All posts tagged: Franz

Franz Kafka’s Prague: a centenary tour of the writer’s home city | Prague holidays

Franz Kafka’s Prague: a centenary tour of the writer’s home city | Prague holidays

It’s a boiling summer’s day in Prague and I’m staring into the austere face of Franz Kafka. Not the real Kafka, of course – he died exactly a century ago, which is why I’m here – but a cast-iron plaque on the wall of his birthplace. The house, a replica as it turns out, sits pretty much on Old Town Square, which as usual is thronged with tourists snapping pics of its fairytale architecture, sipping drinks on terraces and gawking at its 15th-century astronomical clock. It’s impossible to imagine Kafka – 6ft tall and skinny, with dark, intense eyes – in this vibrant, carefree milieu. But then the Prague that Kafka was born into, in 1883 – the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire – was a very different city. And Kafka himself, alienated both as a Jew and a minority German speaker, had a sensitive imagination that interpreted the city’s narrow, winding streets as claustrophobic and its looming spires as threatening. I’m here on the Kafka trail because the …

4 Franz Kafka Animations: Watch Creative Animated Shorts from Poland, Japan, Russia & Canada

4 Franz Kafka Animations: Watch Creative Animated Shorts from Poland, Japan, Russia & Canada

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guat­tari thought of Kaf­ka as an inter­na­tion­al writer, in sol­i­dar­i­ty with minor­i­ty groups world­wide. Oth­er schol­ars have char­ac­ter­ized his work—and Kaf­ka him­self wrote as much—as lit­er­a­ture con­cerned with nation­al iden­ti­ty. Aca­d­e­m­ic debates, how­ev­er, have no bear­ing on how ordi­nary read­ers, and writ­ers, around the world take in Kafka’s nov­els and short sto­ries. Writ­ers with both nation­al and inter­na­tion­al pedi­grees such as Borges, Muraka­mi, Mar­quez, and Nabokov have drawn much inspi­ra­tion from the Czech-Jew­ish writer, as have film­mak­ers and ani­ma­tors. Today we revis­it sev­er­al inter­na­tion­al ani­ma­tions inspired by Kaf­ka, the first, above by Pol­ish ani­ma­tor Piotr Dumala. Trained a sculp­tor, Dumala’s tex­tur­al brand of “destruc­tive ani­ma­tion” cre­ates chill­ing, high con­trast images that appro­pri­ate­ly cap­ture the eerie and unre­solved play of light and dark in Kafka’s work. The Pol­ish artist’s Franz Kaf­ka (1992) draws on scenes from the author’s life, as told in his diaries. Next, watch a very dis­ori­ent­ing 2007 Japan­ese adap­ta­tion of Kafka’s “A Coun­try Doc­tor” by ani­ma­tor Koji Yama­mu­ra. The sound­track and monot­o­ne Japan­ese dia­logue (with sub­ti­tles) effec­tive­ly con­veys the tone …

Author Franz Kafka’s life was far from kafkaesque, biopic shows | Franz Kafka

Author Franz Kafka’s life was far from kafkaesque, biopic shows | Franz Kafka

The word “kafkaesque” has come to describe the sensation of powerlessness when dealing with bureaucratic systems; of getting lost in labyrinthine administrative errands, being shut out by faceless officialdom and having your hopes strangled by red tape. But kafkaesque does not come close to describing the life of the man who lent the term his name, according to an irreverent biopic of the Prague-born author. Max Brod played by David Kross, Franz Kafka Joel Basman und Anton Max Pachinger played y Robert Palfrader. Photograph: NDR/Superfilm In a six-part TV series for the German broadcaster ARD, Franz Kafka is shown not so much as a victim but as a master of bureaucracy – and an effective one at that. The fourth episode of Kafka, coming to Channel 4’s Walter Presents and several other European streaming platforms from the end of May, shows that the creator of claustrophobic classics such as The Trial knew how to navigate complex bureaucratic systems better than most – from the inside. As a clerk for the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute for …

Behold The Drawings of Franz Kafka (1907-1917)

Behold The Drawings of Franz Kafka (1907-1917)

Run­ner 1907–1908 UK-born, Chica­go-based artist Philip Har­ti­gan has post­ed a brief video piece about Franz Kaf­ka’s draw­ings. Kaf­ka, of course, wrote a body of work, most­ly nev­er pub­lished dur­ing his life­time, that cap­tured the absur­di­ty and the lone­li­ness of the new­ly emerg­ing mod­ern world: In The Meta­mor­pho­sis, Gre­gor trans­forms overnight into a giant cock­roach; in The Tri­al, Josef K. is charged with an unde­fined crime by a mad­den­ing­ly inac­ces­si­ble court. In sto­ry after sto­ry, Kaf­ka showed his pro­tag­o­nists get­ting crushed between the pin­cers of a face­less bureau­crat­ic author­i­ty on the one hand and a deep sense of shame and guilt on the oth­er. On his deathbed, the famous­ly tor­tured writer implored his friend Max Brod to burn his unpub­lished work. Brod ignored his friend’s plea and instead pub­lished them – nov­els, short sto­ries and even his diaries. In those diaries, Kaf­ka doo­dled inces­sant­ly – stark, graph­ic draw­ings infused with the same angst as his writ­ing. In fact, many of these draw­ings have end­ed up grac­ing the cov­ers of Kafka’s books. “Quick, min­i­mal move­ments that con­vey the typ­i­cal …

