All language subtitles for Kafka (2024) - S1E1

Subtitle: Norddeutscher
Rundfunk 2024.

The Jewish one Prague
insurance officials,

Factory owner and
writer Dr. Franz Kafka:

He lived 40 years
and eleven months.

He died of laryngeal tuberculosis
in a sanatorium near Vienna.

He was in Berlin,
Munich, Zurich, Paris,

Milan, Venice, Verona,
Vienna and Budapest.

He saw the sea three
times in total.

North Sea, Baltic
Sea, Italian Adriatic.

Dr. Franz Kafka
remained unmarried.

With probably six women
did he have love affairs,

most short.

He also had intimate contacts

to an unknown number
of prostitutes.

His literary work includes
350 pages of completed texts,

plus ten times as many
fragments, letters, diaries.

The testamentary
instructions according to

which he at his friend Max Brod.

Finally he asked Max Brod:

You have to
destroy everything.

Nothing can remain.

You actually have
carried out his will?

No no. You have to
start differently.

Max, this has to go into the second one
Suitcase. We don't have anyone else.

It's full. You
know what's inside.

Yes, but... our things!
The train doesn't wait.

1939: Dr. Franz Kafka has
been dead for 15 years.

Forgiveness! Excuse me!

This is the last move
from Prague to Poland.

Places 33 and 35.

Max, wait.

Max! Yes.

These are our
places. Release them.

You don't have to be upset,
Mr Brod. You know me?

I have read your Tycho
Brahes. What will happen?

Nothing as long as there are negotiations.
President Hacha is with Hitler.

Your word in God's ear!

Half a lifetime ago.

The well-known writer

does with his unknown
friend a trip to Italy.

Let's write a novel together
write about our trip?

I'm not quite sure.

You'll never become a writer
that way. I'm writing.

Write more. Then it will not
good. It'll be good enough.

Good enough.

Good enough.

What happened? Nothing, Elsa.

They say the Germans
entered Olomouc.

You are meschugge!
- You'll see!

Why are you spreading such
rumors? You... Ganeff!

Max, have you heard?

Hacha is with Hitler. Nothing
happens for the next few days.

He doesn't march
during the negotiation.

But Max, what Hitler... Elsa,
I know what I'm talking about.

15.

16.

17.

I could not falling
asleep tonight.

The strange room
doesn't do me any good.

You snored. I tried
to wake you up.

I sleep deeply. Enviable! Every
breath of wind wakes me up.

Because I couldn't sleep well

and you at night works best...

Me in the afternoon. No,
it has to be at night.

And even the night is not
night enough. Anyway...

Yes?

Because I couldn't sleep,

I'm working on our
novel written. Franz!

Great! No, very bad.

It didn't go well?
Unfortunately, not at all!

Do you have to do this every
morning? I did this every morning.

Yes. But do you have to?

The Müller brochure says: "If
you don't mill, you'll get sick."

Who mills, but also.

Yes, that's right. Who mills,
gets sick too. ♪ Laugh ♪

Maybe we should have tour guides
write instead of the novel.

We write both. At
the same time? Clear!

The more you write,
the better it gets.

I'm worried, that Wibke
is pregnant. How come?

You were relieved that
she can't have children.

That's the other
one. Lucia? No no.

That Luzia becomes
pregnant don't you worry?

But! That would be the
worst possible thing!

Maybe you should
maintain less contact.

I'm in love with everyone,
into each of them.

I don't understand how you
so rarely need a woman.

And if you have one,
you go around with her

and everyone sees you and
it doesn't matter to you.

You talk to her like... as
if that wasn't embarrassing.

Yes, why not, Max? I'm
talking to you too.

Why are you looking at me like that?
Do you have to chew for so long?

According to Horace Fletcher
you should bite 40 times.

This is how the main
part finds digestion...

I know that, but it is true
tiring to watch you do.

Now you sound like my father.

I can't see it,
how the boy eats!

Calm down, Hermann!
Franz eats like that.

What if he likes
it better that way?

I can't watch it. Like a rabbit!

I can't stand it.

Don't serve so slowly!
The food is getting cold.

Of course I mean it that way!

Have you seen the man? He
had a gold tooth. Yes and?

Nothing. I thought, a
gold tooth is useful

when describing a person.

Also with other things
Ambiguity of impression.

You write "gold tooth"
and he's already there.

In every single window

the recurring color
prevails of a dress.

Signori! Signori!

