The Trial
1963, 118 minutes, Rated PG
Josef K wakes up in the morning and finds the police in his room. They tell him that he is on trial but nobody tells him what he is accused of. In order to find out about the reason of this accusation and to protest his innocence, he tries to look behind the facade of the judicial system. But since this remains fruitless, there seems to be no chance for him to escape from this Kafkaesque nightmare.
Welles applied his exceptional directorial style to Kafka's landmark 1925 novel about Joseph K. (Anthony Perkins), an office clerk who gets arrested without being told why. The film, which opens with a brilliant series of pin-screen pictures, (a technique using pins, cloth, light and shadows created by A. Alexeieff), concentrates on the atmosphere of K's world, accompanied by the creamy musical leitmotif of Alinoni's "Adagio". The sets are typical Welles baroque, massive structures which engulf K in the same way Xanadu swallowed Charles Foster Kane in CITIZEN KANE. These sets alone, with their haunting shadows and claustrophobic walls and ceilings, make THE TRIAL essential viewing!
- Director:
- Orson Welles [8],
- Starring:
- Anthony Perkins [18], Max Haufler [1], Arnoldo Foo [1], Orson Welles [22], Jeanne Moreau [12], Romy Schneider [8],
- Screen Formats:
- Full Frame
Widescreen 1.66:1
- Language and Sound:
- English Dolby Digital Stereo
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