Class Relations

This 1984 film by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet is adapted from Franz Kafka's unfinished novel. Karl, a young man sent from Europe to New York, is drawn into a series of events he does not understand. The film uses the novel's dialogue almost verbatim. The performers speak the text flatly and show no emotion; the locations were shot in Germany rather than America, and the choice is not concealed. The images are black and white and the framing static. The narrative explains nothing; Karl meets a new rule in every scene and never learns the reason. Harun Farocki appears among the cast. Who it's for: those who follow the cinema of Straub and Huillet and adaptations of Kafka. Who it's not for: viewers expecting emotional storytelling; the film keeps its playing deliberately plain.