Reviewed by JONATHAN LEWIS:      

   

THE TRIAL. Astor Pictures Corporation, France, 1962, as Le procès. Astor Pictures Corporation, US, 1963. Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Akim Tamiroff, Orson Welles. Based on the novel by Franz Kafka. Written and directed by Orson Welles.

   Anthony Perkins (in a post-Psycho role) portrays Josef K. or just K. in Orson Welles’s cinematic adaptation of Frank Kafka’s novel, Der Prozess. K. is a mild mannered clerk. He is somewhat neurotic, but not overtly so. One day, out of the clear blue sky, two government agents – police – arrive in his apartment at dawn and notify him that he’s been arrested.

   His crime? They won’t say. In fact, throughout the running time of the entire film, neither K., nor the viewer, will learn what it is that K. has been accused of. As such, the movie becomes a parable about a singular man – an “everyman” – facing impossible odds in a cold, bureaucratic state that deems him as an enemy for reasons never revealed.

   Filmed in a stunning black & white that relies heavily on elements of both German Expressionism and film noir, this paranoid, nightmarish thriller is a Welles creation through and through. Not only did Welles write and direct the work, he also starred in it as Albert Hastler or The Advocate. An obese man with health issues, The Advocate is a womanizer and a scoundrel. He is supposed to be taking K.’s side in the proceedings, but seems little interested in justice and far more in power for power’s sake.

   During his nightmarish journey, K. encounters an array of oddball characters, including his nightclub-dancing neighbor (Jeanne Moreau) and The Advocate’s assistant/sometime lover, Leni (Romy Schneider).

   In many ways, however, the people he meets seem less important than the places where he meets them. The set design and on location settings are spectacularly haunting; there is simply no way to adequately verbally describe what must be seen. What must be felt. The German Expressionist influence here can’t be overstated.

   Despite its downbeat mood, I enjoyed watching The Trial immensely. Sometimes scenes don’t work at all. But that’s okay. It’s a bold work of film-making and deserves your attention. Perkins was perfectly cast here.