The Wish To Be a Red Indian: Kafka and Cinema 2024 / Klassenverhältnisse / Germany, France 1984
A masterpiece by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, based on themes from Kafka’s novel The Man Who Disappeared. For the cinematic version of the tale of young Karl Rossmann, from his arrival in the New World to his encounter with the Theater of Oklahoma, the legendary filmmaking duo went for a distinctly political angle, clearly reflected in the film’s title as well. “For us, Kafka is the only great poet of industrial civilisation, namely, a society in which people depend on their work to survive.” America represents something of a dream for Rossmann, adrift in a world which is difficult to understand, and strewn with blind optimism and untold violence. Straub-Huillet shot almost the entire film in Hamburg and, in order to achieve the authenticity of the original text, they incorporated the specific dialect favoured by Kafka.
Lorenzo Esposito
127 min / Black & white, DCP
Director Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet
/ Screenplay Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub na motivy románu / based on the novel by Franz Kafka
/ Dir. of Photography William Lubtchansky
/ Sound Louis Hochet
/ Editor Danièle Huillet
/ Art Director Danièle Huillet
/ Producer Klaus Hellwig, Claude Nedjar, Jean-Marie Straub
/ Production Janus, Hessischen Rundfunk, NRF Diffusion, BMI, FFA, Hamburger Filmförderung
/ Cast Christian Heinisch, Nazzareno Bianconi, Mario Adorf, Laura Betti, Harun Farocki
/ Sales CNC - centre national de cinema et de l'image animee
Jean-Marie Straub (1933, Metz, France – 2022, Rolle, Switzerland), Danièle Huillet (1936, Paris – 2006, Cholet, France). Joint filmography: The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach, 1968), Moses and Aaron (1974), Class Relations (Klassenverhältnisse, 1984), Antigone (1992), Sicily! (1999).
CNC - centre national de cinema et de l'image animee
7 bis rue Alexandre Turpault, 78390, Bois d’Arcy
France
Phone: +33 130 148 054
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