| Whovian Trivia - Who is the only actor to play The Doctor to have an Oscar prior to his tenure in the TARDIS? If you read the title of this post, you know the answer. Peter Capaldi is one of the finest British actors of thee last thirty years, and he's a helluva writer and director. His short film Franz Kafka's It's A Wonderful Life is an absurdist's dream, and it much deservedly won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film. Richard E. Grant plays Franz Kafka, who is desperately trying to cobble together his most famous work - The Metamorphasis. He keeps going down the wrong path, turning Gregor Samsa into a banana for instance, and getting interrupted. Grant is usually pitch-perfect in everything, and here he's great playing Kafka as less the image we have of the idiosyncratic author as a fully-fleshed weirdo. He seems less concerned with making Kafka into the character he is writing about than playing him for emotional impact. Basically, he's carrying the story, but has lightened his load by not going overly creepy. The shooting, and particularly the model work at the beginning, are both phenomenal and set the mood and tone. I love the look of the town that is established, seemingly out of a German Expressionist's dream. |
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Klaus at GunpointA Film Journal dedicated to all film.A segment of Office Supply Publishing. Archives
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