The Penultimate: Kafkaesque smile and absurd
Jonas Kærup Hjort’s film The Penultimate examines the modern individual’s helplessness against an invisible bureaucratic mechanism through a Kafkaesque lens. The narrative centers on an ordinary water inspector who becomes passive and loses his identity within a labyrinthine, inescapable structure. However, in keeping with Kafka’s spirit, this portrayal is built not only on a gloomy atmosphere but also on grotesque humor and absurd dialogue. This study argues that the comedy in the film is not a mere lightening element but a critical tool that renders bureaucratic violence visible. By creating a disturbing experience of laughter—at times evoking guilt in the audience—the film reproduces the Kafkaesque aesthetic in a hybrid form. Consequently, the individual’s loss within the system transcends a purely tragic experience; through this hybrid structure, it attains an ironic and absurd dimension. Thus, the dilemmas of modern existence find their resonance in contemporary cinema through both existential tremors and distorted humor.
- Kafka F. The Castle. Bell A, trans. Oxford University Press; 2005. Originally published 1926.
- Kafka F. The Trial. Mitchell B, Mitchell M, trans. Oxford University Press; 2005. Originally published 1925.
- Foucault M. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Sheridan A, trans. Vintage Books; 1995. Originally published 1975.
- Agamben G. State of Exception. Attell K, trans. University of Chicago Press; 2005. Originally published 2003.
- Camus A. Sisifos Söyleni. Yücel T, trans. Can Yayınları; 1997.
- Bauman Z. Liquid Modernity. Polity Press; 2000.
- Deleuze G, Guattari F. Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature. Polan D, trans. University of Minnesota Press; 1986.
- Deleuze G. Cinema 2: The Time-Image. Tomlinson H, Galeta R, trans. University of Minnesota Press; 1989.
- Kovács AB. Screening Modernism: European Art Cinema, 1950-1980. University of Chicago Press; 2007.
- Bordwell D. Poetics of Cinema. Routledge; 2012.
- Majumdar N. Cinema of Delay: Depicting the Time of the Other in Global Film. University of Illinois Press; 2012.
- King G. Indie 2.0: Change and Continuity in Contemporary American and Transnational Cinema. Columbia University Press; 2014.
- Pawel E. The Nightmare of Reason: A Life of Franz Kafka. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1984.
- Kracauer S. Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality. Oxford University Press; 1960.
- Gray RT. Constructive Destruction: Kafka’s Aphorisms— Literary Tradition and Literary Transformation. Max Niemeyer Verlag; 2002.
- Bordwell D. Narration in the Fiction Film. University of Wisconsin Press; 1985.
- Naremore J. An Invention Without a Future: Essays on Cinema. University of California Press; 2012.
- Lyotard JF. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Bennington G, Massumi B, trans. University of Minnesota Press; 1984.
- Mulvey L. Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Screen. 1975;16(3):6-18.
doi: 10.1093/screen/16.3.6
- Camus A. The Myth of Sisyphus. O’Brien J, trans. Penguin Books; 2005.
- Augé M. Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. Howe J, trans. Verso; 1995.
- Vidler A. The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely. MIT Press; 1992.
- Andrew D. The Major Film Theories: An Introduction. Oxford University Press; 2010.
- Buckland W. Film Theory: Rationalizing the Shadows. Wallflower Press; 2015.
- Chion M. Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. Gorbman C, trans. Columbia University Press; 1994.