History Film / FranzKafkasItsAWonderfulLife

''Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life'' is a 1993 short comic film written and directed by Creator/PeterCapaldi. It won its director the UsefulNotes/{{BAFTA}} Award for Best Short Film in 1994, and the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestLiveActionShortFilm (tying with "Film/{{Trevor|1994}}") in 1995.

''Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life'' is a 1993 short comic film written and directed by Creator/PeterCapaldi. It won its director the UsefulNotes/{{BAFTA}} Award for Best Short Film in 1994, and the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestLiveActionShortFilm (tying with ''Film/{{Trevor}}'') in 1995.

!!Tropes:

--> '''Kafka''': I do not like jokes!

*** Woland's name is also one to Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita.

''Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life'' is a 1993 short comic film written and directed by Creator/PeterCapaldi.

** Woland the weirdo says his pet cockroach is his conscience, and if that weren't obvious enough, he calls the cockroach "[[Disney/{{Pinocchio}} Jiminy]]".

*** Woland's name is also one to TheMasterAndMargarita.

* WritersBlock: Kafka just cannot come up with what Gregor Samsa should transfer into. A banana? A kangaroo? His apartment is littered with balled-up pieces of paper, as Kafka casts away page after page.

* ImagineSpot: Several. Kafka imagines his story with Gregor Samsa as a banana, then Gregor Samsa as a kangaroo. He also goes downstairs to the noisy neighbors and tells them to be quiet, only for Miss Cicely to say "This is an imaginary conversation isn't it?" The scene cuts to Kafka outside the noisy party, having not yet knocked. The final scene is this as well, as Gregor-as-cockroach contentedly singing "Oh, Sweet Mystery of Life".

Despite the title, the film isn't really a satire of ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' (except sort of at the ending), and does not feature the trope ItsAWonderfulPlot.

* ImagineSpot: Several. Kafka imagines his story with Gregor Samsa as a banana, then Gregor Samsa as a kangaroo. He also goes downstairs to the noisy neighbors and tells them to be quiet, only for Miss Cicely to say "this is an imaginary conversation isn't it?" The scene cuts to Kafka outside the noisy party, having not yet knocked.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Kafka, who earlier said to a fly that "you have as much right to exist as I", is overcome with hysterical weeping remorse when he squashes a cockroach--despite the fact that the squashing finally gives him the inspiration to write his story.

** The ''It's a Wonderful Life'' bit really only comes in at the end, when all Kafka's friends and neighbors show up and give him jars of bugs and maggots and such (just as George Bailey's neighbors brought him money), and everybody bursts into a rendition of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing".

Creator/FranzKafka (played by Creator/RichardEGrant, twitchy and weird as always) is sitting in his apartment on Christmas Even, working on the story that will become ''Literature/TheMetamorphosis''. He is utterly stuck on the first line, unfortunately, unable to decide just what Gregor Samsa should turn into. Worse, he keeps getting interrupted. First, there's Woland, a very creepy knife-sharpener who comes to Kafka's door looking for work, but soon loses his "little friend". Then there is the downstairs Christmas party, where a lot of young ladies in white dresses are dancing and singing and generally acting in just the opposite way of how Kafka acts. Then there's a woman, played by Phyllis Logan (Mrs. Hughes from ''Series/DowntonAbbey''), who shows up at Kafka's door with a delivery: a giant bug costume.