A dress? Ochermarine,
for example.

On these streets
your legs come apart.

Why the legs?

We must write in
the travel guide:

Avoid wear and tear on shoes.

Otherwise you have expenses.

Ciao, bello!

You can feel sorry
for a dog like that.

Why?

Nobody pays attention
to him and...

Grace!

Yes? We have to find a
way from our offices.

I'm out of insurance and
you from the post office.

The path goes over a rope.
Then we are tightrope walkers.

No, the rope is just
above the ground

and should only
cause you to stumble.

If people listen to you,
one thinks there is no hope.

But there are
endless hope, but...

But? Not for us.

He is difficult to understand.

He demands a lot. And
he gives almost nothing.

Sometimes is a writer
Max Brod exhausted.

Sometimes he feels like he
has to give up his friend.

Nonsense!

You can admit that, Max.
Sometimes you are close to it.

I'm not on a first-name
basis with you and...

Ostrava!

Get off! To the left, Then
right. March off! Come on!

Max! Do you hear me? Max?

Max! Max!

Passports!

I told you. I told you so!

Passports!

The passports!

Did the Germans invade?

Well, what do you think?

Now things will to
become different.

For us German-Czechs
great days begin.

The passport, sir!

The train is still allowed
to run? It will show.

Do you have
something to declare?

Open the suitcase.

What is that?

Nothing.

Nothing?

Handwriting from a friend.

He left it to me. He
leaves you his doodles?

Is that worth
anything? For me, yes.

I mean, is it worth money?

I should burn everything.
That's how much it's worth. Max!

And instead, take it with you.

They leave the country with
a suitcase full of doodles.

What can I say, Inspector?
He was my best friend.

"Already I jumped, as if
it wasn't the first time,

on the shoulder of
an acquaintance."

"and brought him, as I mean
fists thrust into his back,

into a light trot.

As he reluctantly stomped
and sometimes stopped,

I hooked my boot into his
stomach to cheer him up.

It worked and we got there quickly
ever further into the interior

"a large but unfinished one
area where it was evening."

Unfinished area? Yes.

Are you sure? Yes.

Such nonsense!

"Unfinished area."

Did he have something on
his head? Your best friend?

I do not get it...

But it is good.

What do you think, Max?

I believe...

What, Max? What do you think?

I think I have never
heard of anything better.

You're right.

That's really nothing.

I said yes.

So? Shall we continue?

They were allowed to
cross this border exceed.

The transition was just for you.

Now that you've passed
him, it will be closed.

I'm sorry, what?

I said you're lucky.
This is the last move.

The last? The border
is now closed.

Müller? Reimann? We have
to take someone away.

You take him with you!
What's happening to him?

By negating the will

we can suffer the
same recognize in all.

They had gotten to know each
other on October 23, 1902.

If we had to choose a day,
where the literature is located

of the 20th century changed
forever, he would be this:

The day Franz Kafka met the man

who is his work would
save from destruction.

On October 23, 1904 Kafka
was not yet a doctor

and not yet a writer.

His fellow student
Max, a year younger,

had a lecture held
about Schopenhauer.

Schopenhauer says the will is
the basic fact of the world

and the principle
of individuation.

No, we have to
start differently.

You have to explain that.

The thing with Max with
his curvature of the spine,

you have to start with that.

So that he actually comes to life
as a hunchback was condemned,

to a special existence as a
disabled person, as a cripple.

Excuse me, that's
what they called it.

His mother wouldn't allow it.

Max, come on! Just look!

He was enveloped
in parental love

like a prince in
his purple cloak.

Slow down, Max!

And a little more feeling.

He got piano lessons.
He was gifted.

That's why he was later
writer and philosopher,

virtuoso and music
theorist, among many others.

He was passionate, warm-hearted,
always ready for enthusiasm,

not very profound.

And overall, let's be honest,
we have to be honest here,

well... his ambition was
slightly greater than his talent.

But he was ambitious!

Dr. Schnitzler? Yes,
please? The great poet.

Allegedly. My
brother is not here.

Bread. Forgive the interruption,
but this is my novel fragment.

What? If you could read it, it
would be my greatest honor, sir

who was that?

And when Max started studying,
he joined a debating club.

He stopped there immediately,

that is, on October 23,
1902, his first lecture.

So that date

that is the history of
literature changed forever.

Nietzsche's criticism
of Schopenhauer

is based on vanity and
competitive thinking.

Nietzsche is a fraud!

