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Das Schloss - Maximilian Schell - Kafka - The Castle - 1968 - Multiple Subtitles Restored 2025 - 4K | Shakespeare Network | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Das Schloss - Maximilian Schell - Kafka - The Castle - 1968 - Multiple Subtitles Restored 2025 - 4K
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Video Summary
Summary
Core Theme
The content depicts a surreal and bureaucratic struggle for a surveyor to gain official recognition and employment within a mysterious castle and its surrounding village, highlighting themes of power, miscommunication, and the absurdity of administrative processes.
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Music
Can I stay overnight?
don't have a room available.
Get a straw sack from the floor.
You can't stay overnight here. Why
not? Because this village
is the castle's property and no one is allowed to stay overnight here without permission. Is
this a castle?
Leave the village immediately. What
do you want from me?
The castle has sent for me as a surveyor.
This is the lower castellan. Please inquire at the
central chancellery whether a surveyor is expected today
. Yes, I'm waiting. A mistake? Yes, how am I supposed to explain this
to the surveyor? I
beg your pardon.
You are a guest.
You are a guest of the castle. is.
What
are you waiting for? For a sleigh.
Do you need one? Do you have one?
Where are you going? in the castle.
is drunk.
Who is that? That's the new
surveyor. How do you know that?
From the castle.
And who told you there? We do
n't like questions like that. It's better
if you leave. Do you believe me? It's definitely better.
Are the assistants?
Which assistants? Your assistants. My
assistants. Your assistants.
Do you have the cutting machines? We don't have
any. We don't have any.
It's Arthur and Jeremias.
Is that Arthur? No, that's Jeremias.
Can you get me a sleigh so I
can go to the castle? With pleasure. You say so. You
know it's not possible. He's right. Impossible.
No stranger is allowed in the castle without permission. And where can I get that?
Perhaps from the castle administration.
Hello, the castle administration, please.
This is Arthur Jeremias, the surveyor
, asking if he can come into the castle with us.
No, unfortunately not.
Hello. Hello.
This is the surveyor's assistant. What kind of surveyor? What kind of
assistant? Josef. Josef.
The assistants' names are Arthur and Jeremias.
What do they want then? I'd like to come to the castle.
Hello,
He's a surveyor.
Dear
Sir, as you know, you have been accepted into the lordly service
. Your superior is the village councilor, who
will inform you of all your work. The chairman of the tenth KZE.
I have been instructed
to bring back a reply if necessary.
Tell the chairman.
What is his name? Klamm.
Thank Mr. Klamm for his admission. I will
behave entirely according to his wishes. However, I would ask him
to receive me personally. May I
repeat the instruction? I am new to the service. It is important to me that I
do everything correctly. Tell
the chairman. That much is not
necessary. I said, thank Klam for his admission.
I could not read the signature. That much is not necessary. I
said, thank Klam for his admission. I will
behave entirely according to his wishes. However, I would ask him
to receive me personally. Aren't you going to the castle now?
No, tomorrow. I'm not going back to the castle until tomorrow.
Now I'm going home.
What are you bringing with this? The surveyor.
This is the surveyor. This is my sister Olga. This is
Amalia. These are my parents.
Sit down.
She has business at the manor today. What
is that? The manor. That big house
over there. The gentlemen of the castle eat there when they are in the village and
sometimes they spend the night there too.
All right.
The surveyor is only allowed to go as far as the castle
. I want to spend the night here. You live
in the bridge courtyard. A house is clearly
intended for the gentlemen of the castle.
Surely it's possible to let me sleep somewhere.
I would be delighted to accommodate you, but
I'm stretching my forearms. It sounds ridiculous, but it
It's true. I have valuable
connections in the castle. I know, I know. Are
many gentlemen from the castle here today? There
's only one gentleman here. Mr. Klam. Mr.
Klam? Yes.
Do you know a clan?
Why are you laughing?
I'm not laughing at all.
Do you want to see him?
He's asleep. Otherwise you wouldn't have
been allowed to see him yet.
Do you know him well? Yes.
Very well. Then you were already in the castle.
It's enough for me that I'm here in the bar now. M.
, the land improver, has left again. Yes,
I must
have seen him outside. But he's not here.
Perhaps he's hidden. You must be capable of anything.
Go into the barn.
Klam wants you to go into the barn immediately.
These people are the most disgusting people I know.
How many times have I asked Klams to leave them in the castle?
Who are they? His servants.
I need to talk to them. You
don't even know me. I know you.
You're the new land manager.
Can I stay here overnight? Yes.
'm with the surveyor.
He won't call me now.
Come with me.
Where to?
We've been waiting here all night.
