The Castle (1968)

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Movie
Original title The castle
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1968
length 88 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Rudolf Noelte
script Rudolf Noelte
Maximilian Schell
production Rudolf Noelte
Maximilian Schell
music Herbert Trantow
camera Wolfgang Treu
cut Dagmar Hirtz
occupation

The castle is a German adaptation of the eponymous fragment of the novel by Franz Kafka . Directed by Rudolf Noelte , Maximilian Schell played the leading roles in the key role of K. and Noelte 's wife Cordula Trantow in the winter of 1967/68 . Noelte and Schell also produced this film, the premiere of which was scheduled for the 1968 Cannes International Film Festival .

action

For the land surveyor K. the castle is a symbol of the power and the dictatorship of the apparatus. Although within reach, it remains an unattainable goal for him. He has received an order from the castle, but the confirmation for it cannot be found for the time being. There is also no room for K. in the village immediately below the castle, and at first they don't even want to let him spend the night in the inn. K. fails because of the absurd, inscrutable bureaucracy and the indifference of the villagers. Hundreds of letters are piled up in the office of the community leader, inextricably organized according to any logic that cannot be understood by an outsider. Is it possible that the surveyor’s order is also included, or is there an error?

The surveyor can neither shape or realize his ostensibly assigned task nor his life as a whole according to his wishes. Despite tireless attempts to adapt, he is ultimately always excluded from everything - the castle as well as the community - if he is not accepted as one of yours. All of his attempts to communicate, even with Frieda, who is very fond of him, ultimately come to nothing. If help or even support seems to be in sight, things only get more confusing. At the end of the day, K. lies down to die, worn down and exhausted. “You were tireless in your zeal,” praised the community leader.

Production notes

The film is the first attempt to capture Kafka's difficult-to-decipher novel fragment on the screen. In the 90s, two more film adaptations of Das Schloß followed . Noelte followed Max Brod's stage version , Kafka's friend , in his film adaptation of Kafka.

The film was shot between November 9, 1967 and March 8, 1968 at Schloss Bertholdstein in Styria and in the immediate vicinity. Around a hundred years earlier, Schell's great-grandfather, Hofrat Karl Noé von Nordberg, was lord of Bertholdstein Castle.

The castle was supposed to be shown at the Cannes International Film Festival in May 1968, but this was canceled after about half the duration of the festival due to the student unrest in Paris . On September 4, 1968, the film was finally shown at the Venice International Film Festival . On March 9, 1969, it had its US premiere in New York

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the film passed the FSK on August 23, 1968 and had its German premiere on August 31, 1971.

The castle was the only cinema production by the renowned theater director Noelte. Noelte had staged Brod's castle stage version in 1953 with great success for the theater.

According to Der Spiegel on March 4, 1968, the total cost of the film was three million DM (around 1.5 million euros). Raising this sum for such a bulky and mass-unsuitable project would prove extremely difficult for Noelte and Schell. “Of course, the two of them couldn't find a producer for their project. In order to raise the "money for Kafka", Schell, meanwhile an "Oscar" winner, was engaged for films that he "does not want to mention"; Noelte submitted his script for Bonner Prämien. "

The cameraman Wolfgang Treu achieved impressive, barren winter landscapes. On June 23, 1968, he was awarded the Federal Film Prize , Filmband in Gold , for his photographic achievement .

The film structures were designed by Herta Hareiter and her husband Otto Pischinger , the costume designs were made by Walter Schulze-Mittendorf , whose last film was to be Das Schloß . Cordula Trantow's father Herbert , who composed the film music, and the actress Else Ehser also gave their farewell performance for this film . She died eleven days after filming ended.

criticism

The lexicon of the international film judged: “Rudolf Noelte simplifies the various layers of meaning and interpretations of the original and concentrates above all on the description of a macabre bureaucracy against which an individual in vain wants to enforce his or her autonomy. Despite careful detail work and beautiful pictures, an all-too-theatrical, at times craftsmanship staging. "

The Cinema online presence says: "Very well played, but cumbersome".

The Movie & Video Guide wrote: "Appropiately vague filmization of Kafka's novel".

Halliwell's Film Guide characterized the film as follows: "Attempt, partly successful, to film an unfinished Kafka obscurity".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Das Schloß in spiegel.de, edition of March 4, 1968
  2. ↑ ibid.
  3. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films Volume 7, S. 3283. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.
  4. ^ The castle in cinema.de
  5. ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 205
  6. ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 181