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Summary: Two TRIAL DVDs are not the same quality!!
Review: There are two different DVD versions of Orson Welles' The Trial, both available on Amazon. These are not the same quality. I give a four-plus star rating to the Milestone edition, which is beautiful and has some nice extras. BEWARE of the $5.50 version!
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Summary: The MUST-SEE film for every activist for True Justice
Review: This film is a must-see for every activist for justice in today's INjustice system. It's a collaboration of two geniuses: Kafka and Welles. It's our experiences in an extraordinary film, dark, much black humour. Frightening. The themes explored are profound, intertwined and classic. People just becoming educated to the USA's INjustice system need to see this. People in emerging "democracies" (God help you) reinventing justice systems need to see this. Everyone, I urge you to make it a priority to see this film, then get information out on it in your zines, brochures, web sites ... we need to get the buzz going on this film and "rebirth" it. It's a neglected masterpiece that was way ahead of its time. But in this concentration camp era of the American experience, its time has come! Powerful stuff. Orson Welles' "Trial" is the perfect antithesis to Leni Reifenstahl's "Triumph of the Will". Let's reclaim this film and use it to indoctrinate against the modern day nazis, more insidious and therefore more dangerous, of our INjustice system. Don't confuse it with it's lesser 1993 remake! Jane Doe, Author of Abolishing Lawyer Tyranny. Check out my book at Amazon.
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Summary: Not much into the " noir " style of film making.
Review: This film is dark in more ways than one. My copy was way dark. Of course it is emotionally dark also. Didn't much like the novel in college & my opinion hasn't improved. It was a pain to sit through it. This subject has so much promise but not with a depressive like Kafka. One of Welles lesser films to be sure. But one extra star for Welles portayal of the advocate, the best thing in this film.
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Summary: A great ride, provided you synch up the audio
Review: This film is very much in the spirit of the novel. Allusions to Kafka's other works are blended in nicely, and where Welles took directorial license to adapt the story, his choices always seem to be good ones. The audio, as others have noted, is severely out of synch with the video, which makes the movie very frustrating to watch. The timing was more appropriate for a dubbed Godzilla vs. anyone. YOU CAN FIX IT THOUGH, with many programs, including VirtualDub (which I used). Simply use the "correct audio" feature, and add 165 milliseconds to the audio and presto! you have a watchable movie. And true to Kafka, we will never know how fell asleep at the switch when they synched the audio, just they are indeed guilty.
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Summary: Kafka's great novel made greater by Welles
Review: This is a book-to-film adaptation that should please both the Kafka and the Welles camps. This is because Welles faithfully follows much of Kafka's story and dialogs while also achieving an astounding artistic impression on the screen that only enhances the power of the story.The only major deviation from the book is that the film totally omits the key discussion of the "Guard" story between Joseph K and the priest near the end of the book (but such a lengthy discussion would probably make the film too talky and too long); to compensate for it, Welles presents the said story as a series of still drawings when the film begins. The film's ending also differs slightly from the book but it retains the power. Regarding the film's visual presentation, it is vintage Welles. It is one thing to read about the seedy and decrepit locales in the book, but it is quite an experience to actually see them. Welles successfully presents a world unlike any we've seen in a film: buildings grandiose on the exterior but dark and dingy inside; bizarre lighting, ominous shadows, meandering corridors, ... all add up to an unforgetable impression that lingers in your mind. The only thing I can carp about is Anthony Perkin's performance. He is way too squeamish and nervous. I expected a more dignified disposition from a character that is supposed to embody an "everyman" quality. This DVD from Image is identical in content to the "gold" laserdisc from Milestone a few years ago. The only thing missing on the DVD is the jacket art for the LD. Both the DVD and LD have superb picture and greatly improved audio quality, compared to those poor-made VHS tapes you come across at bargain bins.
