Franz Kafka’s It’s A Wonderful Life and other strange tales

(Shorts set)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: D        Shorts:

 

Kafka’s It’s A Wonderful Life (1993)          B-

Seven Gates (1997)                                C

The Deal (1996)                                      B

Mr. McAllister’s Cigarette Holder (1994)    C+

 

 

Another great thing DVD has done for film fans is increase the exposure of short films by issuing more of them and making them more readily available.  Though we are not in a boom on these titles yet, Franz Kafka’s It’s A Wonderful Life and other strange tales is Vanguard DVD’s entry into this burgeoning market.  Each film is shot on 35mm (except the last one) film in various aspect ratios.

 

Franz Kafka’s It’s A Wonderful Life (1.78 X 1) is not a spoof of the Frank Capra Holiday propaganda film It’s A Wonderful Life (1946), but a new angle taken on Kafka that will immediately remind one of David Cronenberg’s take on William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch (1991).  This won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short and it was for more than its title.  True, it is catchy, but the 25-minutes-long piece has the actual Kafka trying to start his classic book Metamorphosis.  It is good, but reading the book would help.  Richard E. Grant is great as the writer and the rest of the cast plays equally demented characters well.  Writer/director Peter Capaldi shows some real promise.  We’ll have to cover more of his work soon.

 

Seven Gates (1.78 X 1) is a portrait of two dysfunctional brothers that is supposed to be a comedy, but somehow never clicks.  For being only 20 minutes long, the idea of gates getting in their way is never realized.  Next time, co-writer (with Jeffrey Berman and Richard Waugh) Richard D’Alessio should think through things better and try for less laughs and more meaning.  This is an example of trying too hard.

 

The Deal (1.78 X 1) is the best short in the set, in the great tradition of Twilight Zone, Roald Dahl’s Tales Of The Unexpected and especially Night Gallery.  Two men work on a sick deal to end all deals that include salvaging and robbing from younger bodies for their own older ones, making the people of the world as disposable as possible, and clinching their arrangement in the most bizarre of terms.  Writer/producer Lewis Black, yes the great stand-up comic from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and endless (there can never be enough) TV specials delivers one of the short gems of recent years.  This seems to have originated as a play.  Joe Grifasi (The Deer Hunter, The Elephant Man, Batman Forever, Auto Focus) and Larry Pine (Q – The Winged Serpent, the instant TV classic Oz) are excellent as the no good dealmakers who

 

Mr. McAllister’s Cigarette Holder (1.33 X 1 full frame and sepia tone) takes place in 1961, but feels more like the depression.  This was not bad, but just was not my kind of story.  It makes a good point about relationships, but we have seen this kind of thing before.  It is still good and for being just over 20 minutes, is worth your time.

 

Though the ratios are various, the image is consistently soft throughout, with none of the widescreen images benefiting from anamorphic enhancement.  This is actually typical of such sets at this point, so don’t let that throw you.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is simple and recent on all four shorts and sounds just fine.  There are no Pro Logic surrounds of any kind on any of the shorts, but they have enough clarity.  There are no extras either, just a set of shorts worth your time.  Hope we see more like this soon.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo