Noticias

100 years after the death of Franz Kafka, a new mini-series aims to dive beneath the surface of an author who remains enigmatic even as his influence on the culture continues to grow.

Kafka, an ambitious German-language meta-drama written by Austrian writer/director David Schalko (Braunschlag) and best-selling author David Kehlmann (Measuring the World), is based on Reiner Stach’s exhaustive three-volume biography of Kafka and weaves together the writer’s life and work, finding the connections and gaps between the two.

Schalko, who spent more than a decade developing the series, and directs all six episodes, says he was well aware of the perils of trying to capture Kafka on screen. “Everything we think we know about Kafka has become a cliche,” says Schalko.

Kafka

There is a temptation to depict Franz Kafka, the writer, as a “Kafkaesque” character, and his work as simply a heightened reflection of his life.

Berlin-based sales agency Films Boutique has closed first sales and released the first-look image from Oscar-nominated Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland’s biopic of the Czech novelist Franz Kafka, “Franz.”

The project has sold to September Film in Benelux, Filmin in Spain, Vertigo in Hungary, McF Megacom for the former Yugoslavia and Movies Inspired in Italy.

The film was previously acquired for theatrical distribution by Bac Films Distribution in France, X Verleih in Germany and Austria, Bioscop in Czech Republic and Kino Świat in Poland.

Kafka, a German-speaking Jewish Bohemian famous for surrealist and nightmarish visions, wrote “The Metamorphosis,” “The Trial” and “The Castle,” among others.

The film started shooting in Prague on April 12, including the Old Town near Kafka’s birthplace, and will continue there until the end of May, when the production moves for a week’s shoot in Berlin.

Šárka Cimbalová produces through Czech Republic’s Marlene Film Production,...

This interview conducted by the late Hans Hurch, former artistic director of the Viennale, was originally published in the book, “Vom Widerschein des Kinos. Hans Hurch Texte aus dem Falter von 1978 – 1991.” Falter Verlag, Vienna 2017. By Claus Philip, Christian Reder, Armin Thurnher (Hg.) Straub-Huillet's Class Relations (1984) is showing on Mubi from August 20 – September 18, 2019 as part of a Mubi retrospective devoted to the filmmakers.Danièle Huillet and Jean Marie-Straub’s film Class Relations (1984) is based on the novel “Amerika” by Franz Kafka. Class Relations is a film in black and white, shot in the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States, with the participation of 31 actresses and actors, among them: Christian Heinish, Mario Adorf, Alfred Edel, Libgart Schwarz, Klaus Traube, and Laura Betti. The following text is an excerpt from a conversation conducted by Hans Hurch with Danièle Huillet and Jean Marie-Straub on 12 February 1984, after the film’s premiere at the Metropolis theater in Hamburg.

One morning, when Internet users awoke from troubled dreams, they found that the Google logo’s “O”s had transformed into a monstrous vermin.

The reason: Today is Franz Kafka’s 130th birthday – or at least, it would have been, if he hadn’t died of starvation brought on by tuberculosis in 1924. All of us will die, someday.

The man who would inherit Goethe’s emo throne was born in Prague in 1883. His paternal grandfather was an Orthodox Jewish ritual slaughterer; his father sold “fancy goods,” which Franz probably thought was horrifically embarrassing. Once he reached university, Kafka started as...