I have always been fascinated by the writer Franz Kafka.
Through the absurd situations his characters found themselves in, Kafka
explored the human conditions and the possible search for the meaning of life.
Orson Welles, who has adapted a number of literary sources to his films, have
adapted Kafka’s ‘The Trial’, which is the topic of this article. The film
starred Anthony Perkins, who has famously portrayed Norman Bates in Hitchcock’s
‘Psycho’, as Josef K.
Welles has been faithful to the original story, and has not
added much in terms of plot in his film. What he has instilled, though, was an
original visual style that not only enhanced the narrative impact of the story,
and that also made his film a unique spectacle of its own.
Most of the Wellesian mise-en-scenes were evident in ‘The
Trial’. The Wellesian deep focus emphasized the power struggle of all the
players in the existentialist fable. Welles deliberately staged the composition
in depth, so that a repetitive and regimented pattern could be observed by the
audience, signifying the bureaucratic nature of the society Josef K. found
himself in. Since the 1950s, Welles’s visual style has become more complex, and
the high contrast black and white also enhanced the dream-like and disorienting
impression which could be easily felt by the viewers. The complex spatial
aspects in his films, as in ‘Touch of Evil’, ‘The Trial’, and ‘Chimes At
Midnight’, appeared like a cinematic labyrinth, and the protagonists were often
stranded in the maze-like structure. Their entrapments were not merely
physical, but also metaphorical – they were confused and misled by the
deceptions, conspiracies, and paranoia that originated from self-interested
individuals or institutions, and the story testified their humanistic struggles
against these forces, even if the chance of escaping unscathed was slim.
A nice example was the sequence when Josef K. attempted to
escape from a maze-like structure. Through a fantastic use of the tracking
shot, where similar approach was also found in ‘Touch of Evil’, Welles captured
the panic and anxiety when Josef K. was exploring the absurd labyrinth he fell
into. The dynamic long take showed his weariness regarding the situation, and
the audience could be easily identified with Josef K.’s futile attempt to run
away from this bureaucratic environment. While the outlook might appear bleak
to many, Welles at least celebrate our underdog hero, by showing his courage to
shoot back on a system that was unsympathetic to any human freedom and
potential.
Orson Welles’s ‘The Trial’ is a relatively unknown work from
the great filmmaker, yet it is a brilliant one. It should be of interest to
anyone who likes visually driven films.
Film Analysis
