Cinema
The Trial
Orson Welles · 1962
Synopsis
Josef K., an office clerk, is woken at dawn in his boarding-house room by policemen who declare him under arrest without telling him what he is accused of, then let him go to work. He tells his landlady and his neighbour, Miss Bürstner. Taken one evening before a court, he tries in vain to confront an accusation that no one states. His uncle sends him to a bedridden lawyer, Hastler, whose protégée Leni becomes attached to him; he is then advised to see Titorelli, the court's painter.
Context
The producer Alexander Salkind proposed to the director a list of works to adapt; Welles would have preferred another book by the same author, and was persuaded to take this one. The contract left him the editing. Shooting was due to begin in Zagreb, but the planned sets were not built for lack of money: he discovered by chance the disused Gare d'Orsay, where he shot a good part of the film, and played the role of the lawyer himself after Jackie Gleason declined. The station has become a museum.
Who it is for
A film of one hour fifty-eight, drawn from an unfinished book. The parable placed at the opening is found much further on in the text, and the order of the book's episodes is rearranged.
Prizes and reception
Prix Méliès of the French critics in 1963; its author regarded it as the best film he had made, without having had to compromise on it.
Sources for this page 16
The pages consulted to check this page.