Franz (2025)

Biopic about Franz Kafka [Idan Weiss], whose most famous book (The Trial) was published a year after his death in 1924. It focuses largely on the relationship with his domineering father [Peter Kurth] and how that influenced his functioning as a person and as a writer. The story frequently shifts to modern Germany, where Kafka discovers the parallels between his fiction and the Germany of the future. There are also interludes in which a tour guide [Emma Smetana] in the Kafka Museum provides more background information. Quirky and beautifully made, but Kafka himself remains an enigma.

Translated from Dutch · View original

A failure. I do like it when someone tries something daring and something like that can be great, but in this case it is a messy whole where far from every scene fits equally well. The thing as a whole is distant and, partly because of that, unfolds very slowly. The acting is also somewhat cold; only the father has any life in him. A single standalone scene does still make an impression (around the part about In der Strafkolonie). 1.5*.

Translated from Dutch · View original