Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share MINI-POD BURIED TREASURE OF THE WEEK: "KAFKA" (1991) - A LITTLE TOO SODERBERGH, ... EVEN FOR SODERBERGH?
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
MINI-POD BURIED TREASURE OF THE WEEK: "KAFKA" (1991) - A LITTLE TOO SODERBERGH, ... EVEN FOR SODERBERGH?
Some films are perhaps too experimental (or just too ahead of their time) to be understood, ... even by their makers. After winning the Cannes Film Festival's Palm d'or for his 1989 breakout hit SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE, Steven Soderbergh was dubbed the "poster boy of the Sundance generation". Eagerly courted by studios large and small, filmdom eagerly anticipated the wunderkind's next cinematic endeavor. Then when KAFKA hit theaters in November of 1991 there was a loud world-wide collective “What the f**k!” accompanied by a lot of head scratching. Close thematic, visual and tonal kin to Terry Gilliam's earlier BRAZIL, David Cronenberg's later NAKED LUNCH and Alex Proyas' DARK CITY, director Soderbergh and screenwriter Lem Dobbs fashioned KAFKA as their own version of Cronenberg's "Brundle-Fly" - wherein the genomes of different beings were fused together to create an all new one. In this case feeling it impossible to faithfully adapt a Kafka story to the screen “in toto”, they took literary DNA from various works by the author, combined them with references to Kafka's actual life, then stirred them together into a brand new narrative in which the budding author in 1919 Prauge takes place in a freakishly macabre mystery - elements of which would later find their way into some of his most famous stories.
A box office failure, and unavailable on home video for almost 20 years, the film has developed a fervent cult following, ... with us among the loudest members of this "misunderstood masterpiece's" cheerleading squad. Soderbergh himself has since even re-evaluated his own film, and has plans to do a new "Midnight Cut" which would make it even more "Rorshach"-like. If unfamiliar with this gem, join us for a 20 minute "mini pod" rundown of what still remains our all time favorite Soderbergh flick, and one of the most intriguing films of the entire decade of the 90s.
______________________________________________________________________________
THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".
Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT @ www.gullcottageonline.com
Rights to film / TV clips and other audio excerpts held by copyright owners. Presented here for educational and criticism purposes.
View all episodes
By Craig Ellis JamisonSome films are perhaps too experimental (or just too ahead of their time) to be understood, ... even by their makers. After winning the Cannes Film Festival's Palm d'or for his 1989 breakout hit SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE, Steven Soderbergh was dubbed the "poster boy of the Sundance generation". Eagerly courted by studios large and small, filmdom eagerly anticipated the wunderkind's next cinematic endeavor. Then when KAFKA hit theaters in November of 1991 there was a loud world-wide collective “What the f**k!” accompanied by a lot of head scratching. Close thematic, visual and tonal kin to Terry Gilliam's earlier BRAZIL, David Cronenberg's later NAKED LUNCH and Alex Proyas' DARK CITY, director Soderbergh and screenwriter Lem Dobbs fashioned KAFKA as their own version of Cronenberg's "Brundle-Fly" - wherein the genomes of different beings were fused together to create an all new one. In this case feeling it impossible to faithfully adapt a Kafka story to the screen “in toto”, they took literary DNA from various works by the author, combined them with references to Kafka's actual life, then stirred them together into a brand new narrative in which the budding author in 1919 Prauge takes place in a freakishly macabre mystery - elements of which would later find their way into some of his most famous stories.
A box office failure, and unavailable on home video for almost 20 years, the film has developed a fervent cult following, ... with us among the loudest members of this "misunderstood masterpiece's" cheerleading squad. Soderbergh himself has since even re-evaluated his own film, and has plans to do a new "Midnight Cut" which would make it even more "Rorshach"-like. If unfamiliar with this gem, join us for a 20 minute "mini pod" rundown of what still remains our all time favorite Soderbergh flick, and one of the most intriguing films of the entire decade of the 90s.
______________________________________________________________________________
THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".
Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT @ www.gullcottageonline.com
Rights to film / TV clips and other audio excerpts held by copyright owners. Presented here for educational and criticism purposes.