‘Franz’ Review: Playful Biopic Of The 20th Century's Most Influential Writer

“ Franz is a writer who doesn’t like to talk,” says Franz Kafka ’s agent in this playful and oddly endearing biopic of the enigmatic Czech author, who died in 1924 aged just 40. Kafka’s output was slim but influential, the film notes, reporting that works about Kafka outnumber pieces by him at a rate of 10 million to one. That ratio is more impressive given that they were smuggled out of Europe in a suitcase at the dawn of the Second World War, and, given Kafka’s Jewish roots, could very easily have been lost forever. Coincidentally, Agnieska Holland’s film Franz — which competes in Competition at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival — appears shortly after the loss of another mighty 20 th century artist, David Lynch, who described Kafka as “the one artist that I feel coul