The Castle (1997)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The castle
Country of production Austria
original language German
Publishing year 1997
length 123 minutes
Age rating FSK o. A.
Rod
Director Michael Haneke
script Michael Haneke
production Veit Heiduschka ,
Christina Undritz
camera Jiří Štíbr , Heinz Mensik , Marcus Knaus ,
Marcus Kanter
cut Andreas Prochaska ,
Daniela Hoffmann
occupation

Das Schloß is an Austrian television film by Michael Haneke from 1997. It is based on the prose fragment of the same name by Franz Kafka . Ulrich Mühe can be seen as the land surveyor K., Susanne Lothar as his temporary lover Frieda. Frank Giering and Felix Eitner are cast as K's assistants Artur and Jeremias. Nikolaus Paryla plays the opaque ruler and André Eisermann plays the messenger Barnabas.

action

On a cold winter evening, the land surveyor K. asked for a room in the village inn, Brückenhof, late in the evening. The landlord denies, however, but to his great surprise wants K. to sleep on the bench in the inn, which K. accepts. After some time, he is awakened by the son of Schlosskastellans, who tells him that no one without permission from the steward should stay in the restaurant or stay in the territory of the castle and K. did not, at least he had not shown such permission such . K. wants to know which village he got lost in. When the man, whose name is Schwarzer, continues to insist that K. has to go, he says that he is the surveyor whom the castle had sent for. His assistants with their machines would follow him in the car tomorrow. Then he lies down again. Schwarzer then phoned. Reluctantly, he has to take note that the castle had actually appointed K. as land surveyor.

The next morning, K. made the acquaintance of the village teacher, who let him know that nobody liked the castle and nobody knew the count without explaining it. K. is discouraged and a little annoyed. He trudges through the deep snow towards the castle, but cannot get any closer to it. Back in the restaurant, two young men, Artur and Jeremias, introduce themselves as his old helpers, without K. recognizing them. They look pretty much alike, but react haphazardly and pointlessly and are more of an annoyance than a help for K. When K. wants to ask permission to enter the castle with his assistants and asks when he can come, he receives the answer: “Never.” However, a young man named Barnabas brings him a message from the headmaster that he was chosen to receive the surveyor's wishes. Due to a misunderstanding, K. ends up with the Barnabas family, who are ostracized in the village due to an earlier incident. His sister Amalia opposed the immoral suggestion of a castle official. But you don't resist the request of an official!

Only a little later, K. made the acquaintance of Frieda in the Herrenhof, an inn where the castle administration officials frequented, who worked there at the bar and told him that she was the lover of the castle resident Klamm. When they are looking for K. there because he is not allowed to stay here without permission, Frieda protects him and hugs and kisses him a little later and gives himself up to him. As a result, he is expected to marry Frieda, which K. wants to do. It also plays a role that K. believes that this will give him more access to the Klamm and the castle. But first of all he wants to speak to the headmaster, which he succeeds after a few unsuccessful attempts. However, he bluntly tells him that no surveyor is needed, not today and not in the future. The conversation about K's order turns in circles and ends as unsatisfactorily for K. as it began. At least K. has now gotten an inkling of the bureaucracy sinking into chaos, which has the town and its inhabitants firmly under control, is painfully slow, cumbersome and, in terms of the result, rather random. Fear, submission to the castle and mutual distrust shape life in the village.

Shortly afterwards, K. was offered a job as a school clerk, even if one needed just as little as a land surveyor. K. refuses. Frieda pleads with him to accept the offer. He feels the fear that dominates them, without knowing the exact reason. So he first accepts the position offered to him. His attempts to finally speak to Klamm personally fail time and again. Fundamental differences of opinion and misunderstandings arise between K. and Frieda; which culminate in Frieda deciding to return to her old place - the bar - shortly.

All of K's endeavors are now aimed at finally gaining access to the Klamm and the castle. The promises made to him by the civil servant Bürgel, in whose room K. happened to be, also turn out to be empty, since, as it later turns out, he has no influence at all. Erlanger, another official, demands from K. that he see to it that Frieda comes back to the bar, as a change in this respect could have a negative effect on Klamm's condition. Little does he know that Frieda has long since made up her mind to return to her old position.

