The Trial

Franz Kafka's story may be slightly abstracted (to put it lightly), but his ideas and views on the futility and stupidity of society are translated effortlessly through Orson Welle's carefully crafted visuals and tone as well as a fittingly befuddled performance from Anthony Perkins.

Starts well, staying faithful to the book and depicting many of the scenes very impressively. Loses its way further along sadly. Worth a watch though given the legendary status of the novel.

Justice is impossible within a dream. Director Orson Welles' surrealist legal drama The Trial (1962) is bizarre, hard to follow, and entertaining. The Trial is truly absurd and intense with a dreamlike quality. Welles' strange direction captures the dreamy quality of surrealist author Franz Kafka's odd writing. His film noir aesthetics create a dark mood, but the constantly changing scenario makes this wrong man legal drama into a surrealist nightmare. You are unlikely to receive justice in your life, but are certainly barred from justice within a dream. Welles' direction uses weird low angles and shifting perspectives for a truly unusual tone. The Trial is funny, gripping, and ever confusing, but it is what you make of it. Orson Welles paves the way for other dreamy surrealist directors David Lynch and David Cronenberg. I kept thinking of Lynch's Eraserhead, Cronenberg's Naked Lunch, or even Martin Scorsese's After Hours. Writer Orson Welles adapts Franz Kafka's novel with a crazy delight. He throws out facts to portray the oppressive government and legal system that drags people down in the courts. The philosophical concepts are dense and highly interpretative, but the jokes of how strange everything is in every scene is entertaining. Editors Orson Welles, Frederick Muller, and Yvonne Martin use careful cuts to craft long takes and shocking dream sequence after dream sequence. You can never tell what's real at the office or the courtroom. Furthermore, I love the long panning shots from cinematographer Edmond Richard. Under Orson Welles' sterling command the camera shifts angles and does the sweeping movements. The shadowy black and white shots are striking. Few films are as ambitious in the filmmaking for the typewriters crackling in the office or strange apartments. The low camera following Perkins all over is really engaging. American actor Anthony Perkins is so strange as the odd hero Josef K. He's obviously named after Kafka for the K. I like Perkins' performance that ranges from straight laced seriousness to hysterical indignation at these strange, surrealist events. You see how he's gradually bothered to madness by these mysterious accusations. His accusations of bribes and corruption to false allegations is funny. French actress Jeanne Moreau is alluring and amusing as Perkins' sultry neighbor Marika Bürstner. Her outraged attitude and tired flirting is fun opposite Perkins. German actress Romy Schneider is pretty as Orson's caring and attentive nurse Leni. She is seductive and alluring like Moreau in The Trial. Italian actor Arnoldo Foà's forlorn and blunt Inspector A is really engaging. His morbid attitude places fear and doubt in Perkins' mind. American icon Orson Welles himself is hilarious as the imposing figure of Albert Hastler the Advocate. His booming voice is intimidating as his fierce exclamations in the courts. Russian actor Akim Tamiroff is fun as the portly Bloch. French actress Madeleine Robinson is enjoyable as the landlady Mrs. Grubach. Production designer Jean Mandaroux makes a huge warehouse office, tight courtroom, and strange sets to feel even more overbearing. Composer Jean Ledrut's melancholic organ music for The Trial's film score is excellent. The sorrowful string symphony fits The Trial's hopeless atmosphere. Sound designers Jacques Lebreton, Guy Villette, and Julien Coutelier keep everything quiet except footsteps and voices. You can only hear ambient typing and machines in the backdrop. Costume designer Helen Thibault creates fitted suits, designer coats for the actresses, and courtroom uniforms for the lawyers. Makeup artist Louis Dor does a great job of doing up faces. In conclusion, The Trial is erratic and amusing for 119 minutes of strange surrealism from the master director Orson Welles.

A fantastically Kafkaesque nightmare constructed from cinema's godfather. Orson Welles's masterpiece could be mistakenly construed as art for the sake of art, but lovers of cinema will see this movie as the great film that it is. Anthony Perkins's worried performance accentuates the entire picture and gives it an underlying and unmistakably horrifying quality, one that I believe cannot be replicated by any other actor-director combination.

Visually stunning, with great performances from Perkins and Welles. What a shame Welles wasn't able to execute his vision fully in more cases, because this showcases his genius fully.

The Trial is one of Orson Welles' greatest works. This is a film that superbly translates its important source material to the screen. The cinematography is brilliant, especially the lighting and use of shadows. The set design is gorgeous and the overall atmosphere of paranoia and alienation is wonderfully achieved here. Yes, it's slowly paced, but it features excellent dialogue and probably the best performance from Anthony Perkins, whose casting here was just perfect. It's such an underrated film.

How did I get this far through life and never see this Welles film, or have I seen it and thought it was a dream I had to forget quickly, Dark and deep, cinematically brilliant (as you'd expect from Welles) with an Oscar performance from all involved, especially from Psycho's star Norman Bates who wanders through his own nightmare which is scripted by others, if this was a silent film it would be great just to sit back and watch, I might try that actually, mute the sound and watch it at night with the lights out !

The greatest 01 hour: and 58 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"For the present, your guilt is assumed to have been proved." Without the beard he wore so often throughout his later life, it really is incredible how boyish Orson Welles looked, with his rounded cheeks and slicked-over hair. It almost seems as if he swam in some kind of aging potion as a child without ever sticking his head under. The Trial comes roaring out of the gate with a potent air of mystery and particularly confusion. Virtually no context is given as to the nature of our protagonist or the circumstances that he is unexpectedly thrust into; we are just as in the dark as he is as he flails in an attempt to defend himself against a political apparatus that is both incredibly powerful but shapeless. Though lagging somewhat in the middle of the runtime (a frantic pace is understandably difficult to keep sustained for two hours), the film supports its thriller elements with a universal fear of the unknown, and uses very creative, off-kilter cinematography to keep the audience uncomfortable even when seated. There are also elements of surrealism and absurdism (understandably, with source material from Kafka), all used to convey the sense of state and personal corruption that feed what is implied to be an authoritarian regime. Yet, the script also manages to introduce distinctive and creative characters as the 'faces' (and victims) of the political beast. An unexpected minor (if somewhat flawed) masterpiece from Welles, with particular credit due to the innovative set design, such as the angular, awkwardly lit wood-slat hallway that Anthony Perkins' Josef K. is chased down as children jeer from the outside. One of the films that immediately comes to mind watching this is the brilliant 1970 Karel Kachyňa film, The Ear. Like The Trial, that film focuses on a near-single perspective of a man under possible threat of vague political persecution, except that the threats are never seen and the even the possibility of charges may not even exist. I imagine that together, they would make for quite an interesting double-feature. (4/5)

1- An amazing performance by Anthony Perkins. 2- Fantastic cinematography. Above are the two main (and perhaps only) reasons to watch The Trial. While this may sound like scant praise, let me just say that Perkins and the visuals are so far beyond great that they really do make the movie worth returning to again and again.