Please ask later!

You don't want to claim
that Nietzsche's criticism

to Schopenhauer comes
from base motives?

Without philosophical
considerations?

Exactly that - and prove
it I will do it to you too.

If only there is the will, why
does it unfold into the world?

Why is he? Not just the will?

Because the will, according to
Schopenhauer, must recognize oneself.

He is blind. Not so
blind as to not want to.

In this night the two
go back and forth.

Max accompanies Franz
to his apartment,

then Franz Max to his, then
Franz Max again to his.

In this night neither
of them sleep.

Since, whether you
like it or not,

There is no bread without Kafka
and no Kafka without bread.

What posterity later should
call the Prague Circle,

was nothing else as
Max's three best friends:

The insurance clerk Kafka,
the blind piano teacher Baum,

the editor Weltsch.

I see nothing.

But! There.

No, posterity called them
not the Prague Circle.

Do you know who called
you that? As the only one?

In his book "The Prague Circle"?

That was me. The Prague Circle.
That was us. Where is the problem?

So this is where
the Prague Circle is

and commits the turn
of the year 1910/1911.

The world: Stable.

War is a thing of the past.

Progress is inevitable

and Halley's Comet
emblazoned in the sky.

There is nothing. Maybe it is
Better if he doesn't show up.

He could probably roam the
earth. 1911 is an ominous date.

Every date is ominous.

Tree? Do you see something?

Nothing. Tree doesn't
see anything either.

Of course the tree
doesn't see anything.

What do you mean
by that? ♪ Laugh ♪

What I mean by that?
The tree is blind.

That's not nice.

Sometimes you want more Wishing
you heart education, Max.

He knows he is blind.
I don't call him ugly.

Have you heard that? ♪ Laugh ♪

Brod, what has the
tree done to you?

Now he has me also called ugly.

Still nothing.

We're here specifically for
this Comets. I was sweating.

Why did you come with me?
Because the comet is coming.

But he's not coming.

I'm writing an article.

A bad review about the comet.

I will say everything.
You will be amazed! Who?

Soon people will say:
"The Jews were to blame."

Let's go?

Yes, he's not coming
anymore today.

The Prague Circle is
looking for comets

and does too regular
trips to the brothel.

For the benefit!

This is now... but I'll say
it: Brothels were commonplace.

Almost all the young men went

and many poor young
women had to work there.

You would have to do something more
original can say as "for the good".

I'm not a poet.

I'm the only one here
who is not a poet

and can say whatever he wants.

Every phrase, every worn-out
one Thought is my friend.

Thanks, Mitzi. ♪ Kissing sound ♪

But the real poet here,
Does he have nothing to say?

I think she means you, Werfel.
I always have something to say.

You have to have something from the
poets have. We want to hear something.

Good.

The friends, who talk to me,

very often grumpy...

light up with pleasure.

They walk with pleasure
in my beautiful features,

probably arm in arm.

Refined shape.

Oh, my face can
never hold dignity.

And seriousness and equanimity
doesn't want to satisfy him.

Because 1000 smiles again

forever unfold his
image of heaven.

Uuuuuh!

I am a corso in sunny places,

a summer festival with
women and bazaars.

My eye breaks from
being too enlightened.

I want me sit down on the lawn

and with the earth
drive into the evening.

Oh, earth!

Evening!

Happiness!

Oh!

Be in the world!

Very nice, especially
the sunny places

and that "being enlightened"
and "to be in the world" rhyme.

It was good, wasn't it? I've been
looking for this for a long time.

That was wonderful!

Let's leave the poems.

There are times for words,
there are times for silence.

I go to the brothel every day
past like a lover's house.

You also say nice things,
but they don't rhyme.

Rhyme.

He is the shore where they land.

Two thoughts agree.

That's nice too.
And it rhymes.

Wouldn't it rhyme
it would be wrong.

Is it from you? Unfortunately
not. Then it wouldn't rhyme.

When I put sentences
together, the rhyme disappears

and hides away at an angle.

Then... let's go look
for him, Mr. Franz.

What's great is the girls
not get pregnant. Really?

If they are, isn't
that my problem,

while the Wibke me
again gave a fright.

Ten days she wasn't sure.

That's what holds up the
nerves are not enough.

How were you with Mitzi?
You didn't say anything.

Look, the Lord is
killing himself.

No really.

Now get him out. Why
are you getting him?

You can leave him alone, if
he wants to kill himself.

