I saw this film in a psychology class in college. We had been reading The Trial, and our professor wanted to show a bit of the film. I've always thought it strange that the professor didn't like the film. I think Welles might have gone a bit too far to portray the story as a nightmarish non-reality instead of just a surreal atmosphere that's seen in the text. Or maybe he made it too dystopic.
can someone please explain why this movie is good. i must have not felt itt but the movie was near imbearable for me. i'm not trying to pick a fight i just want to know the reasons why people like this film. It's not that i don't like slow and thought prokoking movies. 2001 a space odyssey is my second favorite film.
@Alchemist1330 Sometime try watching it not on video but on the big screen, if you can. When you see it with an audience it's actually quite funny (intentionally so -- the wordplay is really something). Not that it's played for laughs, but the absurd humor is definitely part of it, and it's something that's lost when you're watching at home.
Welles considered this film as his best of all he made. I totally agree with him. This is one of few cases when a book adaptation is as good as the book itself. Even to Kafka would like it. Masterpiece.
@Aphasia17 Kafka's parabel before the law can be interpreted that people are standing in their own's way. To any point of time the man could have stepped through the gate if he only did.
@ledzepgirl92 what evidence do you have to support this interpretation? to say that the man could have stepped through the gate at his own will is ridiculous. i suppose that josef k could have deemed himself innocent at any point during his trial too? i don't think so
@brunn090 "that door was intended only for you" -> the man missed his chance to enter. I'm too lazy to flip through my stuff for the essay with the entire interpretation, then I could give more proof. Nevertheless, literature can be interpretated in more than one way. I mentioned that this story "CAN be read as", not that that'd be the only meaning.
@ledzepgirl92 Definitely. That's the beauty of it! I just don't see any solid support for your interpretation. It seems to be out of sync with other Kafka characters' relation to the Law (the Law is transcendent and not accessible to the individual)
@brunn090 the problem is my entire interpreation was written on german, and translating the main points into english is too much of work right now. But, when everybody is standing in their own way (does not take their chance to pass through the gate) they actually amke the law unaccessable by their own nature. These two ideas don't have to exclude
Well, the guard never explicitely held back the man. He said: "I am very powerful. Yet I am the least of all the guards. From hall to hall, door after door, each guard is more powerful than the last." This could very well be a bluff. Perhaps the guard isn't powerful at all, perhaps there aren't any other guards at all, the point is that the only thing preventing the man from entering the door is the faith he put into this bluf, and the subsequent fear.
Citizen Kane is brilliant, but The Trial is my favourite Orson Welles film... and the fact that it just so happens to star Anthony Perkins, my favourite actor of all time, certainly doesn't hurt! : )
I saw this film in a psychology class in college. We had been reading The Trial, and our professor wanted to show a bit of the film. I've always thought it strange that the professor didn't like the film. I think Welles might have gone a bit too far to portray the story as a nightmarish non-reality instead of just a surreal atmosphere that's seen in the text. Or maybe he made it too dystopic.
tetrisclock 5 days ago in playlist Franz Kafka [the trial] & Orson Welles
Kafka said it better.
streatlightbmx 7 months ago
can someone please explain why this movie is good. i must have not felt itt but the movie was near imbearable for me. i'm not trying to pick a fight i just want to know the reasons why people like this film. It's not that i don't like slow and thought prokoking movies. 2001 a space odyssey is my second favorite film.
Alchemist1330 11 months ago
@Alchemist1330 Sometime try watching it not on video but on the big screen, if you can. When you see it with an audience it's actually quite funny (intentionally so -- the wordplay is really something). Not that it's played for laughs, but the absurd humor is definitely part of it, and it's something that's lost when you're watching at home.
banjochris 11 months ago
The greatest summary of Christianity I have ever seen.
Allocator2008 1 year ago
Welles considered this film as his best of all he made. I totally agree with him. This is one of few cases when a book adaptation is as good as the book itself. Even to Kafka would like it. Masterpiece.
donbelindo 1 year ago
can someone explain to me what this is symbolic for?
