Few would approach a biographical film about Franz Kafka with the light touch that filmmaker Agnieszka Holland applies to her latest film FRANZ. (It just had its Midwest premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival this past weekend.) Holland herself is not exactly known for lighter fare, gaining worldwide acclaim for heavy, tense films like EUROPA EUROPA, ANGRY HARVEST, and IN DARKNESS. But indeed, Holland doesn’t turn FRANZ into a somber, paranoid piece akin to some of Kafka’s darkest literary works like THE TRIAL or THE CASTLE. Instead, she gets at the core of what made Kafka such an influential writer in the 20th century – his blend of realism and the fantastical – to make a biopic that’s both dense with significant events of his life but filmed with a spryness that gives it genuine kineticism. No stodgy period piece is this one. Instead, it represents Kafka’s restlessness, obsessions, and energies by mirroring such in the way the film is constructed. It may take place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but its rhythms, wit, and film techniques feel quite contemporary. FRANZ is grounded in its historical events yet countered by imagery and flights of fancy capturing the essence of Kafka’s playfulness. It might just be the most idealistically-matched biography subject and film style since Bob Fosse’s ALL THAT JAZZ in 1979 or the animated LOVING VINCENT in 2017.
Holland also applies the idea of juxtaposition to her storytelling, much in the same way that Kafka did throughout his works. His most famous book THE METAMORPHOSIS plays as both horror story and societal satire. It’s a shocking, body transformation story concerning a dull salesman of little consequence who is inexplicably turned into a giant cockroach overnight. After a while, his family gets used to his new condition and he becomes ignored in that form too. Such wit can be found throughout FRANZ as well. In one scene, Holland shows the young Franz (Daniel Dongres) hurled into a river by his domineering father (Peter Kurth) to learn how to swim. The child promptly sinks but Holland follows immediately with a modern-day scene of tourists checking out where Kafka sunbathed after his daily swims in his adulthood. Holland consistently leans into comedic elements to alleviate the tragedy in Kafka’s often troubling experiences.
Such smash-cutting, if you will, is a great conceit to employ here, considering that Kafka’s time on this planet was a mere 40 years with numerous problems taking up oodles of his existence concerning family strife, problems with women and intimacy, and numerous health concerns. Yet, Kafka found the light too; he adored his sisters and a number of women, loved writing and was incredibly prolific at it, and enjoyed simple pleasures like swimming, walking, napping and silence. The film also resists the conventional “this happened and then that happened” conventions of most such biopics. Instead, it leaps around years, even decades, and has numerous scenes that take place in contemporary society to show the influence of Kafka well into the 21st century.
Actor Idan Weiss makes for a wonderful adult Kafka in the film, making all of the author’s eccentricities often lovable, even empathetical during his worst behavior, and never less than watchable. His Kafka is a shy oddball, but he’s also a sweet man with soulful eyes that speak volumes. Kurth gives a wonderfully insightful peformance too as his bullying father. The actor even allows traces of admiration and concern to enter his most prideful and patriarchal displays in the drama when he seems to be unfairly unloading on his introverted son.
The cinematography by Tomasz Naumiuk’s grounds the period and takes flight showcasing its fantasies. The nimble editing by Pavel Hrdlicka ensures it all moves along at a crisp pace. And the exacting production design by Heinrich Boraros looks three times as expensive as its modest $6.5 million budget. The script by Holland and Marek Epstein eschews words when emotion and action can carry a scene, and do not try to recreate the author’s best works like most movie bios would have attempted. Instead, this feels almost like a mood piece, preferring to get at the essence of the man, rather than his resume. The entire cast from Franz’s family to the extras also make vivid impressions, and Holland throws in contemporary scenes showcasing Kafka’s impact on modern Europe. It’s a clever counter to Kafka’s worry that his writing wasn’t coming to much in his time no matter how hard he tried.
Holland’s film, incidentally, is the official submission from Poland for this year’s Academy Awards. That should enable this film to get out from mere festival showcasing. Indeed, this special film acts so differently than most movie bios, I’d recommend it heartily just on that attribute alone. It’s a sharp and affecting tribute to Franz Kafka, his ethos, and how zigging while others zag is always a smart play when it comes to living within a society that always seems far too willing to be pummeled into submission. In other words, resist the metamorphosis.
