Krakatit

A scientist invents an explosive so powerful that it can destroy cities and threaten the whole world, and gradually realises how greatly this interests warmongers and how powerless he is to prevent them from exploiting his discovery, causing him to suffer all kinds of moral agonies. So obviously about Robert J. Oppenheimer, except that the Karel Čapek novel on which it is based was published two decades before Hiroshima, in 1924. 1924 also happens to be the year of Kafka’s death, whose influence here also seems clear, blended with a kind of oneiric surrealism that reflects its other theme: that the drive that produced this explosive destructive power also has something to do with the sexual urge, and that it is the twists and deviations of these drives and desires that gives rise to every advance and every regression. All of which is quite interesting, and the film is initially very promising, but, despite some good scenes and evocative images, the promise ultimately remains unfulfilled, as the dreamlike quality evaporates leaving a feeling that the filmmaker’s ambition is not matched by his competence. He would try again in 1980.