When a land surveyor arrives at a small snowy village, local authorities refuse to allow him to advance to the nearby castle. Increasingly complicated bureaucratic obstacles arise.When a land surveyor arrives at a small snowy village, local authorities refuse to allow him to advance to the nearby castle. Increasingly complicated bureaucratic obstacles arise.When a land surveyor arrives at a small snowy village, local authorities refuse to allow him to advance to the nearby castle. Increasingly complicated bureaucratic obstacles arise.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 1 nomination
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe same year, Michael Haneke released Funny Games (1997) with the same lead actors than this film.
- Quotes
K.: We've lost a fully workday. We must make an early start tomorrow. Find a sleigh to go to the Castle and have it ready outside at 6:00am.
Artur: Fine.
Jeremias: You say fine, but you know it's impossible.
Artur: He's right. No stranger may enter the Castle without a permit.
K.: Where does one apply for a permit?
Artur: I don't know.
- ConnectionsVersion of Das Schloß (1962)
Haneke's film remains close to the source material, while still staying somewhat watchable, for most of the time. That's not a small achievement. This is a deliberate literary adaptation, a not too obtrusive narrator adds the sound of Kafka's writing, which is an essential feature. The color scheme that's mostly close to black and white, but not everywhere, is an interesting decision. The art direction is okay. The cast is of course top-notch. The storyline is what it is, not great, not annoying, and there is most certainly no deep hidden meaning to discover.
Kafka himself didn't have access to some divine wisdoms and truths. He described a worldview, a sentiment, created a melody that was very influential in the 1950s to 1970s. Haneke's film does the best it can to bring it to the small screen.
Kafka didn't know how to finish his novel. It's been said that he was considering to just kill K. Off. But that would have been a boring cheat, Kafka accepting his own defeat. Therefore his novel stayed "fragmentary" and was published as such two years after his death. This film ends EXACTLY like his script - not the printed book - ends. It's a surprising and funny moment.
Today, of course, the logical ending seems to be obvious: If everything is lies within lies, people pretending to be from the castle are most likely not from the castle. So when K. Finally gets a coach "to the castle" - he ends up in another village. Fixed it. Once you know the melody, it's easy to do a Kafka. 6/10.
- Thom-Peters
- Sep 21, 2022
Details
- Runtime2 hours 3 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1