Kafka (1991) by Steven Soderbergh is a strange movie. Jeremy Irons plays Kafka (which he does excellently, like always), set in the very appropriate location of the old district of Prague. The location is in itself a reason to watch this movie, with harsh noir contrasts shot beautifully with black and white film. Kafka’s friend is found dead and he gets involved in an underground resistance group that tries to end a secret set of scientists who do very cruel experiments to human beings so they can create the perfect human. It is hard to explain the story, because it is filled of strange moments, that just have to be watched. Let’s just say Kafka looks more like James bond than one of most famous writers ever made. I can definitely recommend this movie to anyone, it is such a fantastic mix of moods, from horror to action to science fiction, although never really sentimental or romantic (which might fit with Kafka’s real personality).
March 5, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Whenever I think of Kafka, I think of Aflak. Word association is funny.
My favorite 3 soderbergh movies are, in no particular order, “sex, lies…”, “traffic,” and “bubble.”
Have you watched “There Will Be Blood” yet? Its pretty great, my favorite PTA movie… and thats saying something. Think Citizen Kane meets Clockwork Orange… a movie for the books, methinks.
March 6, 2008 at 3:25 am
Yeah Bubble is really great!
I haven’t seen There Will be Blood, I’ll look into it. I just watched
a Swedish television program about movies, and one of my favorite
culture journalist was invited to talk about the latest Rambo movie, hehe
and he liked it. I gotta watch it now, I’m such a big Rambo fan.