tek's rating: ¼

Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life (22:36)
IMDb; Wikipedia; YouTube

This is a 1993 short film (which I guess was released in the U.S. in 1995), but I don't recall if I ever heard of it before 2013. I was reading an article about Peter Capaldi, who would soon become the 12th Doctor on Doctor Who. The article mentioned this film, which he had written and directed, and I really liked the title, so I immediately sought it out and watched it on YouTube. It's pretty heavy on the Kafka and light on the It's a Wonderful Life parody, but I liked it. Very dark and weird and amusing. And weird.

So, um... Kafka is trying to write the story that will be "The Metamorphosis," which is of course his best known work. But he has writer's block, and can't figure out how to end the first sentence. He's trying to decide what his protagonist, Gregor Samsa, should transform into. Meanwhile, there's a noisy party going on in another apartment, which is distracting. And there's a weird guy with a bunch of knives who is looking for his "little friend," which viewers might well assume is a cockroach, and will eventually give Kafka the inspiration he needs. But there turn out to be any number of distractions from his writing, which might also serve as potential sources of inspiration for his story. I don't really want to reveal any more of the plot, except to say that Kafka eventually has a nervous breakdown, followed by a happy ending that is pretty much the only thing reminiscent of Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life." It does kind of gloss over the problem that had earlier given Kafka such mental anguish, which is odd. Yes, there are all sorts of oddities about the ending, and about the film as a whole. But whatever, it was fun to watch.


weird shorts index