Daniel Kehlmann has written about many historical figures. Why a script about Franz Kafka particularly challenged him.
Mr. Kehlmann, what was it like for you to meet such an important writer colleague as Franz Kafka, to approach? Did you perhaps even have a bad mood?
Let’s call it: respect. We wanted to do him justice as an artist and as a person, which was definitely a challenge. Franz Kafka set standards. You are not judged by other biopics, but by Kafka himself.
Author of the century, insurance lawyer, manufacturer: Dr. Franz Kafka (1883 – 1924)
© Stefano Bianchetti / Bridgeman Images / Imago Images
In your literary work you encounter historical figures with cheerful irreverence, especially Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauß. Where’s the difference?
“Measuring the World” was a comedy about German classical music; the comic-burlesque tone made it clear that this could not be a historically accurate discussion. Things were different here because Reiner Stach’s masterpiece was the basis for a three-volume Kafka biography, and he was available as a consultant. He had a kind of veto right, which I thought was right when you adorn yourself with his name. It was clear that if he didn’t like something in the script, I would change it. We aim to show how Kafka’s work emerged from his own life.
The Zurich actor Joel Basman plays Franz Kafka in the ARD series for which Kehlmann wrote the script.
© NDR
There is the term “Kafka widows”, who strived for the post-fame and interpretative sovereignty of the writer, his friend Max Brod was one of those people, as was Klaus Wagenbach. How did you find your own “real” Kafka?
My path was the biography of Reiner Stach; I didn’t feel like I had to do extensive research myself. The picture that the biographer paints is that of a cheerful, odd and unusual man who had friends and good connections in contemporary literature. He was certainly less neurotic and at the same time much more ironic than one would assume from the work.
Was it difficult for the consultant, screenwriter, director and leading actors to agree on a common Kafka?
Not at all, Joel Basman has captured the character wonderfully through his ingenious design; I currently find it difficult to read Kafka without seeing Joel’s face and voice in front of me.
Do you have a history with Franz Kafka? Did he mean something to you as a young reader?