Customer Reviews

The Trial

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

There are two different DVD versions of Orson Welles' The Trial, both available on Amazon. These are not the same quality. I give a four-plus star rating to the Milestone edition, which is beautiful and has some nice extras. BEWARE of the $5.50 version!

The Trial is Welles at his best like his other masterpieces this film is confusing at times, stark, personel and a bit unnerving all of this adds up to repeat viewings. And the more you watch the more you realize how amazing and griping this story of a man accused of a crime for no reason is so damn heart stoppingly beautiful. perkins is in perfect paranoia form here stuttering and muttering through dialogue and key scenes. Welles is also very good in his brief scenes as a useless lawyer. But the true star of the film is the VISUALS. Welles knew this and decided to give the plot key scenes in edtiting instead of soundtrack cues. The scene where at Perkins job the with thousands of type writers are all typing on cue is just amazing and they all come to a halting stop to signify a change in direction cues like this are all over this flick and I love it. The camera's lense follows Perkins in such a manner as if to signify a person chasing hm through out the entire film and the use of overly large props is just priceless showing the viewer that even the characters seem not to belong in the world they live in but function in as a society. BUY this film and pay attention to detail the little nuances go along way!

I'm thrilled with The Milestone Collection for doing this DVD. There are many movies that are in dire need of a proper release (on video -and- DVD) and Welles 'The Trial' was certainly one of these. The only copies that were available prior to this was a number of very bad public domain copies that were almost unwatchable, with terrible sound and picture quality. This DVD changes all that and finally presents the film to a home viewing audience how it should be presented.

The funding for this picture came from French pockets, and so it is the only film he made aside from Citizen Kane in which he enjoyed total creative control, without studio interference. Welles himself said that this was the greatest picture that he'd ever made, and I think I might even be inclined to agree with him.

If you're a fan of Welles, you will love this. If you're a fan of Franz Kafka AND Welles, than this is exactly what your looking for. A brilliant, stunning film, that finally looks brilliant and stunning.

1) to accuse this film of being confusing is tantamount to saying that picasso's works were 'obtuse' or that the music of mozart or charlie parker has 'too many notes.' 2) if you appreciate the great works of the cinema then this film is essential no matter what your tastes are. 3) i really don't see how it's possible to over-rate this film (or citizen kane or touch of evil or just about any of welles works). from stanley kubrick to martin scorsese, terry gilliam to the cohen brothers--welles has influenced virtually every important (and unimportant) american filmmaker since 1940. 4) this film (video) illustrates just how well the personal and political can be integrated in a dramatic format. the tyranny of 'the system' and the character's functions within it are explored within a complex visual field than manages to be surreal and mundane at the same time. self-conscious, but never self-satisfied--the film is so carefully layered, both thematically and visually, that it stands up to literally dozens of viewings. 5) the trial is an astounding achievement. its methods and conclusions may not be comfortable, but its creative energy and honesty offer the viewer far more cause to be optimistic than any other of the so called 'feel good' products of commercial film.

This film is very much in the spirit of the novel. Allusions to Kafka's other works are blended in nicely, and where Welles took directorial license to adapt the story, his choices always seem to be good ones. The audio, as others have noted, is severely out of synch with the video, which makes the movie very frustrating to watch. The timing was more appropriate for a dubbed Godzilla vs. anyone. YOU CAN FIX IT THOUGH, with many programs, including VirtualDub (which I used). Simply use the "correct audio" feature, and add 165 milliseconds to the audio and presto! you have a watchable movie. And true to Kafka, we will never know how fell asleep at the switch when they synched the audio, just they are indeed guilty.

With an international cast involving Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Anthony Perkins, Fernand Ledoux and Michael Lonsdale, Orson Welles gave in 1961 a very personal version of Franz Kafka's THE TRIAL. The labyrinthic and anonymous world Joseph K. is living in has undoubtedly visually inspired Terry Gilliam for BRAZIL Look at Joseph K's office or think of the first scene of THE TRIAL when Anthony Perkins is awaking.

The outside scenes of THE TRIAL have been shot in Zagreb or in the middle of the suburbs of Paris, amidst anonymous buildings. The production design is one of the main characters of the movie and one has a little shock the first time Anthony Perkins is getting up from his bed : his head is nearly touching the ceiling. On the contrary, observe the huge doors of the courtroom that are destined to oppress the poor accused people.

The filmography of Orson Welles being so short, you must have this DVD in your library if you're interested in movies. The DVD presented by Image offers as bonus feature a teaser and a little presentation of the movie. No subtitles at all. Good images but a very poor sound.

An Orson W. DVD.

I won't review the content of the film since many have done so & you can read more on IMDB too. Let's just say that this is one of my favorite films of all time. I used to own the laserlight edition, which was truly terrible, until I got a hold of the Milestone collection edition. The back of the packaging claims that "This special letterboxed edition of The Trial was transferred from a pristine original 35mm negative, making the film available for the first time in its original widescreen format." Not true. First, the film is presented with large black bars on the top and bottom to make it into 1:66 to 1. Because of this and the poor transfer quality (although better than any of the public domain issues) and this, it looks like this was actually transferred from a VHS & not 35mm. So if you have a widescreen tv at least half of it will be filled with letterboxing, with part of that letterboxing (top & bottom) a different color of black than the black of your TV screen (side bars), along with a nasty white line between the letterboxing in the video & the letterboxing of your tv. There is a R2 (French) 2xdvd which is supposed to have a vastly superior image quality, though you will have to shell out $$$ for it. It's too bad Criterion doesn't release this, as it is in the public domain & rights aren't an issue.

that everyone else here is reviewing. It is a scratchy public domain version. Not a bad buy...definately a bargain basemenet edition of a great film.

I believe this is Orson Welles best film, but that's not why I'm here. I'm writing this review as a warning. Someone else said the Milestone edition is the only print which was tranferred with the correct aspect. The Laserlight version is definitely chopped and is a poor quality transfer.
There are evidently many public domain transfers of this film on DVD, most of them the same as the Laserlight version.

I have tried twice to buy this from "Used and New" sellers and they have ALWAYS shipped the WRONG thing (sellers please take note). If you want the Milestone edition you should just suck it up and pay the full price to get the right item. It doesn't seem like any sellers are taking this seriously. Until Criterion picks this title up the Mileston edition of this great film is all we have.

The magnificent frame employment, accent even more the claustrophobic atmosphere about a man in an unnamed country, arrested for an unexplained crime he is never told about. The unbearable tension joins with bureaucratic struggle to involve us in a nightmare of uncalculated magnitude.

Anthony Perkins' emotive memory after Psycho fit with adjusted accuracy. A magnificent cast headed by Jeanne Moreau, Akim Tamirof, Elsa Martinelli and Welles too.

A fundamental icon of the cinematography.

Footnote: It should be known that a special request of Welles around a documental that included at least some shots of the Atomic Bomb were totally denied to him. Something similar happened with Kubrick when he asked for flight sequences of the B-52 IN Dr. Strangelove.