Maybe he's not on duty. They
'll tell the whole village.
You can have the camera. Get something. Try
to find him
somewhere else in
the village. I've already found him. Where?
With Barnabas. With Barnabas
and his sisters. Do you hear that?
They would have stayed with those scoundrels.
We have all this to thank for.
Go to Barnabas.
Come .
You probably don't like the idea
of heading off
to
the castle now.
No strangers like it.
Have you often been to the castle? No.
But you know Mr. Klam. Please be considerate of the children.
Let me go now
, go on, go faster. Ouch!
Our surveyor.
Excuse me, I have a severe attack of gout.
Sit down.
Sit down, Mr. Surveyor.
Tell me your wishes. I will be happy to listen to you. I will
do my best.
The castle has confirmed me as a surveyor.
I received this letter about it. Signed by Klam, Head of the Tenth
Chancellery.
The letter refers me to you, Mr. Mayor.
I am supposed to learn more about my
work from you. I am informed about the matter
. You are confirmed as a surveyor,
you say. But unfortunately, we don't need
a surveyor. There wouldn't be the slightest work for
him. The boundaries of our small holdings have been marked out. Everything is
properly recorded. What use is a surveyor to us?
can only hope
there's a misunderstanding. Unfortunately not.
It is as I say.
I didn't come all this way just to
be sent back now. That's
not a question for me to decide.
As with an authority as large as ours, it can happen
that one department orders this, another that. No one knows about the
other, and so even a small decision can be distorted. Of
course, it's always just the tiniest details, like your case.
I want to tell the gentleman openly.
A long time
ago.
A long time ago, I had only been headmaster for a few months at the time, a decree was issued
that a surveyor should be appointed.
Of course, this decree couldn't have concerned you, because that was many
years ago. Many years ago.
Look it up. Perhaps you'll find the decree.
That's only a very small part. A woman should show him the whole thing.
Unfortunately, so much has been lost.
Yes, it's supposed to hold everything together.
Unfortunately, there are rats here too.
Yes, a lot of work has been done. I still have an assistant,
the teacher, but it's still impossible
to finish.
It must be downstairs. Downstairs. Can't I help
your wife look
? Looking in the files. That's
strictly forbidden for outsiders. Who's there? It
's our aunt. Arthur and Jeremiah. Help my wife
look for the file.
I think they're forbidden to do that. Yes, but
they both belong to the castle.
You have to look for a file with the word "surveyor" underlined in red
. I
can tell the story without axes for now.
The decree I mentioned earlier answers the question by saying that we
don't need a surveyor. The answer, however, doesn't seem
to have made it back to the original department—I'll call it A—but
rather to another department, B.
So, Department A remained unanswered. In Department B, only the
file envelope arrived, without any contents. It's unclear where the actual file got lost
. Many months, if not years,
had passed since Department A first wrote . Understandably, because
if, as is usually the case, a file goes the right way, it reaches its
department within a day at the latest and is completed that same day.
But if it misses the mark, and given the excellent
organization, it practically has to try and find the wrong one with an egg on its face, otherwise it
won't find it. Then it takes a very long time.
Does the story bore me? No, it
entertains me. I'm telling it
not for entertainment.
But what is it doing? I
'll continue anyway. In keeping with its precision, our
bureaucratic apparatus is also extremely sensitive.
If a matter has been considered for a very long time, it can happen
that suddenly, in a flash, a decision
emerges at an unforeseeable point, arbitrarily bringing the matter to a close. It's as if
the bureaucratic apparatus could no longer bear the tension, the years of irritation
caused by the same matter, and made the decision on its own
, without the assistance of the officials. I don't know
whether such an irregular decision was made in your case. If so,
the appeal would have been sent to you in such a moment of relaxation,
and you would have made
the long journey here, unfortunately,
in vain, because the inspection offices had uncovered the error in the meantime, after many years of work.
And now, Mr. Surveyor, imagine my disappointment,
now that the whole matter has been happily resolved, and
much time has passed since then. Suddenly, you appear and
it seems as if the
matter is about to start all over again. But I
'm already registered as a surveyor.
I'd like to speak to you alone about this
We haven't found the file. So the file hasn't been found.
What a pity. But you already know the story. We
don't need the file anymore. Just look at this letter.
In my opinion, this letter is not
an official letter at all, but a private letter.
That's clear from the heading. Dear Sir,
I will inquire at the castle. If a decision
is made, I'll have it fetched. Do you agree?
My leg is starting to hurt again. We need to replace the envelope.
Your visit wasn't very successful.
No, you should have turned to his wife
. Everything depends on her
. Didn't you notice that? No.
