Very well executed

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This, apparently was made for TV by Michael Haneke. After having seen "The Trial" and read pretty much all the works of Kafka, one comes to expect something. Unlike the former, the protagonist is given many options, but never seems as confused as Joseph K was. He seems to feel that his job as a land surveyor trumps virtually anything, even though he is obviously not wanted. He will betray, barge in on, and do anything with the strange people he encounters, including marrying one of them, to get to that Castle. But as is the case with the existentialists, his path is as much a part of the thing, cold and dank and full of trauma, as ever actually reaching the Castle. And, why should such a place need a surveyor anyway. This is a nightmare come to life. He meets his assistants, a couple of twin "boys" and they have no surveying equipment. They have no knowledge of surveying, and yet off they go. Or sort of. It is an endless tromp through snow and buildings and meetings with obstructionists. And so it goes.

"Das Schloß" or "The Castle" is a German/Austrian co-production from almost 20 years ago and writer and director Michael Haneke made this one the very same year he released the original "Funny Games". For this one here, he adapted the work of famous author Franz Kafka and I guess this is also the main problem I had with this one. The material just wasn't interesting enough to me. I quite like some of Haneke's other stuff, but this one not so much. He cast many people that also appeared in other works of his, such as lead actor Ulrich Mühe, Susanne Lothar and Frank Giering, sadly all of them dies untimely deaths. "The Castle" is a television production that runs for over 2 hours and I cannot deny it dragged on many occasions.I think the acting and direction in here is pretty good, as usual with Haneke/Mühe etc. but the base material just did not do too much for me. I was very bored by the story and the massive runtime certainly did not help at all. It is a very bleak and atmospheric watch as you are used to if you have seen some of Haneke's other works, but this alone cannot make up for all the other flaws in this film. I personally do not recommend checking it out unless you are a huge fan of Kafka's work, this one here or just in general. Everybody else should stay away. Thumbs down.

Michael Haneke illustrates Franz Kafka's manuscript for the novel bearing the same name, in his film 'Das Schloss'. We can call it a cinematic rendition of the plot. The film begins with the scene of K. entering the door of the inn, which commences with the still image of a mountain village posted on the door. Consequently the film ends unexpectedly in the middle of a scene which presents K. walking to the horse stables waiting to find Gerstäcker's mother reading. It's like you read a text and you stop where it stops. This illusion is perfectly staged by Haneke.However, it is a film and not a novel. You cannot control the point where you would like to stop. You cannot read again a paragraph; everything is rendered linearly, in a narrative form. Basically, in this instance the film as a medium encompasses the novel. It would feel inappropriate to say just that about this film.What is remarkable in Haneke's work is the way he recreates the absurd universe of Franz Kafka: by using long static shots, lack of conversation, abrupt ending of scenes and arranging all narrative elements to express in every moment a state of insecure and temporary state of facts.The image is outstanding in terms of expressiveness, at least. There are lots of nuances of blue and brown and the light is used very carefully to create special types of dark settings resembling Rembrandt's paintings.The actors' performance must be highly credited, especially in the case of Ulrich Mühe and Sussane Lothar who are playing K. and Frieda, respectively.If making films is about relying on other artistic forms, especially on the novel and if you believe in the concepts of mimetic and cathartic art, then at least you have to come up with something outstanding in these terms. Michael Haneke manages to do this because his very own approach of film-making.

This is an extremely unusual adaptation of an unfinished novel. The breaks in Kafka's manuscript are actually left in the movie. This is surrealism to the max!