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Title: FRANZ KAFKA'S IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Reference number: 7080

Date: 1993

Director: d. Peter Capaldi

Sponsor: BBC Scotland, Scottish Film Production Fund

Producer: Ruth Kenley-Letts

Production company: Conundrum Films

Sound: sound

Original format: 35mm

Certificate: PG

Colour: col

Fiction: fiction

Running time: 24.00 mins

Description: Kafka is agonising over the first sentence of what was to be his masterpiece, Metamorphosis. ‘As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning he found himself transformed into a gigantic...?’ Kafka looks around his garret and spies the fruitbowl ‘...banana, perhaps?’ This is not the real world, but the world of the joke, the myth, the fairytale. Funny, but also strange and dark. Definitely a winning combination! [synopsis from Scottish Screen Catalogue of Short Films 1993 - 1999 "Kicking up a Storm"]

Production file held at National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive. Winner of Academy Award (Oscar) for best live action film (1994), US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 1995.

Tartan Shorts: A joint short film initiative funded by BBC Scotland and Scottish Screen National Lottery Fund. Three films per year commissioned for theatrical release and broadcast.

Awards won: Best Live Action Film. Best Short Film and Best Set Design, Atlantic Film Festival, Canada, 1993; Best Short Film, British Academy of Film and Television Awards, Scotland, 1993; Public Award for Best Short Film, Premiere Plans European First Film Festival, 1994; Best New Director, Celtic Film Festival, 1994; Best Short Film (1993), British Academy of Film and Television Awards, 1994; Prix Schwartz Best Short Film, Comedie - Vevey Festival, Switzerland, 1994; Academy Award for Best Short Live Action Film (1994), US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 1995

Credits: Cast in order of appearance:
Franz Kafka Richard E. Grant
Gregor Samsa Crispin Letts
Woland the Knifeman Ken Stott
Miss Cicely Elaine Collins
Frau Bunofsky Phyllis Logan
Party Girls Julie Cox, Jessie Doyle, Samantha Howarth, Justine Luxton, Laura Reiss, Thea Tait, Lucy Woodhouse

sc. supervisor Sarah Garner
p. ass. Elaine Collins, Clare Allan
2nd ass. d. Alison Begg
3rd ass. d. Sphie Fanta
boom operator Loveday Harding
ass. ed. Mark Atkins
sd. ed. Sarah Morton
foley ed. Laura Lovejoy
dubbing mixer Alan Snelling
ass. art. d. Martyn John, Ben Scott
set dresser Julia Sherborne
scenic artist Andrew Garnett-Lawson
construction man. Peter Verard, Craig Hillier
special effects Richard Conway
focus puller Steven Hall
clapper loader Paul Robinson
grip Keith Mead
motion control cameraman Damian Davison
costume ass. Justine Luxton
make-up supervisor Julieanne Chpman
gaffer John Hammond
stills ph. Oliver Upton
unit publicist Frances Pardell
choreographer Heather Sampson
Gregor Samsa's Insect Head transformation created by Val Chorlton
p. exec. for The Scottish Film Production Fund Kate Swanp.
exec. for BBC Scotland Paul Pender
"Sweet Mystery of Life" by Victor Herbert
arranged by Philip Appleby
performed by Crispin Letts
ass. p., 1st ass. d. , p. man Mary Soan
composer Philip Appleby
make-up designer Christine Cant
costume designer Hazel Pethig
sd. Simon Bishop
ed. Nikki Clemens
p. design John Beard
ph. Simon Maggs
p. Ruth Kenley-Letts
w. and d. Peter Capaldi

A Conundrum Films Production for BBC Scotland the Scottish Film Production Fund. © BBC MCMXCIII.