The Trial

Movie Review: The Trial (Le procès)

Year of Release: 1962
Country of Origin: France, Italy, Germany, Yugoslavia
Director: Orson Welles
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Romy Schneider, Orson Welles, Akim Tamiroff

Plot outline: In this adaptation of Franz Kafka's classic, a man in a nameless country stands trial for an unnamed crime (IMDb).

Orson Welles chose the project partly because it suited his subtly surreal directorial style, and partly because the source material was in the public domain. The adaptation is every bit as strange as expected: nosy flatfoots out of a 1940s film noir merge with outrageously promiscuous femme fatales and faceless bureaucrats, collectively powerful but individually impotent. Corruption and degradation is everywhere except in our affronted protagonist, whose refusal to play along may be the nameless crime that he has been accused of. The Trial doesn't work as a black comedy. Yet it is surprisingly watchable; the story almost mesmerizing with its legal conundrums that defy logic yet sometimes seem to reflect reality. Welles himself plays The Advocate, a dissipated lawyer who seems to be complicit with the court to turn the defendants into pathetic sheep stripped of their manhood. Perkins' Joseph K has freedom of movement, but is always under surveillance by someone belonging to the conspiracy. The sets are the real star of the movie. Cavernous rooms are used to depict a business filled with endless rows of automaton typists, and a courtroom where Joseph's show trial has become a concert-styled mass entertainment. Hallways wind everywhere but lead nowhere; rooms are stuffed to the roof with bulging folders that no one ever reads. The studio of painter Titorelli (William Chappell) is made up of cheap plywood separated widely enough for a mob of insane schoolgirls to look in on his every movement. One ceiling is a ramshackle collection of misjointed lumber planks. While the script is sometimes lacking, the visuals are always unusual enough to be of interest. Those enamored with the trappings of The Trial ignore its problems. The surreal nature of the characters doesn't always explain their motivations. The same can be said for the lack of continuity, and the unsatisfying ending. (BK)

My judgement: **1/2 out of 4 stars