In Franz Kafka’s The Trial, protagonist Josef K is trapped by language;
Orson Welles makes him a prisoner of mise-en-scène, in what Welles called “the finest film I have ever made.” Arrested for an undisclosed crime, K
(Anthony Perkins) embarks on a search for justice, or at least an explanation, that leads him through a shifting maze of uncanny offices inhabited by bureaucrats, inexplicable women, and condemned people waiting for fate to call their number. Balancing the baroque expressionism of Welles’s visual style are a script and performances—including the squirming, petulant Perkins, a world-weary Moreau, and Welles himself—that emphasize the affinity between nightmare and comedy. Juliet Clark
Written by Welles, based on the novel by Franz Kafka. Photographed by Edmond Richard. With Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Welles. (118 mins, B&W, 35mm, From David Pierce)
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