Franz Kafka's posthumously published novel, adapted by Harold Pinter for the screen, is the story of a future authoritarian state where an innocent bank clerk is arrested for no... more...other reason but to assert the state's authority.
Based on a novel by Franz Kafka, The Trial is a paranoid masterpiece directed by Orson ... more
Welles (Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil). Josef K (Anthony Perkins, Psycho) is arrested, but has no idea what crime he is accused of. In order to find out what offence he is meant to have committed, and to protest is innocence, Josef K must go through the machinations of the judicial system, but he soon finds himself trapped in a dehumanized nightmare.Rich with Welles' trademark style, The Trial is a visual feast. The icy black and white photography strikingly depicts the spider-and-fly games of an ineffectual man struggling against his inescapable fate. Using the cracked labyrinthine corridors of Paris' ruined Gare D'Orsay as his set, Welles perfectly captures Kafka's terrifyingly skewed world. A masterclass in building tension, The Trial aptly illustrates why Welles is often cited as the greatest director of all time.
Josef K. awakes one morning to find himself arrested. The nature of his crime is not ... more
revealed to him neither is the date of his trial. Despite his now criminal status he is however granted the right to continue as normal on the condition that he report to court on a regular basis. And so begins Josef K.'s new life. But as time passes and as nothing is resolved his fate like the world around him becomes increasingly uncertain. Stifled by the helplessness of his situation he makes a desperate bid to regain control - little knowing that this can lead only to tragedy. 'Those who defend the process ...may offer absurd arguments but they also state the case as clearly as it can be stated. All the humour of Kafka lies here in the logical pursuit of absurd arguments.' - from the Foreword by Zadie Smith
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Harold Pinter, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature wrote the screenplay for this ... more
adaptation of Franz Kafka's classic novel. Beautifully photographed in Prague, the film faithfully conveys, with humour and menace, Kafka's themes of futility, confusion, alienation and bureaucratic madness.When senior bank clerk Josef K is arrested on the morning of his 30th birthday, he treats it with his customary flippancy. With no explanation given for his arrest, he expects to deal rationally with any charges. Summoned for a hearing, he is harshly dealt with by the magistrate, but is allowed to continue with his life.Unaware of the crime he is accused of committing, blind to the legal system into which he is entangled and assumed by all to be guilty; Josef is forced further and further into a maze of officialdom. Will anyone hear his pleas of innocence? Is there any way out of the suffocating process? Or is he doomed to live out the nightmare to the very end?
From its gripping first sentence onward this novel exemplifies the term "Kafkaesque." Its ... more
darkly humorous narrative recounts a bank clerk's entrapment - based on an undisclosed charge - in a maze of bureaucratic roadblocks. This is the least expensive edition available of one of the 20th century's most important novels.
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A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K. an ordinary man who wakes ... more
up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested he is released but must report to court on a regular basis-an event that proves maddening as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate his personal life--including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door--becomes increasingly unpredictable. As K. tries to gain control he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral.
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The terrifying tale of Joseph K a respectable functionary in a bank who is suddenly ... more
arrested and must defend his innocence against a charge about which he can get no information. A nightmare vision of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the mad agendas of twentieth-century totalitarian regimes.
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 2003 - Drama - Director: Michael Winterbottom - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Tim Robbins, Samantha Morton, Om Puri, Jeanne Balibar
Advantages: Hypnotic film with an understated yet compelling performance by Florence Carrez. Disadvantages: -
the amazingly preserved transcripts to her Trial of Condemnation held in Rouen in 1431. After a string of victories, Joan's fortunes began to turn, until her capture by Burgundians (who sided with the English) during the siege at Compiègne. Determined to destroy her, one whom they feared so well, the English had a panel of pro-English judges from the University of Paris convened, headed by Bishop Cauchon of Beauvais, to bring the young woman to trial on charges of witchcraft, heresy, impurity and wearing men's clothes.
During said trial, Joan was steadfast in claiming that God had put her on earth to do exactly what she did, which was to drive the English from France and install and legitimize the dauphin as King of France. Unlike military commanders of the day, Joan never did any killing herself. In fact, in an incident that is touching in ...
Advantages: gripping story, excellent writing Disadvantages: hard going at times
The Trial is not an easy book to read and it would appear that for this sole reason, it has been slated by most other reviewers on the ?net. But to avoid reading such a fantastic piece of literature simply because it considered ?challenging? by some is to miss out on what, in my opinion, is one o the greatest novels of all time. The Trial was featured last night on BBC 2?s big read which listed the 100 best novels of all time. So if that hasn?t provided you with the incentive to get out there and read this ? maybe I will!
George Steiner said of Kafka?s novel: ?No other voice has borne truer witness to the dark of our times? The Trial exhibits the classic model of the terror state. It prefigures the furtive sadism, the hysteria which totalitarianism insinuates into private and sexual life, the faceless boredom of the killers ...
Advantages: Intriguing, enlightening, and interpretable Disadvantages: Odd/surreal, not always clear
The Trial tells a very surreal story, whereby a man, who is only referred to as 'K.', is arrested for something. For what exactly, nobody knows. The story centres around his trying to understand the meaning of what's happening, and nothing is very clear. This is the sort of book that you MUST be interested in to read, as it requires a lot of independent thought, and you must interpret it in your own way. The general consensus is that its about totalitarian government, but you can also interpret it to be describing K's own influence in the matter, where he goes along with the trial to the extent that he almost makes it himself, making a mountain out of a molehill. He's so intent on finding out what he's done wrong, that he does plenty of things wrong along the way, and makes the whole procedure even worse.
Very existentialist and thought ...
When Josef K. is arrested, he realises that it's no joke. Someone has been telling lies...
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
Hollywood DVD Ltd
Release date
22/10/2001
No of Discs
1
Catalogue No
HOLDD 032
Barcode
5017633200320
Author
Franz Kafka
Languages
Main Language
English
Technical information
Special Features
Trailer
Professional reviews
Review
"...Carl Davis' score is vigorous and old-fashioned in the good sense..." (Variety, 01/02/1993)
DVD Description
Franz Kafka's posthumously published novel, adapted by Harold Pinter for the screen, is the story of a future authoritarian state where an innocent bank clerk is arrested for no other reason but to assert the state's authority.
