Orson Welles' Funny, Scary, Surreal
The Trial
Reviewed by Bruce Cantwell
Being "accused" is no fun. Even those of us who are mostly upstanding citizens, who wouldn't dream of breaking the law in the course of our daily lives can have skeletons in our closets.
In an increasingly bureaucratic society of complex laws, it's possible to be a transgressor without even knowing it.
Have you ever popped out to the grocery store with an expired driver's license?
Franz Kafka's "The Trial" is the kind of dream you might have after discovering that you're being audited by the IRS.
Joseph K. (Anthony Perkins) wakes one morning to the sounds of investigators poking around in the next room. When he begins to inquire about their purpose, it gradually becomes clear that he's the one being investigated. When he asks why, one investigator after another demurs. It's not his place to say. He's under arrest. That's all.
Joseph K. adopts various attitudes in dealing with the bureaucratic nightmare that ensnares him. He begins by feeling guilty. Perhaps he has done wrong. Then he feels frustrated. They have no right to put him through this. He's a very important man. Then he feels resigned. He just wants the whole wearying farce to end.
By keeping the charge secret from both the accused and his audience, Kafka plays upon our fear of the unknown as well as our fear of the government that usually stays out of our lives but has the power to put us to death if we cross it...or if it perceives that we cross it.
Welles depicts this universe of the vague with a confusing labyrinth of physical locations. From Joseph K's office: a platform overlooking a human sea of typists, to the antechamber of the court room, a shabby corridor with an unusual series of catwalks, to K's advocate's home, in which there's a room so cluttered with books and papers that it resembles a garbage dump, we never quite grasp K's surroundings. There's never a reassuring image to connect us to the world we know.
Nor do the people inhabiting this world behave as we'd expect. The men, though ostensibly trying to help, ignore him and the women try to seduce him. The movie combines elements of the absurd with an unconventional visual style to evoke the logic of a dream. Along the way, Welles is funny, menacing and challenging.
Because of the multinational forces brought together to produce the film, the stars come from Italy, Germany and France, and much of the overdubbing is done by Welles himself. The out-of-synch lip movements only add to the texture of the dream.
Warning: include() [function.include]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/trial.php3 on line 33
Warning: include(http://myenvoy.com/movies/side.php3) [function.include]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/trial.php3 on line 33
Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://myenvoy.com/movies/side.php3' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php') in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/trial.php3 on line 33