The Trial (TEFC)

Welles neglected masterpiece is a stunning adaptation of Franz Kafka’s existential novel about a man who is caught in an increasingly bizarre and sinister bureaucratic world. One morning K (Anthony Perkins) is awoken by the police who have come to arrest him on a charge that no-one will explain. As the innocent K becomes more and more entangled in the nightmare of bureaucracy he slowly assumes the guilty role that he has been accused off. Filmed in black and white and in a style that recalls the experiments of expressionism, “The Trial” is both a rare successful film version of a uniquely literary work as well as an important and underrated film in Welles’ oeuvre. Cast includes Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Elsa Martinelli, Orson Welles, Akim Tamiroff.