Villager Gerstäcker turns to K. and says that he can give up his job as a school clerk, that he has a better paid job for him. As they trudge through the snowstorm, K. tells him that he knows why Gerstäcker wants him to come with him to get Erlanger to do something for him. Gerstäcker also admits that. “The room in Gerstäcker's hut was only dimly lit by the hearth fire and by a candle stump, in the light of which someone was reading a book. It was Gerstäcker's mother. She held out her trembling hand to K. and let him sit down next to her. She spoke with difficulty, it was difficult to understand her. But what she said ... ”-“ At this point Franz Kafka's fragment ends ”- the film too.

production

Production notes, filming

The film was produced by Wega Filmproduktionsgesellschaft mbH, Vienna, in cooperation with the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF), Vienna and the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation (BR), Munich and Arte GEIE, Strasbourg. Michael Katz was the production manager, Thomas Pascher was the recording manager, and Hannes Hämmerle was the recording manager on the set. The film was funded by the Austrian Film Institute (ÖFI), Vienna, the Vienna Film Financing Fund (WFF), Vienna, and the EU's 16: 9 Action Plan.

The film was shot in 1997 in Styria .

publication

The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 1997 . The broadcast in the program of the station ORF 2 took place on December 13, 1997.

The film was also presented on September 6, 1997 at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada and on November 19, 1997 at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata in Argentina. It was released in the United States in October 1998. In Japan it was released on June 24, 2001 at the PIA Film Festival , in the Czech Republic on March 14, 2004 at the European Union Film Festival, in Poland on August 1, 2017 at the Film and Art Festival Two Riversides and in Vietnam on April 8, 2018 at the Kafka Festival. The film was also released in Brazil, France, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine. The English title is The Castle .

On November 19, 2005, Alive released the film on DVD.

Thoughts on Kafka's fragment of the novel

Just like the character of the novel, K., the efforts of research were also aimed at finding out what the castle was all about. Initially, the "theological interpretation" dominated, which was mainly due to Max Brod . So was the castle a "parable of divine grace." Kafka's “experiment of total negation”, analogous to the struggle of the hero K., is only a sign that today's man is only able to “understand God as absent”, “because of his need and conviction that everything is absurd “Be, feel. So did Albert Camus in the castle saw designed "the crisis of contemporary man", "the isolated people of the world only as a projection of our own tendencies and instincts" and never perceive the world why he always only themselves think. “Kafka's epic, his letters and his diary” would suggest that the “emptied divine authority as worldly” should be imagined: “as paternal and political authority”. Walter Benjamin already saw “the age-old father-son relationship as a constant” in Kafka's work. Much “indicates” that “the world of officials and the world of the fathers are the same for Kafka”.

Dieter Wunderlich wrote that Franz Kafka went to Spindleruv Mlyn in the Giant Mountains to relax in 1922 and stayed in the Hotel Krone in the Friedrichsthal district. There he wrote the scene in which K. arrived in the snow-covered village, which had become the castle at the beginning of the story . The village "- in which energetic women set the tone -" lies "in the sphere of control of a castle whose over-perfected and exclusively male-occupied administrative and monitoring apparatus seemingly threatened to slide into paper chaos", Wunderlich continued. For K., "the details are quite tangible, but the superordinate remains incomprehensible for him (and absurd for the reader)". We would not find out about “what power” the castle , whose officials apparently claim “feudal rights”, “especially against women”.

