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Metamorphosis to be adapted for the big screen

By: DavidH

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At last, 98 years after it was written, Franz Kafka's amazing story, Metamorphosis, is being brought to the big screen for the first time. Independent production company Attractive Features Ltd will be filming at Halliford Studios, Shepperton from 11th January to 12th February 2010, and the project is scheduled to have completed post production by the autumn.

The film stars Maureen Lipman as the Mother, Robert Pugh as the Father, Laura Rees as the Sister and Chris New as Gregor Samsa. The other members of the small ensemble are Chloe Howman as Anna, Alistair Petrie as the Supervisor, Aidan McArdle, Paul Thornley and Liam McKenna as the Lodgers, and Janet Henfrey as the Cleaning Lady.

Written in a three week burst at the end of 1912, Kafka's amazing narrative in which a travelling salesman, Gregor Samsa, wakes up one morning to find himself transformed in his bed into a human-sized verminous insect-like creature has caught the imagination of generations of readers since its publication in 1915.

Yet, apart from the various short films, animated versions and films based around Kafka's story, there have been only three airings of Metamorphosis on television over the years: a German production in 1975 (Die Verwandlung), a Swedish version in 1976 (Förvandlingen), and the 1987 television version by the BBC of Steven Berkoff's brilliant theatre adaptation (The Metamorphosis) originally staged in 1969.

For a novella that is one of the best-known in the world by an author who is commonly regarded as the father of modern literature, it is surprising that it has taken so long to produce a feature film of the work. Or is it? The question is: can a story of 60 pages mostly set in the thoughts of a human-sized insect be a commercially viable project as a film? The answer is: very probably not. If the decision is made to ignore Kafka's wish that the insect should never be seen, not even from a distance, then there will be problems from the start: firstly, that showing the insect will disappoint lovers of Kafka's story, who have their own concept of Gregor's transformed appearance, and secondly that it will cost considerable sums of money to put the creature on the screen.

The Swedish version dealt with these problems very effectively by never showing the insect but by using the camera as its point of view, thereby remaining true to Kafka's wishes and allowing the audience to use its own imagination, as well as saving huge amounts of money on Special FX. Theatre productions are, of course, governed by different demands and expectations. A theatre audience has to see Gregor in some shape or form, which is usually an actor with or without costume. In Steven Berkoff's revived version at The Mermaid Theatre, the insect was performed by Tim Roth, who did not change his outward appearance but portrayed the attributes of an insect-like creature with a show of characteristic movements, especially by climbing on scaffolding erected around the set.

So why choose to show the insect? Why add to the already considerable difficulties of making a film in the first place? Director Chris Swanton, who also adapted the story for the screen, thinks that the intensity of the comedy and tragedy inherent in Kafka's story can be effectively brought out only if the audience sees the insect. He believes that the comedy of the response of the other characters to seeing the insect, which Kafka delights in, cannot be conveyed if the insect is not shown. Equally, the sadness of the insect's decision to rid his family of his burdensome presence is far less powerful if the dying creature is not in front of the audience's eyes. In addition, the symbolism of Gregor's armour-like insect shell as an expression of protective schizophrenia would be lost if the audience didn't see it. So the hope is that the advantages of presenting Gregor's transformed body to the audience will outweigh the disadvantages.

For the purposes of filming, the insect will be created by a combination of physical puppet and CGI. From an original design by Peter Moulton of The Sculpture Machine, the physical puppets there are several incarnations to portray the various stages of Gregor's decline -- have been built by Jeremy King FX, and the CGI will be created in Post Production by Will Rockall of Jellyfish Pictures.

CGI is a very tricky process, says Chris Swanton, and with a low-budget production like ours, we have to be very careful where we spend our money. In many ways, less is more. As in Ridley Scott's Alien, the lurking monster is all the more terrifying for being seen so little. Not that we are attempting any kind of horror film, but the principle is the same.

With all the difficulties of bringing Metamorphosis to the screen, why even attempt it? This is a story that I first read when I was 18 years old, says Swanton. At the time he was a student of German at Kings College London, where he subsequently went on to work in a junior capacity whilst writing a PhD on aspects of German literature. He then moved to Germany to work at a Bavarian university for three years, during which time he spent a summer studying the techniques of Bertolt Brecht at the Berliner Ensemble's home, Das Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, in what was then East Berlin.

After returning to the UK, he had a complete change of direction when he joined the BBC to work in the film cutting rooms. He stayed there for 16 years, winning a BAFTA award in 1986 for his contribution to the acclaimed series Edge of Darkness. He has been plagued by the desire to see Metamorphosis made into a film for all those years, and wishes someone else had done it to save him the trouble. An article in a Sunday newspaper recently said that David Lynch had wanted to make a film of Metamorphosis, had written a script but had been scared off by the cost of the Special FX. That's a shame, says Swanton, because I am sure he would have made a brilliant job of it. The Elephant Man is one of my favourite films of all time, and there are marked echoes of the story of Gregor Samsa in the story of John Merrick.. Even though they have never expressed any interest in doing so, I think the Coen Brothers would also have made a great success of transferring the novella to the screen because they have that wonderful sense of the bizarre, macabre and comic that David Lynch has. I am also surprised that Steven Spielberg hasn't made a version with all the resources available to him.

So, because no-one else has stepped forward, Swanton felt he could no longer stave off his compulsion to see the story on the big screen.. It was something that just wouldn't go away. As someone with an academic background in German literature, the craft experience of being a film editor for a number of years, and an overwhelming love of the story, he is in some part qualified to have a go.

Having decided to attempt to film Metamorphosis, the question then was what sort of approach to take to bringing this iconic work to the screen, how to recreate its universal and enduring appeal through the medium of film, or rather how not to lose this quality when transferring from page to screen. The basis of the story's success lies in its intensely personal and subjective viewpoint, which is why there are as many interpretations of his work as there are people who read it. Kafka's inward-looking perspective and subjectivity allow readers to see in the story whatever they want to see. More specifically, it is the theme of the outsider, the unloved, the rejected, the misunderstood that has struck a chord in the sensitivity of generations of readers around the world. Without doubt, the best way to do justice to Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis is to stick as closely as possible to the original text, to deliver the story as faithfully as possible, avoiding any particular slant. Also, Kafka tells his bizarre tale in the most clear and precise manner. It is a grotesque event within a naturalistic world, which is what makes it so compelling. To reflect this quality, the filming style should be simple and unaffected, and the set should look totally normal. There should be nothing distorted or weird in the way the action is presented. The creature is born, lives and dies within a totally normal room for a human being, as Kafka himself puts it.

No-one involved in this project underestimates the huge difficulties they face in doing justice to Metamorphosis. It is a massive challenge, but someone, somewhere, at some time had to have a go, and this is it.

For more info visit: Kafka, Metamorphosis, Transformation

By Davidh

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

For more info visit: href=http://www.metamorphosisthemovie.com> Kafka, Transformation

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