Games). K spends most of his time trying to get into the castle to do the work he was hired to do, but it seems he isn't needed.

He takes up with Frieda (Susanne Lothar - Anna from Funny Games, and the midwife in The White Ribbon).

From here it is surreal and confusing. He bounces from official to official never really getting anywhere.

Haneke and Kafka were made for each other.