Franz, help me!

Let me pass. One must ventilate
him. He has to be ventilated.

You didn't try to help.
You didn't try to look.

His features as he
faced the extreme,

jumped towards...

You have to help him. You
have to look at his face.

That's not human.
We're writers, Max.

And? Our eyes are more
important than our hands.

At the crucial moment what
matters is that we see.

See everything: Inside,
outside, day, night.

I work differently.
You know that.

You need that.

The darkness, the stepping
back, the cold look.

But they are my novels
not good enough,

even without me keep your
distance from everything?

Yes, good enough.
They already are.

Look on your shelf. There are
twelve books of mine there.

Twelve! He upset us
both, the suicide.

Don't say I have this
created with half strength.

Twelve books? Of course
not, Max. I exaggerated.

You know I like to exaggerate.

Twelve!

Are you of all good spirits
leave? Good morning.

"As a sign of high culture
of German literature

some decorate the times of
Existence with art and cruelty.

Heinrich Mann, Wedekind,
Mehring, Franz Kafka

"and others include to
the holy group." Max!

What? I don't have a
line yet published. And?

"Mann, Wedekind, Mehring,
Kafka"? Why are you writing this?

It's true. People will
read this. I hope so.

You will ask: "Who is
Kafka?" Shall they.

Then they want a book
from me. Can happen.

Then the bookseller tells
them, there is none.

You have to remedy that.

His constant enthusiasm
was unbearable,

but she was also irresistible.

Mr. Brod, we are pleased that your
novel will be published by us.

A novel is not enough
Mr Rowohlt. I have more.

More? They have
wrote a second novel?

Exactly what we need.
- Listen to!

I have written many
novels, but also have...

This is from my
friend Felix Weltsch.

A philosophical work, but
of extraordinary power.

This is from Otto Stössel,
a promising writer.

This is also from him.

This is from Werfel, you
already know that one.

We call him the heavenly
high school students.

For an unknown author come
with a lot of luggage.

I come with treasures. This is
from Oskar Baum, a friend of mine.

He is blind and beyond
he also writes. Actually?

He writes about being blind!
- Exciting! - Listen to!

What the world is like for
him who never sees her,

how to move in it
- overwhelming!

You have to get this out.

We have to check this first
but that's interesting.

Then there is...

Kafka.

What is the name of the? Hafa?

Kafka. Kafka.

Franz Kafka. He is maybe the
greatest writer in the world.

Ah, you won't do it below that.

What did you bring with you? From
the greatest writer in the world?

Nothing.

Nothing?

Nothing. There is nothing yet.

But you said... Are
you not feeling well?

I said if he will have
written something.

When he finishes something,

it will be an adornment of your publishing
house his, Mr. Rowohlt, Mr. Wolff.

This will be the people
never stop reading, promise!

Yes, that sounded ridiculous
silly and over-the-top.

But wasn't he right?

Now who is this great Hafa?
- Who is this wondrous person?

Does he still go to school?

He works for the state
Insurance company.

Exciting!

Well, our curiosity is piqued.

You can do that, dear
Brod, Arouse curiosity.

Speak for yourself.

I can tame my curiosity.

I know that you can
do this, Mr Rowohlt.

Not as good as you spend money.

He doesn't like traveling and that
Insurance gives him little vacation,

but I will him lure to Leipzig.

In the meantime, however, you must
the thrower and the tree and...

I... I forgot: Here is
someone else. A certain Haas.

He writes amazing things!

He was like a literary agent,
but he didn't get any shares.

Dear Dr. Bread.

We are very pleased, that you
on the occasion of your visit

in the Marbach literary
archive talk to us.

I am also pleased.

You are, Dr. bread, himself
a well-known author.

Even more famous, of course,

but as a friend by the
world-famous Franz Kafka.

Dear Doctor Brod,
let me first ask,

isn't that often a disadvantage?
Is when you write about Kafka?

If you analyze his work,
when you think about him,

whether you don't often wish you
wouldn't have been his friend at all?

Because that gives you a more
objective view would allow a view.

Whether I... I don't think so it
would ever have been beneficial

not Kafka's friend to have been.

Hmmm.

You are accused of being in
his diaries to have intervened.

If someone has been
offended, I deleted that.

They have in Kafka's
diaries painted?

Just things that don't concern
anyone. You just decided that?

Do you know, sir...

For you this is a book but
for us it was our life.

If someone said something...

Or if he...