In an interview with Stefan Grissemann and Michael Omasta, Michael Haneke said: “The cold is actually becoming more and more an issue for me, the silence of people, the inability to communicate, which was actually an issue for me from the beginning, is becoming an ever stronger experience. "

reception

criticism

The lexicon of the international film praised: “Intensive filming of the novel by Franz Kafka, which focuses on the increasing resignation and loneliness of the main character - played by Ulrich Mühe. The desired faithfulness to the original is supported by a narrator's voice who reads passages from Kafka's text and creates a tension between the film and the film. "

Prisma now gave the film conditional recognition and stated: After a story by Franz Kafka, Funny Games director Michael Haneke made a film that seemed tooKafka-esque, which only temporarily reflected the unbearable state of mind and the terrible situation in which the main character finds himself . |

Marcus Stiglegger from Ikonenmagazin wrote: “With Das Schloss, Michael Haneke also goes in search of images that meet Kafka's pessimistic visions - and with the help of his usual ensemble he unfolds a thoroughly exhausting and devastating dance that transforms many aspects of the original into a contemporary one Variant transported. "Stiglegger also found that" what a psychological thriller "could" have been "becomes with Haneke" a creeping, monochrome grotesque, often radically reduced and of oppressive slowness - not a pleasant work, but it is worth it To pay attention to Haneke's version because he [was] doing the only thing possible in the face of a strong submission ”. The conclusion was then: "He is re-conquering the fable for himself and presenting an independent cinematic work of art that demonstrates Haneke's genuine cinematographic talent."

Frank van den Ven rated the film for Cinemagazine . In the castle the pointlessness of existence is touched by the bureaucracy. If anything is meaningless in this life, it is the unnecessary expense that human-developed rules would bring. Haneke brought a true-to-original adaptation of the book to the screen and told the famous story clearly. Unfortunately, the film lasts far too long and doesn't keep the tension. That is a shame, because Haneke is someone who guarantees quality. Even if the typical Haneke characteristics are visible, just think of the cold atmosphere and the sober images, this film does not feel like a full-fledged work by the master. The characters would stay flat and there was no shocking final conclusion. The castle is probably the Austrian's worst film so far. Filmmakers would be better off telling their own stories. However, this is a brave attempt. Haneke tried something new, but failed to produce a fascinating film.

Ezequel Iván Duarte from El Zapato De Herzog explained that the preponderance of earthy colors is a sign of the rural simplicity and hostility of the people and their inhabitants, as well as a twilight mood that suggests fatigue and temporary paralysis caused by the constant repetition of similar situations evoked without progress or change. The extradiegetic narrative style without supporting music feels like a form of dry ice. In terms of its fidelity, the film lacks any real dramatic progress. The voice of a narrator with equal rights is even built in to explain feelings and replace dialogues. Ambiguity is one of the most powerful features of Kafkaesque humor. The absurd bureaucratic situations and the ridiculous behavior of many characters simultaneously produced a grace that, especially with ongoing events and their constant repetition, causes wear and tear on the protagonist, which often manifests itself in impossibility. Combining humor and despair is a difficult art.

Gürkan Kilicaslan wrote about the actors' performance that Haneke had managed to create many eye-catching characters and moments. The young men whom K. was made available as assistants and who were played with great skill by Frank Giering (a talented actor who died at the age of 38) and Felix Eitner would be a direct breeze from Kafka's novel to the Carry canvas. Ulrich Mühe, who died in 2007, provides a masterful representation of coldness that suits Haneke, as well as of forlornness and mystery. This figure is the most powerful element of the film and Haneke has masterfully captured it on the screen. The appreciation also goes to Susanne Lothar as Frieda and André Eisermann as Barnabas.

Ed Howard of Only the Cinema wrote at the end of his review that one of the defining points of both the film and the novel was the way in which an inhumane bureaucracy reduced people to a limited self-interest, making them unable to develop meaningful connections except on the basis of what they want for themselves. Of course, this is a topic that comes very close to Haneke, and the film fits in well with the director's personal work and underlines his typical alienation issues and the atrocities that government and social systems would bring about. It is a fascinating film, especially because it is based on a really complex and powerful book, but also because it reflects Haneke.

On the page The Last Exit it was found that Haneke's careful and faithful cinematic adaptation of Kafka's book manages to capture the surreal, paranoid, mysterious, existential and suffocating atmosphere. A friendless man is being fought by the locals, wading through absurd rules and hierarchies, encountering social obstacles and inefficiencies and realizing that he never gets closer to his goal. The film jumps between scenes and ends unfinished like the book.