Did she speak up? No. I
didn't get the impression that she
could either. Unfortunately, you misunderstand everything.
You should come to school immediately. The teacher sent for you. It
's urgent.
One and two, three and stop. One and two, three and stop and
now loosen up, loosen up, loosen up. The teacher called me.
You are our new district surveyor. Yes,
yes, yes, I know.
Please.
You were quite rude to the mayor.
I have drawn up a short report of your meeting according to his instructions
. It was only done because we
have to maintain strict order in everything. In any case, present it now
and it does not serve to honor you. Ouch, stop. I want to get down.
You should stop. On behalf of the mayor, I have
the following to tell you. Of course, he cannot speed up
the decision itself, which is a matter for the castle.
He has made a provisional, truly generous decision. He is offering you
the position of school janitor. I was against it
and I still am.
I have enough trouble with the children. I don't want
to have to deal with a school janitor on top of that. We don't need a school janitor here any
more than we need a surveyor.
I will not accept the position. You decline without any prior notice.
He offered me a school janitor position.
You must accept it. The landlady doesn't want to keep us in the house any longer.
Mr. Teacher, we'll accept the position. The position has been
offered to the surveyor. He himself must speak. If you don't
hear from the castle today, we'll never find a place to stay.
You'll accept the position, won't you?
Yes,
our surveyor will have to give up a few fantasies;
a useful school janitor will.
Dirty
calculation.
Are you looking for something, Mr. Lampfermesser.
How is she, Frieda? Will she be back soon?
This isn't a good trade I've made here.
I'm not surprised that Frieder gave this up.
They put me here for Frieda. Until now, I was a chambermaid.
What are you looking for? Frieda
forgot something. A tablecloth,
a green knitted one.
What could be in there? There isn't one.
But perhaps it's still in our room downstairs.
Come with me.
This is the new surveyor.
Frida forgot her tablecloth. Yes,
a green knitted one. She
took her with her. She's not here either.
Do you know her?
She's hardly recognizable. Back then she was still a very modest
girl. I don't think she was even
a mistress then.
She lies so quickly that there's no time to take a closer look at her. Go
to Glam and ask him. Where
am I supposed to ask him? He's leaving right now.
Come with me. I'd like to ask you
to supplement my files with a few statements. I'm Mr. Klam's secretary.
I'm waiting for him here. Unhitch the horses.
Lampermesser K is trying to establish himself in the village and has
seduced the disreputable Frieda out of calculation. He believes her to be the chairman's mistress
and thus to be a pawn. For now he's
harmless, but if he realizes he's mistaken, he could well
become malicious. Is that right? On my word.
If I testify now too,
Klam will see it. The only way that leads you
to Mr. Klam is through the secretary's minutes.
Will Klam read what I'm saying here? Maybe,
but Mr. Klam can't read everything. Not today, anyway.
In the KF, you answer my questions about what it means to be interrogated by the secretary
. Your minutes will be sent to the village.
You shouldn't have done that. You shouldn't have refused the interrogation.
Yes.
เฮ
เฮ
a debt in the family, which has been going on until now
. You have permission to live in the schoolroom. But I am
not obligated to teach in your living room.
Quiet
! Who broke into the shed?
know the heating had to be on today.
Who broke into the shed?
They're real children. They belong
in school too. You have
So it was worth the stick.
You didn't swear.
So it was the Schuldiner who calmly watches while others
are accused of something.
You are class. Get out of the house and into your own
places. I got this post from
the mayor.
Box, yes. Take the box carefully.
Carefully up here
. This is the
way out.
Open, open,
open. Let the sun shine through the window
Let it go. It'll be fine.
The one,
a love
, another love,
the one
away.
L
Frider
you
, far and wide .
What do you want then? I want
to become a man like her.
England. Do you also want to become Schuldiner?
No, I don't want to become Schuldiner.
I know you. You were with us yesterday
. You spoke to my mother. Then my father
threw you out.
And why exactly? Father says because you talked to you about the castle.
Now she's sick from all the
fuss. If she's sick,
maybe I can help her. Some things that doctors couldn't manage,
I've managed to do. Now
no one is allowed to do them since they came here.
Father forbade it. Then I have to
talk to your mother without your father finding out.
Why hasn't the snow been cleared? I
've been given notice. Fired or not
? The snow has to
be cleared. Fired or not?
I'd like to know that first. They did
n't accept the notice and
that's enough. Not for me.
You only think about yourself in everything you do.
You cheated on that boy's mother before you even
spoke to her, just because she was in the castle once.
Then a little boy comes along and you fight with him for his mother as if
your life depended on it.