For example, about a work
judges in words that...

That's what the
public does little on.

For example, you think when
he comments on your works?

We were each other

in extraordinary
appreciation tied together.

It should be there Give
passages in the diaries.

Show me those.

I can not do that.

That's what it's all about.

If I have painted something,
then only with good reason.

Like the Pachinger, for example.

A notorious collector of, You
see it, a Prague original,

Max and Franz paid a visit.

Anyway, I'm glad you did
Honor me today, gentlemen.

Art-savvy people I always
like to show something.

And the evening progressed.

The pregnant woman's body is
preferable to all other women.

What they do not say!
I have experience.

Best to fuck, do you think?

Better than everyone else.
Tell us more, Mr. Pachinger.

These are mine.

Not the pictures.
I mean the women.

I've had them all. All?

Thousands!

Look.

Carnival in Munich.

They come there every year
over 6000 women to Munich.

Without accompaniment, just
for yourself... to have coitus?

Accurate, Doctor
Kafka. Accurate!

Well, if you have another
one and another one has...

You can see her in front of
you, if you tell it like that.

One imagines

like your big member
slowly stuffing into women.

Do you want any more pictures?
Absolutely! I'll delete that!

Of course, from an evening like
this no one is allowed to know.

I have according to the
circumstances did the right thing.

As editor, executor,

Executor of his will.

But you actually have
carried out his will?

Any notebook.

And every story especially
the novel manuscripts.

You have to destroy everything.

Nothing can remain.

I never promised him.

He knew, how I felt
about his work.

The fact that he asked me means that
he did not want the destruction.

He knew what I would
do. Also the diaries?

They would have be able
to publish his work,

but the most personal...

The most intimate.

Did he really secretly want
that the public sees them?

An author this meaning...

Every word he says is...

Every word. But this is
not the question, Mr. Brod.

The public wants,

but she can too.

He trusted you.

You accuse me to have
sentences deleted

simultaneously, not to
have burned everything?

If someone today mentions
the name Max Brod...

Let's be honest!

Then it always is
related to Kafka.

Your own novels,
Her many writings.

We are not in competition.

My writings are read. But
they are not available.

I am with my work as a writer

also clean as with
their resonance.

What do you want from me?

I did not expected
such a survey.

You mean the kind of questioning
where someone asks questions?

What are you doing here, Franz?

I wanted to visit you.

You used to do that
a lot. You look sad.

I write book after book,

exchange letters with Einstein,
Thomas Mann and Freud.

I will be in Berlin
and Vienna discussed.

And I think with the next book
I come from the post office.

Then I'll come out
from this office.

I think, It has to
be that far then.

I write, another book comes out

and again nothing happens.

I may never come
from the post office?

You're coming out, Max.
Are you sure, Franz?

I'm not so sure anymore.

Why isn't it happening?

"Because I write things,
that are good enough?"

Some things are not
good enough. What?

You come out of the
post office, promised!

How can you be sure?

We all come to an end
out of the post office.

Where are you going?

Out of the mail.

I have his work
brought into exile.

After that they have the limit
closed. One day longer...

But you have the work
not just taken abroad.

They released it too.

You edited it, You
commented on it.

You showed the world what
you think Kafka was like.

They made him a saint, to the
prophet, to the interpreter of truth.

He was all that... and more.

And contradiction you
didn't tolerate it.

But you never explained what
entitles you to all this.

Forgive me, Doctor Brod,

but I quote the
opinions of others.

“One self not a
first-class writer,

without literary
studies Education.

"One... not at all...
qualified person."

Why do we get the great Franz
Kafka never without you?

Why were you always there
always in the picture?

Why is there? No
Kafka without bread?

The third class carriages
stand at the back.

You have to get in
at the front. Why?

If the passage door is blocked,

traveled first class for the
price a third party ticket.

We have to travel
cheaply really do it.

Then we earn too
much money for that.

Attenzione, prego! Treno via Praga
via Trieste parte tra due minutes!

I'll be back in the office tomorrow,
you're on treatment for another two weeks.

Yes, but it is a nude
sanatorium. Naked?

Not like that! A desolate
one medical matter.

I'm not exactly looking forward to
it. Would you rather be in the office?

Then it's better to be naked.

I repeat the question, Mr. Brod.

What qualifies you?

What gives you of
all people the right,

about his work, about him to
make apodictic statements?

He was...

He was my best friend.

Copyright subtitles: NDR 2024