The blackest of Welles' comedies.
Comment
02/09/06
The Trial (1963)
88
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:25
Fresh:22
Rotten:3
Average Rating:7.4/10
Runtime: 2 hrs
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: THE TRIAL is Orson Welles's claustrophobic adaptation of Franz Kafka's surreal tale of fear and paranoia in a nameless society. Tinged with background jazz, filmed in shadowy black and... [More]
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider
Director: Orson Welles
Reviews for The Trial
Top CriticThe Trial plays closer to an actual nightmare than just about any other film I've seen.
01/01/00
It's an extremely difficult, often infuriatingly self-indulgent movie that really doesn't capture the essence of Kafka's novel. But it's also completely absorbing, almost gleefully Wellesian in every frame, and altogether an unforgettable experience.
10/30/02
At best, it is another demonstration of the camera vers atility of Mr. Welles; at worse, a further Kafka demonstration extending to the demanding medium of the screen.
05/10/05
Top CriticAbove all a visual achievement, an exuberant use of camera placement and movement and inventive lighting.
01/01/00
Top CriticThe more Joseph tries to understand, the more impenetrable it becomes.
01/01/00
Orson Welles' bounced Czech, via Kafka. Not the masterpiece that many Welles fanatics claim, but intriguing and outrageous enough for genuine appreciation.
07/27/07
While not exactly Kafka, every inch of it is most certainly Welles
06/19/06
A singularly unique -- though somewhat flawed -- literary adaptation that mixes that modern and the baroque with luminous black and white photography.
03/25/03
[Welles'] morality tale is heightened by the surrealistic world in which it plays.
01/01/00
It is, for anyone curious about the undiscovered territory in Welles' body of work, his most touching film.
01/01/00
Welles' adaptation of Kafka's famous work is one of his most innovative and bizarre, a trip through the surreal that would have done Kafka proud.
05/24/05
Though debatable as an adaptation of the Franz Kafka novel, Orson Welles's nightmarish, labyrinthine comedy of 1962 remains his creepiest and most disturbing work; it's also a lot more influential than people usually admit.
04/06/07
Orson Welles considered this his greatest film, and that's saying a lot from the director of "Citizen Kane," generally regarded as the greatest film of all time.
05/04/01
A great filmmaker who is an excellent guide into a Kafkaesque nightmare.
05/22/05
The Trial is splendid to look at and teeming with ideas about the individual, society, and of course, film itself.
10/30/02
Welles applied his bravura directorial style to Kafka's landmark 1925 novel about Joseph K (Perkins), an office clerk who gets arrested without being told why.
08/29/06
Click to read the article
06/14/04
Fascinating, baroque adaptation of Kafka.
11/05/02
Welles' interpreation of the Kafka classic takes a few liberties, but is suitably thoughtful and creepy.
01/23/03
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