Kafka

[EL__SCORCHO]

Has anyone here seen the movie? Is it any good?

[Ghostboy]

It's pretty good. I've only seen it once and that was a few years ago. It's kinda like King Of The Hill, in that it doesn't really feel like the rest of Soderbergh's films...it definitely doesn't have his usual sort of style.

Also, if you're expecting a biopic about Kafka...well, this ain't it. It's more of a gothic adventure using Kafka as a character. The screenwriter (Lem Dobbs, who worked with Soderbergh again on The Limey) also wrote Dark City, and there are certain similarities between the two films.

But it's pretty good and worth seeing, if you can find a copy.

[cachilders]

This is one of my all time favorites, though I wouldn't say it's much of a Soderbergh movie.

[Pozer]

It's the only Sodes movie I haven't seen. any ideas where to find it?

::I'm cool cuz I call him sodes::

[Duck Sauce]

This is one of his worst movies (realatively speaking) but it sure didnt have a Soderbergh feel to it at all. I will admit though...SPOILERS... the scene where Kafka is getting chased into the elevator was very cool. And during the color part, had a tad of Brazil vibe to it

[Ghostboy]

Has anyone read his Sex Lies And Videotape diary? It's one of the BEST filmmaking books I've ever read...very inspirational. I read it about once a year.

Anyway, he read the script for Kafka before he made SLV, and loved it and dreamed of getting the chance to direct it.After he hit it big, he managed to get hold of it -- that must have been such a sweet feeling.

[MacGuffin]

Has anyone read his Sex Lies And Videotape diary? It's one of the BEST filmmaking books I've ever read...very inspirational. I read it about once a year.

Agreed. It is very inspirational.

[polkablues]

::I'm cool cuz I call him sodes::

Yes, living up to your name indeed.   8)

I kid because I love.

[Pozer]

it's cool SA....you kid, but I did make a remark on some other thread on how I dug your name

coulda been worse tho. parents were gonna name me poindexter

[Royal Tenenbaum]

I'd say Kafka is definitely his worst film, but it isn't 'bad' at all. I found the switch from black & white to colour for 15 minutes very strange and, although it had it's thematic uses, useless.

[chainsmoking insomniac]

Kafka was a great film. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Jeremy Irons played the said writer, no? He was really great in it, and I'm not a big Irons fan......
but someone above compared this movie to Brazil, and this movie isn't even in the same league as Brazil......so for those of you who haven't seen it, don't go in with Brazil-like expectations.....

[Duck Sauce]

but someone above compared this movie to Brazil, and this movie isn't even in the same league as Brazil......so for those of you who haven't seen it, don't go in with Brazil-like expectations.....

And during the color part, had a tad of Brazil vibe to it

you are an aggressively bad reader

And I also wasnt into the color part, it seemed amateurish[/b]

[mr_boz]

kafka is great - it's very refreshing to watch if you think you "know" soderbergh's style - this one is very different.  it's best described as a "kafka-esque story about kafka", if that makes any sense.

get it - it's worth it.  CB 030730

[MacGuffin]

Steven Soderbergh On His Kafka Recut And Hints At A Lem Dobbs commentary
"This isn't a tweak, it's triage. It's going to be bloody"
Source: Empire

The new issue of Empire (on shelves tomorrow, Thursday May 30) sees Steven Soderbergh speaking with great candour about his decision to quit feature filmmaking in favour of other creative outlets. He'll be painting, making television shows, playwriting, selling fine Bolivian spirits, writing books... heck, he's even finding time to move offices across Manhattan. This man clearly has access to some kind of wormhole.

There's also a recut of Kafka, ten years in the planning, to attend to. "I've got a 35 page fax from (screenwriter) Lem Dobbs about it that I've got to wade into at some point," Soderbergh tells Empire. "Lem and I have had this back and forth because I'm trying to alter the DNA of the whole movie. I think we want to put out a dual Blu-ray with both versions. I've been calling the new version the 'Midnight Edition' because it's perfect for Friday or Saturday night shows."

Kafka, Soderbergh's sex, lies, and videotape follow-up, was made under the fierce spotlight that came with being a Palme d'Or-winning wunderkind, and its original issues have continued to nag away at the director. An oblique conspiracy thriller starring Jeremy Irons and Alec Guinness, it will get a German-language dub, "probably" a new score and a substantive reworking of the edit. The cuts will, as Soderbergh emphasises, "be bloody".

"I was frustrated with Kafka – it had a mixed-to-negative reaction when it came out – and I'm trying to completely rethink it in the hopes of at least turning it into something that's unified. The tone was all over the place – which is the classic young filmmaker's mistake. I'd like to make it a little more abstract and more of a hardcore art movie. It's not a tweak: it's triage." So a better-director's cut of a director's cut? "I hope so. It's shorter."

If you've listened to Dobbs and Soderbergh's famously blunt exchanges on The Limey commentary track, you'll be keen to see the pair reunite for another to put the seal on Kafka 2.0. So is there any chance of writer again chewing out wryly-amused director for crimes against dialogue? "That might be worth doing," smiles Soderbergh. "Then he'd get to complain about two films for the price of one. That would be spirited."

[polkablues]

I'd like to hear more about these fine Bolivian spirits.