Christian Schön von Filmstarts wrote, “If there were films in the same way as music, there would be a division into U-films and E-films, that is, those that are entertaining and those that are serious, Michael Haneke's works would almost without exception be classified as E-films fall. This is also the case with the literary film adaptation of The Castle, based on the fragment of the novel by Franz Kafka. ”With his adaptation, Haneke hits“ the core of Kafkaesque situations much better, as these are similarly crystal clear and mysterious at the same time ”. However, "the film as a whole lacks independence regardless of the book". The film “fits in almost seamlessly with the aesthetics of his earlier films”, it continues, and a “rather undercooled style” is reflected “on several levels of the cinematic design”. The fact that there is no “background music for the scenes” “unless music is anchored in the scenes themselves” gives the film “a cool, authentic, realistic touch and a claustrophobic narrowness”. The main thing is that the actors, "above all Ulrich Mühe and Susanne Lothar, with their discreetly apathetic way of playing, contribute to the specific effect". Schön found the “introduction of a narrative voice from the off” as a “serious shortcoming”.

However, the film service saw it differently with regard to the narrator's voice and stated: Intensive filming of the novel by Franz Kafka, which focuses on the increasing resignation and loneliness of the main character - played by Ulrich Mühe. The desired faithfulness to the original is supported by a narrator's voice who reads out passages from Kafka's text and creates a tension between the film and the film.

According to Kino.de , it was only a "question of time" before Michael Haneke met Franz Kafka, "the dark filmmaker meets the even darker language artist". The “hopeless fate of the surveyor K., who tried unsuccessfully to be admitted into the castle, reveals the congenial relationship between the two. With icy, nocturnal images, Haneke Kafka's last novel transforms into a cold utopia of futility, whose inexorable mechanics are only softened by Udo Samel's sonorous narrative voice. "In addition to the astonishing faithfulness to the work", "the exquisite selection of actors (including André Eisermann, Otto Grünmandl, Nikolaus Paryla) contribute to the brilliant cohesion of this adaptation, in which an outstanding Ulrich Mühe found a surprising number of edges" it says in conclusion.

Awards

Baden-Baden TV Film Festival 1998

  • Award for Michael Haneke with the special award for director

Austrian Adult Education TV Award 1998

  • Award for Michael Haneke with the award in the category "Best TV Film"

Adolf Grimme Prize 1999

  • Nomination for the Adolf Grimme Prize in the fiction & entertainment category

Further films

see → here

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The castle at filmportal.de
  2. ↑ Das Schloss Fig. DVD case Arte Edition
  3. ^ Das Schloß, Austria 1997 In: Kindlers Literaturlexikon, Munich 1986, see page arsenal-berlin.de. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  4. ↑ a b Dieter Wunderlich: Franz Kafka: The castle see page dieterwunderlich.de. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  5. ↑ The castle. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 18, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  6. ↑ “Das Schloß” - literary film adaptation see page prisma.de. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  7. ↑ Marcus Stiglegger: Michael Hanekes Code: Unknown and The Castle see page ikonenmagazin.de. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  8. ↑ Frank van den Ven: The Castle (1997) see page cinemagazine.nl (Dutch). Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  9. ↑ Ezequel Iván Duarte: El Castillo - The castle see page elzapatodeherzog.wordpress.com (Spanish). Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  10. ↑ Gürkan Kilicaslan: Das Schloß - Michael Haneke (1997) see page gurkankilicaslan.com (Turkish). Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  11. ↑ Ed Howard: The Castle see page seul-le-cinema.blogspot (English). Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  12. ↑ The castle see page thelastexit.net (English). Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  13. ↑ Christian Schön: For the castle, see page filmstarts.de. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  14. ↑ The Castle (1997). In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 22, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  15. ↑ Das Schloß: Radical adaptation of Franz Kafka's novel of the same name see page kino.de. Retrieved August 18, 2019.