Aphasia17 1 year ago
@Aphasia17 Kafka's parabel before the law can be interpreted that people are standing in their own's way. To any point of time the man could have stepped through the gate if he only did.
ledzepgirl92 1 year ago
@ledzepgirl92 what evidence do you have to support this interpretation? to say that the man could have stepped through the gate at his own will is ridiculous. i suppose that josef k could have deemed himself innocent at any point during his trial too? i don't think so
brunn090 1 year ago
@brunn090 "that door was intended only for you" -> the man missed his chance to enter. I'm too lazy to flip through my stuff for the essay with the entire interpretation, then I could give more proof. Nevertheless, literature can be interpretated in more than one way. I mentioned that this story "CAN be read as", not that that'd be the only meaning.
ledzepgirl92 1 year ago
@ledzepgirl92 Definitely. That's the beauty of it! I just don't see any solid support for your interpretation. It seems to be out of sync with other Kafka characters' relation to the Law (the Law is transcendent and not accessible to the individual)
brunn090 1 year ago
@brunn090 the problem is my entire interpreation was written on german, and translating the main points into english is too much of work right now. But, when everybody is standing in their own way (does not take their chance to pass through the gate) they actually amke the law unaccessable by their own nature. These two ideas don't have to exclude
ledzepgirl92 1 year ago
@brunn090
Well, the guard never explicitely held back the man. He said: "I am very powerful. Yet I am the least of all the guards. From hall to hall, door after door, each guard is more powerful than the last." This could very well be a bluff. Perhaps the guard isn't powerful at all, perhaps there aren't any other guards at all, the point is that the only thing preventing the man from entering the door is the faith he put into this bluf, and the subsequent fear.
Menegoth 1 year ago
If a person ever has the misfortune of being falsely accused of a crime, this film and intro will bring tears to your eyes... I know
talbertus 1 year ago
Watch Movies like Orson Welles - The Trial (Intro Story) at W W W . TV-Video . us
kepleykriner 2 years ago
This film is very substimaded, for me is better than citizen kane of Orson Welles
jorgeluis546 2 years ago 9
Citizen Kane is brilliant, but The Trial is my favourite Orson Welles film... and the fact that it just so happens to star Anthony Perkins, my favourite actor of all time, certainly doesn't hurt! : )
Shaunasia 3 years ago 3
This is not part of the Orson Wells Movie. Or is it? I got the DVD and found it nowhere...
TheInnerGrinner 3 years ago
yes, it's the intro
truillo9 3 years ago
ya, the begining of the trial
ChuckDarwin1909 2 years ago
Kane's reputation will once tear it apart. I don't believe it's good if people have to justify their opinion if they believe Kane is not Welles' best.
I'd pick Touch of Evil.
DonFarshido 3 years ago 2
i agree
touch of evil is cinemas masterpiece
but this is an incredibly underrated film
papajoveth 2 years ago
This is a better movie than Citizen Kane. I don't care what AFI says...AFI isn't an authority on anything.
VforVideo 3 years ago 3
Andrej I wanna party with you...
blackoverblue 3 years ago
Andrew Ryan in Bioshock sounds Identical to Welles.
XRoxyourfaceoffX 4 years ago 3
The Trial is Welles' best film of the eight I have watched.
rrpower 4 years ago 15
definitely one of my favorite films ever.
cutecauliflower 4 years ago 6
likewise =)
glazba777 4 years ago
This is one of my favorite films.. who wrote this intro?
Jhassage 2 years ago
The intro is the Kafka short story "Before the Law".
ethnicmike 2 years ago 2
it was franz kafka
jarnachas 2 years ago 2
@cutecauliflower i'll go further, it is the Greatest film ever made. the best part is the scene where K fires Orson and Orson abuses Block.
GhostofCliffGullett 1 year ago
i remember reading somewhere that welles did the charcoal sketches himself. and the movie is a must-watch!
spiderspit 4 years ago
i watched welles only "the trial" and "citizen kane" and I must say that "the trial" is my favorit, and not only among those two
glazba777 4 years ago
i'm torn between the two. i love kane for the sheer energy and the trial is a great story told with great felicity.
spiderspit 4 years ago