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Summary: Never get in the clutches of any bureaucracy
Review: This is probably the best book by Franz Kafka. It is also one of the best films by Orson Welles, if not the best one, as he himself said. It is a black and white masterpiece. This film is not even a denunciation. It is the real trial of bureaucracy, any bureaucracy in the world. A bureaucracy works on a norm and everyone in that bureaucracy has to abide by the norm and get homogenized to standards that are not even clearly stated. Hence one has to melt in the crowd, become part of the squalid and bleak brickwall, never to be noticed as original in any way. If the reverse happens then the bureaucracy defends itself, though it knows it is not a crime to be original. In fact it even knows it might be an asset, even for this very bureaucracy. But it cannot accept it because it would lead to total unraveling and hence dissolution of its very existence. So when you are accused by a bureaucracy, you never know the real crime. They choose anything that can be seen as reprehensible from any point of view, particularly the moralistic one. And they try you on those accusations, though the real crime is the fact that you have not kept the line. What's more, in this field of « justice » to win is to lose. The heads of this bureaucracy can decide whatever they want, no matter what the various committees or commissions or whatever have decided or advised. If then you try to challenge this one-man-made decision you end up in administrative courts that are even worse because they can take the time they want and they can decide what they want, so that you end up in a never-ending set of appeals whose outcome is in no way clear or predictable. One teacher in France wrote me one day : « If you want to get to retiring age without any problems, just try not to show any originality or say or do anything that is not in the line. Or use pen-names. » That is just the marvel of this film. It is the trial of such procedures and the trial cannot be questioned as for the outcome : bureaucracy is a barbaric dictatorship. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.
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Summary: A masterpiece that deserves far more attention
Review: Welles himself said, "Say what you will but 'The Trial' is the best film I ever made." That alone makes it worth a close look but even if he hadn't felt that way, I'd still consider it brilliant. No one has ever been a better bureaucratic everyman than Perkins is here and Welles sweeps us right along with him to Josef K.'s ultimate fate.
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Summary: Guilty!
Review: What is Joseph K guilty of? There are a number of possibilities, none of which I will suggest here. I don't want to be guilty of ruining the fun of figuring that out for yourself. This movie is Welles at his brilliant best. Many great directors seem to have a trio of films that represent their greatest work. With Welles, those three seem to be Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil and The Trial. The Magnificent Ambersons wsa murdered by the studio and an editor sent in to hack together a new ending. But the Welles directed part is so good I guess it has to rank with the above mentioned three. Then there is Othello, ruined by poor funding; but is it a wreck of a movie? I guess it belongs with the above mentioned four. Forgive me, I guess I'm guilty of digressing, as well as assuming that one can pick three of Welles's movies that stand out from his other work. What I can say about The Trial is that Welles had enough money to make his ideas work as they should on screen. When a Welles movie has enough money to cover technical costs the movie is usually great. The Trial is no exception. The Milestone DVD is a little costly; but you get an excellent looking transfer, which is all you really need to make this movie worth owning.
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Summary: Purists beware...
Review: While an entertaining piece of cinema in and of itself, Orson's rendition of The Trial will leave a purist squirming for the duration of the film. Welle's takes many liberties with Kafka's novel. Some are decent, however in my opinion most were either too much or simply over the top.
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Summary: ORSON IN TOTALITARIANLAND
Review: With an international cast involving Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Anthony Perkins, Fernand Ledoux and Michael Lonsdale, Orson Welles gave in 1961 a very personal version of Franz Kafka's THE TRIAL. The labyrinthic and anonymous world Joseph K. is living in has undoubtedly visually inspired Terry Gilliam for BRAZIL Look at Joseph K's office or think of the first scene of THE TRIAL when Anthony Perkins is awaking. The outside scenes of THE TRIAL have been shot in Zagreb or in the middle of the suburbs of Paris, amidst anonymous buildings. The production design is one of the main characters of the movie and one has a little shock the first time Anthony Perkins is getting up from his bed : his head is nearly touching the ceiling. On the contrary, observe the huge doors of the courtroom that are destined to oppress the poor accused people. The filmography of Orson Welles being so short, you must have this DVD in your library if you're interested in movies. The DVD presented by Image offers as bonus feature a teaser and a little presentation of the movie. No subtitles at all. Good images but a very poor sound. An Orson W. DVD.
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