Some notes on The Trial (1962) by Orson Welles
Translating Kafka’s intricate narratives into the visual medium of cinema is a formidable task, given the author’s unique complexity and his unmistakably Kafkaesque style. Orson Welles, an American director, however, managed to set a high standard with his 1962 adaptation of Franz Kafka’s ‘The Trial’. The film defies easy categorization, straddling multiple genres such as black comedy, neo-noir, and absurdist science fiction. Its use of dark humor to highlight the bureaucratic absurdity of the court scenes, the noirish lighting and shadow play in the interrogation scenes, and the science fiction-like portrayal of a dystopian society all contribute to its genre-blending nature. These elements are not mere stylistic choices but direct adaptations of Kafka’s novel’s themes and narrative structure.
In “The Trial,” many reviewers have observed a pervasive sense of unreality, which is a deliberate narrative device reflecting the protagonist’s psychological state. Philosopher Hannah Arendt noted in her essay on Franz Kafka that readers experience a distinct feeling of unreality even though Kafka’s world was a real possibility. Arendt suggested that the protagonist, K., internalizes an ambiguous sense of guilt, contributing to the unreality and ensuring his entanglement in a corrupt legal system. Arendt interpreted “The Trial” as a descent into madness and corruption, culminating in a reflection of the imperfection of human knowledge.
“Eugene Dönt once also drew a comparison between the structure of Oedipus and the novel The Trial by Franz Kafka. Both could be termed metaphors for the sudden, complete and relentless breakdown of a human being, a helpless victim of powers beyond his reach, or even termed descriptions of the hopeless human situation as such. “ — Walter Burkert, Oedipus, Oracles, and Meaning.
In a proem to the film, Welles calls its logic that of a nightmare, and film critic Amy Täubin opines that ‘It’s the nightmare aspect of the novel that Welles captures with great ingenuity.’ As Täubin suggests, this nightmare aspect is the relentless and inescapable nature of the legal system that K. finds himself trapped in. However, Täubin and critic Bosley Crowther also perceive K.’s dilemma as temporal rather than metaphysical: ‘Evidently, it is something quite horrific about the brutal, relentless way in which the law as a social institution reaches out and enmeshes men in its complex and calculating clutches until it crushes them to death’ (Crowther). Indeed, Welles’s biographer Charles Higham attributes similar sentiments to Welles himself: ‘Welles saw the book in highly individual terms: in his vision, the villain was the bureaucracy that threatens К..’ In fact, Welles thought of The Trial as ‘the most autobiographical movie that I’ve ever made, the only one that’s really close to me.’
The cinematography in the film is exceptionally well-executed in communicating a palpable feeling of anxiety to the audience. Through the use of expansive, desolate settings, tightly packed and claustrophobic crowds, and unconventional camera angles, the film masterfully elicits a sense of unease and tension, effectively drawing viewers into the emotional core of the story. The film’s cinematography effectively conveys a sense of anxiety to the viewer through its use of large, empty settings, claustrophobic crowds, and unusual camera angles.
