THE STORY – Toggling between past and present, the latest from filmmaker Agnieszka Holland is a masterful tour de force portrait of legendary writer Franz Kafka, who remains celebrated worldwide for his books, short stories, fables, and aphorisms.
THE CAST – Idan Weiss, Jenovéfa Boková, Peter Kurth, Ivan Trojan, Sandra Korzeniak, Katharina Stark, Sebastian Schwarz & Aaron Friesz
THE TEAM – Agnieszka Holland (Director/Writer) & Marek Epstein (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 127 Minutes
Since the dawn of cinema, there have been films recounting the life stories of significant men and women of history. Royalty, scientists, military masterminds, and, of course, artists. Those who make art are naturally drawn to stories of other influential artists, and audiences enjoy learning about the person behind the persona. Unfortunately, most biopics tend to fall into one of two traps: either they attempt to tell an entire life story in one film, shortchanging much of the subject’s life, or they tell the story of one particularly difficult or fruitful period of the subject’s life in an attempt to show who they were without being so literal. While the latter generally works better than the former, in recent years it has become just as much of a cliché as the former used to be, leaving biopics in a place where they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Enter Agnieszka Holland, who tries to do something different with her Kafka biopic, “Franz,” showing scenes from Franz Kafka’s life as a young man alongside scenes of his legacy in the present day. Holland and co-writer Marek Epstein get points not just for originality, but for coming up with a concept that captures the essence of what makes something Kafkaesque. However, they leave much to be desired in the execution, telling a story that boldly questions what Kafka would think of his work’s legacy without fully exploring where that work came from.
The biographical portion of the film hews closer to the more traditional, cradle-to-grave-style narrative, although Franz’s death at 40 from tuberculosis helps the film not feel like it’s spread as thin as other films of its ilk. Franz’s life, at least in this telling, was greatly influenced by his traditionally masculine, overbearing oaf of a father (Peter Kurth), who throws his son into a lake to teach him how to swim because “that little bit of fear will be a good lesson for him.” As a young man, Franz (Idan Weiss) works for the largest insurance firm in the country, whose hours keep him from writing, which is what really fulfills him. He’s not cut out to be a businessman, but he has to provide for his family somehow. When he does finally get to present one of his stories at a reading, it gets both walkouts and applause. He meets and woos a woman, Felice Bauer (Carol Schuler), whose plain appearance hides a mind sharp enough to reject Franz after discovering that he slept with a friend of hers. All the while, sounds and images from the present-day Franz Kafka Museum keep intruding on his life, taunting him with a Kafkaesque fate worse than death: having one’s name co-opted to sell a fast-food burger.
In addition to the intrusions from the future, Holland and Epstein also include cutaways to documentary-like interviews with many of the characters that we meet, in which they give their opinions on the Franz that they knew. “He was the first person who didn’t treat me differently, even though I was blind,” says a blind church organist whose music Franz jerkily dances to at one point. “He dissects himself like a fly under a microscope,” says his father. While an interesting conceit, these snippets don’t add up to much outside of a way of putting onscreen the fact that the number of words written about Kafka outnumber the words that he actually wrote. Holland makes her point far more effectively with the images of Kafka-branded coffee mugs and restaurants, which feel Kafkaesque in a way that makes them feel like a part of Franz’s life in a way the interview clips don’t.
Holland infuses the film with numerous references and allusions to Kafka’s literary works, with bureaucratic buildings straight out of “The Judgment” and “The Trial,” and a moment where Franz starts to morph into a fish (don’t worry, a cockroach makes an appearance later). Unfortunately, she also includes far more references and allusions to other aspects of Franz’s life that the more casual viewer might not pick up on. Holland includes blink-and-you’ll-miss-it references to Franz’s commitment to being a vegetarian, his obsession with Yiddish theater, and even his family’s German heritage and language training despite living in Prague, Czechoslovakia. All these Easter eggs leave Franz’s inner life something of a mystery, erasing some context for his work instead of explicating it. The subtle nod to Franz’s sister Valerie’s unknown fate after being deported to the Łódź Ghetto in Poland hits hard, whether or not you’re familiar with the Kafka family history. However, it’s one of exceedingly few references to Kafka’s Judaism, a disappointment coming from a filmmaker who is so attuned to telling stories of strangers in a strange land.
Then again, “Franz” is an exceedingly strange film overall. Holland’s mosaic of sound and images is constantly evolving, playing with frame rates, black and white sequences, expressionism, and even sound to keep the audience on their toes and engaged with the story. Job well done on that front; “Franz” is certainly never boring, and newcomer Idan Weiss has a softly commanding presence that serves as a solid anchor amidst the maelstrom Holland whips up around him. Holland conjures up some genuinely Kafkaesque images and dialogue exchanges that feel like exactly the biopic Kafka deserves, and in those moments, “Kafka” is quite thrilling. Unfortunately, though, Holland’s surfeit of ideas results in a film that simultaneously feels like too much and not enough; too much deviation from standard biopic formula and not enough connective tissue to make everything cohere.