Karlovy Vary Festival retrospective of Franz Kafka film adaptations

Karlovy Vary Festival retrospective of Franz Kafka film adaptations

The Karlovy Vary Festival will pay tribute to one of the Czech Republic’s most famous sons with a retrospective of film adaptations of the work of Franz Kafka from some of the greatest names in cinema. To mark the centenary of Kafka’s death, the festival will screen a series of films directly adapted from, or inspired by, the literary master of angst. The retrospective will include such classics as Orson Welles’s The Trial (1962), Martin Scorsese’s Kafkaesque New York dramedy After Hours (1985) and Federico Fellini’s Intervista; Steven Soderbergh’s Kafka (1991) and its 2021 re-edit Mr. Kneff — both starring Jeremy Irons as a set-upon insurance man and writer — alongside lesser-known adaptations, including Jan Němec’s Metamorphosis, a German TV movie version of Kafka’s famous short story. Other highlights include Ousmane Sembene’s Senegalese feature The Money Order (1968) and Kôji Yamamura’s animated short Franz Kafka’s a Country Doctor (2007). “For decades, Kafka’s oeuvre has functioned as a continuing provocation to filmmakers,” said Karlovy Vary artistic director Karel Och and festival consultant Lorenzo Esposito, co-curators of …

Faces of Madness: Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s Heads

Faces of Madness: Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s Heads

  Franz Xaver Messerschmidt became known as an outcast artist who created dozens of weird self-portraits. While living in exile in present-day Bratislava, he sculpted his face over and over again with strange grimaces distorting it. Sometimes his faces were funny, sometimes disturbing, and sometimes straight-up horrifying. For years, Messerschmidt was believed to be the victim of the merciless and competitive art scene of Vienna, who lost his mind because of the pressure. But was he really insane and tormented by evil spirits?   Franz Xaver Messerschmidt: Early Works and Initial Success Maria Theresa by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, 1760. Source: Belvedere Museum, Vienna   Despite his present-day reputation, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt became initially known as a conventionally skilled and talented sculptor of his age. His uncle was a court sculptor in Munich, who introduced him to art and taught him the basics. After attending the Art Academy in Vienna, Messerschmidt quickly earned the attention of the most influential wealthy clients. They valued him for the balanced decorativeness of his work, usually made out of metal …

Farewell Franz Beckenbauer, a true football untouchable | Franz Beckenbauer

Farewell Franz Beckenbauer, a true football untouchable | Franz Beckenbauer

ANOTHER LEGEND LEAVES US Building an all-time male football XI can be a fun or a tedious affair, depending on whether you decide to share your selections on the internet. Some of the positions are, of course, up for debate but this is too short a tea-timely email to get into that discussion. There are, however, half-a-dozen players who are automatic picks. Lev Yashin, Paolo Maldini, Diego Maradona, Leo Messi, Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer. They are The Untouchables or The Non-Negotiables, to give them their slightly less catchy nickname. No Greatest XI can be built without these six, nor shall it be. Regrettably, Cruyff, CR7, R9, Xavi, Ronaldinho, Zidane, Di Stéfano, Puskas, Charlton and co are all going to have to fit around them. And no, you can’t have Zizou as a holding midfielder. Beckenbauer is the greatest centre-back of all time. Those in England will shout for Bobby Moore, and in Italy there will be calls for Franco Baresi. But they are just contenders, understudies, sous chefs. Beckenbauer could cook, alright, combining Franco Baresi’s …

Tributes to Franz Beckenbauer and a European roundup – Football Weekly | Football

Tributes to Franz Beckenbauer and a European roundup – Football Weekly | Football

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email. On the podcast today: Franz Beckenbauer has passed away at the age of 78; he won the World Cup as both a player and a manager and laid the foundations for Bayern Munich’s dominance of German football. The panel talk about his legacy and another legend lost. Elsewhere, Girona and Real Madrid fight it out at the top of La Liga – can Girona go the distance? And can Barcelona afford to sign anyone? Plus: Inter cling on at the top of Serie A while Napoli struggle and your questions answered. Photograph: taken from picture library Support The Guardian The Guardian is editorially independent. And we want to keep our journalism open and accessible to all. But we increasingly need our readers to fund our work. Support The Guardian Source link

Beckenbauer defined an era as a player and that was just the beginning | Franz Beckenbauer

Beckenbauer defined an era as a player and that was just the beginning | Franz Beckenbauer

In late February 2020, myself and a handful of other British journalists were given a tour of the German Football Museum, which looms opposite the central station in Dortmund. Our affable guide provided anecdote and colour for the huge array of artefacts spanning the sport’s history both pre-and post-reunification – and then we reached Beckenbauer Corner. The momentos celebrating the career of Franz Beckenbauer, spanning more than four decades as player, coach, administrator and influencer (in the more traditional sense of the word) were gathered and cordoned off, in a sort of museum purgatory. The collection’s long-term fate would be decided, our guide explained, after the Fifa Ethics Committee concluded its investigation into bribery centred around Germany’s successful bid to host the 2006 World Cup. In early 2021 the investigation closed, when a statute of limitations expired, and the charges were dropped. The museum scene was a perfect sum-up, in many ways, of Beckenbauer’s complicated legacy. Der Kaiser, the German football legend who died on Sunday aged 78, was always a leader and a pioneer, …

Franz Beckenbauer – a life in pictures | Football

Beckenbauer appeared in his first World Cup in 1966, playing every match, up to and including the final, where he and Bobby Charlton were instructed by their respective managers to man-mark each other, thus cancelling out each other’s play. Beckenbauer was an elegant and dominant defender, and such was his assurance in possession that he is credited with creating the modern sweeper role. Photograph: Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Getty Images Source link