Attack group re um
without third time
aer troup vorst
The tror
mal ein
But right now
Everything up
Frieda,
we have no business being here anymore. You know that.
Frieder isn't here anymore.
Here is
a man with this manometer. You can
read the pressure here. It's nice that
she 's
run away from you already. We want to ask her something.
What are you actually? A surveyor.
And what is that? A surveyor.
Measures the borders of a country and I'm pleased that they
appeared to be socially wealthy. I thank you for the help and support of our
party. Our greatest thanks today, however, go
to our esteemed castle administration. By handing over this new
motor pump, they have given us a great gift that is vital to all of us.
The area didn't see the
truth after all and didn't see the truth.
Frieda.
, isn't Barnabas back yet? No.
Wait here for him.
Or does Frieder not allow you to? Or the landlady
seems to have great enmity between
you. Enmity? It's not such a big
deal. That's just parroting the general opinion about us.
We're lepers in the village.
She has fallen out of favor with the castle.
Years ago, she once refused
to visit an official from the castle who had made a very explicit proposal to her.
And the castle is punishing you for that. The castle hasn't
said a word at all and has simply withdrawn from us.
The people here and the castle too. Father couldn't get any more work. He
was a shoemaker. The people from the village took back the shoes
they had left with us. The debts were paid. Everything went
without the slightest argument. Castle stories are told.
There are people who make a living from such stories.
I thought you weren't one of them.
Good night.
Have you never tried to talk to the castle about it?
We tried everything. My father made countless pleas to the
overseer, the secretaries, the lawyers, the clerks.
Everything was pointless without Amalia. She didn't want it.
I finally established a certain connection with the castle.
But perhaps the worst part is this:
You saw me. I saw everything in the manor.
Twice a week I do this work for the farmhands.
I charge them, too, otherwise they'll all starve.
Barnabas has been earning a little money lately
by running errands.
No, through his shoemaking business, through occasional shoemaking jobs in the
village. He doesn't get paid for these errands.
And he only has them to
thank for them. Why me?
The letter to her is the first job he's been given at the castle in three
years. It's the first sign of grace for us.
wanted to know if you were here. Wouldn't you like to wait for Barnabas?
Ah
, the surveyor.
I've been standing in the office since early this morning.
Have you spoken to Klam? I tried very hard,
but it was impossible. As I was about to leave the castle,
I saw a gentleman slowly approaching me in the corridor.
I stopped to wait for him. It was worth it.
It was Erlanger, one of the first secretaries. Glams,
you know the surveyor, he said. That's good. I'm going to
the manor house now. The surveyor is supposed to visit me there. But he should
come right now. Tell him that I'm very keen to speak to him.
I wanted to let you know that.
For the night interrogation. I have a summons
to see Secretary Erlanger. Wait
outside until you are called.
I'm not running any further.
If you are still
there,
the first to be admitted to Secretary Erlanger are Gerstecker and K.
You must wait; when he wakes up, he will ring.
Maybe he won't wake up until he has to go back to the castle.
It would be better
if he hardly had time to work after waking up, because then he'd always be
angry about having slept. Then he'd do everything in a hurry.
Then it wouldn't be possible
to talk to him at all. They're coming to ask for forgiveness for the
cartload and for the construction work. Please.
Frieda. Yes.
I think you're at the bar.
I am too.
I have a room now.
Can't we go in there?
I can't stand any longer. I'll bring
a chair.
It's all your fault. I think I have a fever.
Oh, Mr. Surveyor,
don't let me disturb you. Come in,
pay a sick visit, and tell Friede what else
needs to be said. I'll be thinking about this school garden
for a long time. I sacrificed his health for things
that are worthless. When two people who are used to each other
part, they naturally still have a lot to say.
beg your pardon. I
've been asked to speak to Mr. Secretary Erlange.
That's not me. Then I
mixed up the doors. What a pity.
Not that they were ordered somewhere else, but that they
mixed up the doors. I can't go back to sleep.
Once I'm woken up, it's my personal misfortune.
Bürgel, junior official to the secretary, Friedrich.
My name is, I know,
the new surveyor.
Where do you want to go now?
It's already 4:00 a.m.
You have to wake up everyone you want to see now. At 5:00 a.m. everyone leaves,
then we go back to the castle. Perhaps you can catch Secretary Langer
there for a moment.
Sit down.
Unfortunately, I can't offer you any other seat.
You're surprised that I have neither a chair nor a table.
Yes, I had the choice: either a fully furnished room
with a narrow hotel bed, or this large bed and nothing else.
I chose the big bed. Surely the
bed is the most important thing in a bedroom.
You're so quiet, Mr. Surveyor. Are you tired?
