Written by: Orson Welles
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Akim Tamiroff
Rating: [4/5]
For all of the rules in place meant to guarantee justice, our legal system has proven time and time again to be anything but just. A perilous set of levers all powered in a way to make the process a living hell for those accused and in search of exoneration. The Trial takes a more abstract approach in presenting this journey through this nightmarish hellscape and while difficult to process in moments this feature digs right into its themes tremendously.
Waking up one day two men in his room, Josef K (Anthony Perkins) learns he’s under arrest for a crime he’s not aware of. As the implications of this arrest and his mandate to appear at the hearing of it, he runs into various members of the larger legal system at play and becomes horrified at how it only continues to mount against him in a terrifying manner.
Anyone bold enough to adapt a written work of Kafka into a feature film must have some gumption and the belief they can take the unfilmable and bring it to the silver screen. It comes as no surprise Orson Welles fancied himself as someone who had the talent and wherewithal to accomplish this feat and he sure succeeded in this effort. Injecting his style of humor and precise filmmaking techniques ensures we get the feeling this story should elicit.
Right from the onset, this film seeks to put its protagonist and the audience members on their back foot and defensive as accusations get thrown about what crime Josef mysteriously committed. Frustratingly, he gets no answers as to why he must endure all of this with no real sense of how he can even defend himself when not given a position to apply any logic. This becomes the entire point of what this story seeks to communicate seeing as the confusion at hand seeks to disorientate and drive us mad, which certainly happens with poor Josef as things begin to get worse as he explores all options available to him to mount a defense.
Starting out with the law enforcement side of the legal system displays the very front lines and as Josef progresses, we get to see the other factors playing into the whole. From the attorney brought on to advocate for him, the clerks in the courthouse, and even the individuals found in the courtroom, each of these parties plays into what causes distress for Josef and none of it gets better as things progress. He only grows further in frustration about how he could receive treatment such as this without the simple decency of knowing what he must defend himself against. This anger continues to build in Josef and rightfully so.
The way Orson Welles and Edmond Richard frame the scenes of Josef navigating from room to room displays this process as some unending nightmare. A journey deep into the abyss of hell that he can only dream to escape. As mentioned by Welles himself, he sought to capture this experience for the protagonist not to necessarily capture logic, seeing as that flew out the window ages ago, but rather a nightmare scenario. One where people appear suddenly and then disappear without much of a conclusion to them. Each of these characters more so represent ideas or philosophies rather than existing as whole figures with their own stories. They enter Josef’s journey for a specific reason and leave whenever they no longer have use in the story. Not much makes sense in this feature when trying to apply the simple flow of logic, but that never was the intention of the feature as it asks you to think of what each of these pieces means for the overall idea presented in the story. This intention succeeds in crafting this disorientating experience and further takes us down this hole with Josef.
While mostly known for his tremendous work in Psycho, Anthony Perkins arguably delivers a better performance in his role here as Josef. Someone scrawny enough to be pushed around as seen in the film but also strong enough to stand up for himself verbally. He delivers the necessary scenes he needs to with venom and the righteous anger his character experiences because of what this has become for him. Seeing him then go toe-to-toe with Orson Welles on screen allows for quite a sensational experience.
Wildly confusing in moments but effective in its execution, The Trial shows Orson Welles taking on his most challenging adaptation and doing a fabulous job in presenting his own spin on it. The number of dazzling shots and moments this feature has to offer visually takes us right down this journey along with Josef. Additionally, the production design shows an attention to detail in the hecticness of what this experience means for the protagonist contributing to the countless scenarios of piecing together this nightmare and serving as a general warning about how the legal system can crush the individual in ways that tip the scale in the wrong direction.
Films with Josh 
