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The Most Visually Astounding and Utterly Disturbing Film

Wonderfully Executed, but Suffers from its Unfinished Source Material

The Closest Thing to a Paranoid Nightmare Ever Filmed

240 Grada Vukovara Street, Zagreb, Croatia

Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, and Janet Leigh in Touch of Evil (1958)

The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice

Orson Welles and Suzanne Cloutier in Othello (1951)

Anne Baxter, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, Dolores Costello, and Tim Holt in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Edward G. Robinson, Orson Welles, and Loretta Young in The Stranger (1946)

Orson Welles and Jeanette Nolan in Macbeth (1948)

Anthony Hopkins and Kyle MacLachlan in The Trial (1993)

Orson Welles, Norman Eshley, and Jeanne Moreau in The Immortal Story (1968)

Orson Welles, Anthony Perkins, Romy Schneider, and Jeanne Moreau in The Trial (1962)

Finanziaria Cinematografica Italiana (FICIT)

Before the law, there stands a guard. A man comes from the country, begging admittance to the law. But the guard cannot admit him. May he hope to enter at a later time? That is possible, said the guard. The man tries to peer through the entrance. He'd been taught that the law was to be accessible to every man. "Do not attempt to enter without my permission", says the guard. I am very powerful. Yet I am the least of all the guards. From hall to hall, door after door, each guard is more powerful than the last. By the guard's permission, the man sits by the side of the door, and there he waits. For years, he waits. Everything he has, he gives away in the hope of bribing the guard, who never fails to say to him "I take what you give me only so that you will not feel that you left something undone." Keeping his watch during the long years, the man has come to know even the fleas on the guard's fur collar. Growing childish in old age, he begs the fleas to persuade the guard to change his mind and allow him to enter. His sight has dimmed, but in the darkness he perceives a radiance streaming immortally from the door of the law. And now, before he dies, all he's experienced condenses into one question, a question he's never asked. He beckons the guard. Says the guard, "You are insatiable! What is it now?" Says the man, "Every man strives to attain the law. How is it then that in all these years, no one else has ever come here, seeking admittance?" His hearing has failed, so the guard yells into his ear. "Nobody else but you could ever have obtained admittance. No one else could enter this door! This door was intended only for you! And now, I'm going to close it." This tale is told during the story called "The Trial". It's been said that the logic of this story is the logic of a dream... a nightmare.

Orson Welles and Romy Schneider in The Trial (1962)

Anthony Perkins and Jeanne Moreau in The Trial (1962)

Anthony Perkins, Jess Hahn, and Billy Kearns in The Trial (1962)

Anthony Perkins and Romy Schneider in The Trial (1962)

Anthony Perkins

Arnoldo Foà

Jess Hahn

Pierre Cholot

Franz Kafka

Orson Welles

An unassuming office worker is arrested and stands trial, but he is never made aware of his charges.

Le procès

Brilliant Photography

Despite the fact that Welles is best remembered for the film ranked first by the AFI among the films of the Twentieth Century, Citizen Kane, Welles considered The Trial his finest work.  In my mind, it is the most beautifully photographed film ever made in black and white, and its sense of composition is that of an artist.  The settings are dark and mysterious, and a sense that humanity has been shunted to the margins of a dark industrial order is beautifully conveyed.

I&apos;m told that younger people who did not grow up with black and white TV or with black and white movies automatically tune out pieces that are not in color.  That is a shame, as there are films that are better made in black and white, and expressions of time and mood that cannot be made as well in color.  Welles never really got the chance to make the transition to color that Kubrick made as well as any American director.  Perhaps he would have found expressive use of color as well as Kubrick did, but certainly neither this film nor Citizen Kane could be made in color.

The brilliance of its artistry aside, the film will not appeal to everyone because of the deliberate opaqueness of the plot, and because of its lack of optimism.  I like Kafka&apos;s story, and I like the movie very well, but it is more art than diversionary entertainment, and some might prefer a good action flick or a romantic comedy.

The Trial

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNWUwOTExYmUtMmYwNi00NDA0LWFlNGUtZTA1NjI0Yzg1ZDE0XkEyXkFqcGdeQTNwaW5nZXN0._V1_.jpg

Despite the fact that Welles is best remembered for the film ranked first by the AFI among the films of the Twentieth Century, Citizen Kane, Welles considered The Trial his finest work.  In my mind, it is the most beautifully photographed film ever made in black and white, and its sense of composition is that of an artist.  The settings are dark and mysterious, and a sense that humanity has been shunted to the margins of a dark industrial order is beautifully conveyed.

I'm told that younger people who did not grow up with black and white TV or with black and white movies automatically tune out pieces that are not in color.  That is a shame, as there are films that are better made in black and white, and expressions of time and mood that cannot be made as well in color.  Welles never really got the chance to make the transition to color that Kubrick made as well as any American director.  Perhaps he would have found expressive use of color as well as Kubrick did, but certainly neither this film nor Citizen Kane could be made in color.

The brilliance of its artistry aside, the film will not appeal to everyone because of the deliberate opaqueness of the plot, and because of its lack of optimism.  I like Kafka's story, and I like the movie very well, but it is more art than diversionary entertainment, and some might prefer a good action flick or a romantic comedy.

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Le procès

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