How's the surveying business doing? I'm not
employed as a surveyor. You're a surveyor and
you don't do any surveying work. That's astonishing.
I'm prepared to pursue the matter further.
Things here certainly aren't
such that a professional can be left unattended,
and it would certainly be offensive for them too. Aren't they suffering from it?
You seem to have had a few disappointments already. You
don't have to let disappointments deter you. When you first arrive here,
the obstacles seem completely insurmountable.
But be careful, sometimes opportunities arise
that are almost at odds with the overall situation.
Opportunities for which more can be achieved by a word, a look, a sign of
trust than by a lifetime of exhausting
effort. Of course, these
opportunities do correspond to the overall situation in that they
are never exploited. But why aren't they
exploited? I ask again and again.
It is a constant complaint of the secretaries that they are forced
to conduct most interrogations at night,
not because it is too strenuous. We recognize no distinction between
normal time and working hours, nor any consideration for the parties.
The secretaries are ruthless towards the parties, but not
as ruthless as they are towards themselves. For example, it is precisely the night interrogators
who are welcome to the parties; there have never been any complaints against them
. Why, nevertheless, the secretaries' aversion
to them? Because at night it is difficult or even impossible
to fully appreciate the official nature of the proceedings. One is involuntarily
inclined to judge matters from a more private point of view at night
. The parties' submissions are given
more weight than they deserve.
Inappropriate considerations of the party's other circumstances, their
sufferings, or worries, interfere with the assessment. The necessary barrier between parties and officials
is loosening. While there is no explicit requirement for night interrogators,
the overcrowding of workers and officials in the palace and the regulation that
party interrogations must take place immediately
after the other investigations have been fully concluded
have made night interrogators an unavoidable necessity. If they have now become
a necessity, however , it is a result of the regulations. However, there is
a way for the parties to exploit this weakness, the criteria they
use, to their advantage. It consists in the party
arriving unannounced in the middle of the night. Admittedly, a rare, almost unheard-
of possibility. They are probably surprised that this
should happen so rarely, even though it seems to be such a rare occurrence,
but they too must
have noticed the flawlessness of the actual organization. This flawlessness means
that anyone who has any concerns or needs to be interrogated
receives a summons immediately and without hesitation. So he has received the
summons unannounced, and can no longer come. At most, he can
come at an inopportune time. Then he is only informed of the date and time of the summons,
and if he then returns at the right time, he is usually
sent away. That is not difficult.
Many a person has already lost the game because he
believed he could not make progress at the appropriate office and
tried to slip through to an incompetent office. But let us consider the possibility
that the party surprises a secretary in the midst of power who
has a certain authority over the case in question. Such a
possibility almost never occurs. In any case, it is pathological to
hide under the covers out of fear
and not dare to look out. I know, if the party is already in
room, then it is very bad. It constricts the heart.
But the party is sitting there. By its mere silent presence, it invites
it into their miserable life. One follows this invitation and has now
essentially ceased to be an amperson.
Strictly speaking, one has
probably, for some equally coincidental reason,
recklessly intruded into a different room than one intended.
Now, of course, there are opportunities that are, in a sense, too great to
be seized. There are things that fail for nothing other
than themselves. Through this, the world corrects itself
and regains its equilibrium. That is an excellent
arrangement in itself,
but also hopeless in other respects.
You seem unable to rouse yourself from your sleep.
You don't have to apologize for your tiredness. Why?
Is the surveyor with you? Yes,
then he should finally come over. It was a long time coming. Go to him right away.
He's already annoyed that you haven't come yet.
Go on. If you stay much longer, I'll have trouble with Erlanger
, and I'd like to avoid that. Go away; who knows what
awaits you at Erlanger's?
You should have come long ago. You have the following to do.
A certain Frieda always worked in the Ausschak. I only know her name.
I don't know her personally. I'm not interested in her either. This
Frieder sometimes served a klamm beer.
Yesterday this girl was here. This change is, of course, insignificant. Who
klammen certainly is.
The greater a job is, and the brilliant work is certainly the greatest,
the less strength remains to protect oneself against the outside world.
As a result, every insignificant change to the most insignificant things can
be a serious disturbance. Of course, a new serving method disturbs
a klammen. That's out of the question. Nevertheless,
we are obliged to ensure that we eliminate disturbances that
are not disturbances for her, if we notice them as potential disturbances.
This Frieder must now remain in the Ausschak. Arrange for that. You live
with her, after all. So make sure of that, too.
Personal feelings can't be taken into consideration.
H
But I really hoped he could come to an end.
Like the fox and the henhouse, he was always sneaking around in front of her,
but the foxes were inside, and that was
Mr. Lander.
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