Arrested for an unnamed crime, Josef K. is trapped in a surreal bureaucratic maze where justice is unknowable and guilt is assumed.
"The Most Remarkable Motion Picture Ever Made!"
Top Billed Cast
Anthony Perkins
Josef K.
Romy Schneider
Leni
Orson Welles
Albert Hastler
Akim Tamiroff
Bloch
Jeanne Moreau
Marika Burstner
Elsa Martinelli
Hilda
Suzanne Flon
Miss Pittl
Madeleine Robinson
Mrs. Grubach
Detailed Critic & Audience Reviews
C CinemaSerfVerified TMDB Critic
2022-11-06
There is something really quite terrifying about the scenario in which "Josef K" (a career-best performance from Anthony Perkins, I think) finds himself in this rather sinister thriller. He is awakened one morning to find the police in his bedroom. He is arrested and told he is to stand trial. For what, you might think? Well, that's what he wonders too - and every effort he makes to establish just what he is supposed to have done fails to deliver. His detention is hardly traditional either. He is largely free to come and go as he pleases, provided always that he is available to attend his ques...
C CaseyReeseVerified TMDB Critic
2023-02-08
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B badelfVerified TMDB Critic
2025-02-01
The Trial: Welles's Brilliant Exposition of Guiltless Guilt
Orson Welles's "The Trial" exists in a lineage of dystopian narratives that includes Kafka's original text of the same name, George Orwell's "1984", and Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" film - all works that explore bureaucratic dehumanization and the absurdity of institutional power.
If the first layer of the film reveals bureaucratic absurdity and inaccessible justice, its deeper strata explore a more insidious human condition: the phenomenon of "guiltless guilt" - an existential state where individuals internalize blame for circumsta...
