A hapless office worker is accused of an unnamed crime, and roams the city in search of advice, support, and answers.
Orson Welles is one of the towering giants of the 20th century arts, having revolutionized the American radio, theatre, and film industries before the age of 25, culminating with his debut feature Citizen Kane in 1941, widely regarded as the greatest film ever made. For the next 20 years Welles battled studios for artistic control and funding, alternating between big studio productions in Hollywood and more experimental works in Europe.
German-born producer Alexander Salkind made a deal with Welles to make a high-profile literary adaptation, and the two eventually decided on Czech writer Franz Kafka's nighmarish, influential novel The Trial. Welles was no stranger to or intimidated by prestigious source material, having done unique stage and screen versions of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Othello and Hamlet. The writer-director took the liberty of rearranging chapters and altering other elements as he saw fit.
While technically a French production, the film was shot in Yugoslavia, Croatia, Rome and Milan in Italy as well as Paris. In the latter city, Welles had trouble securing a studio to film interiors, and wound up using the abandoned train station Gare d'Orsay, which turned out to be one of the film's most memorable settings (and has since been converted to a popular art museum).
The international cast is headed by Anthony Perkins, fresh off his iconic performance as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. He is joined by iconic French actress Jeanne Moreau (Jules and Jim), French actor Michael Lonsdale, German actress Romy Schneider, Russian actor (and Welles veteran) Akim Tamiroff, and the director himself.
The production design and Welles' baroque camera angles arguably make this the director's most visually striking film since Citizen Kane, and the surreal subject matter takes him into bold new imagery and story territory. Welles' sense of the black humor in the material prevents the atmosphere from becoming oppressive. A unique animation process called "pin screen" was used for the film's opening and closing credits, during which Welles narrates an allegorical fable.
Critics were long split on the film (aside from a group in France that awarded it Best Film honors for 1964), but recent decades have found a much greater appreciation for the work. Welles himself considered it his best (and least compromised) achievement. Because of its odd lack of a copyright, the film languished in public domain for years without an official studio release, making it widely available but always in questionable quality. The film has recently been released in restored versions that allow the viewer to fully appreciate Welles' vision.
Running time is 2 hours.
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