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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
'The Trial' is a wonderful film; however, the film presented here is a re-edited version which omits the eerie (and arguably crucial) opening scene, featuring Kafka's Parable of the Law read by Orson Welles. The picture quality on this disc is excellent, and the documentaries included are interesting, but the film itself is incomplete.
Cheaper versions present the film in full, but with muddy visuals and muffled sound; the 2004 Studio Canal edition has a running time of 113 minutes to this version's 110, so may contain the complete film. I'm going to try that one next...
Cheaper versions present the film in full, but with muddy visuals and muffled sound; the 2004 Studio Canal edition has a running time of 113 minutes to this version's 110, so may contain the complete film. I'm going to try that one next...
42 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I know this DVD comes cheap, but if you're really interested in this movie, spend the extra money and get the restored version (released on Warner Home Video). The picture quality of the present edition (Elstree Hill) is like that of a much played VHS tape, and the sound is faint and woolly. It seems to me, too, that the aspect ratio must have been changed to fit the TV screen, so you're actually missing a large part of any given scene.
There's no bonus material.
I suppose the low standard price should have warned me, still this came as a dissappointment. "The Trial", with top acting from Anthony Perkins, great direction from Welles, and a visually interesting production, deserves better.
There's no bonus material.
I suppose the low standard price should have warned me, still this came as a dissappointment. "The Trial", with top acting from Anthony Perkins, great direction from Welles, and a visually interesting production, deserves better.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Haunting and atmospheric adaptation of Kafka's seminal political satire, Orson Welles described this as his `best film', and while I'm not totally convinced about the truth of that statement, it is still a rich and visually satisfying movie that remains faithful to Kafka's biting satire wrapped up in magic realism that was published to great acclaim in 1926.
Anthony Perkins' neurotic and twitchy style of acting is perfect for the central role of accused Josef K, who is put on trial for no apparent reason but who remains free to live his life in the meantime, whilst being stalked by the sinister police Inspector and plagued by a host of ultimately weak and unhelpful characters, including Jeanne Moreau's cabaret performer neighbour Miss Bursteau, and Welles himself as law advocate Halstead.
Welles decided to modernize certain aspects of the novel, he also changed the ending slightly and rearranged the book's chapters for filming. Filmed in various locations across Europe (all apart from Kafka's home town of Prague where his work was still banned as subversive) the film is visually strong, and the picture quality in this version is superb for a film that is nearly fifty years old. The famous pin-screen animation sequence that opens the film is inspired, and lends a gravitas that is often lost when adapting `serious' classics for the big screen. In some parts the movie comes across as a black comedy, while in others it is more dramatic and occasionally stagey - although the latter could be said for the majority of films made in that era. In many ways Kafka's story works better as a stage play and Welles, in his wisdom, undoubtedly knew this and created his version accordingly.
While the film has been decried in some quarters as dry and dull, it came across to me as a well-crafted and conscientious piece of work, and a worthy adaptation of a novel that deserves its status as a modern classic.
Anthony Perkins' neurotic and twitchy style of acting is perfect for the central role of accused Josef K, who is put on trial for no apparent reason but who remains free to live his life in the meantime, whilst being stalked by the sinister police Inspector and plagued by a host of ultimately weak and unhelpful characters, including Jeanne Moreau's cabaret performer neighbour Miss Bursteau, and Welles himself as law advocate Halstead.
Welles decided to modernize certain aspects of the novel, he also changed the ending slightly and rearranged the book's chapters for filming. Filmed in various locations across Europe (all apart from Kafka's home town of Prague where his work was still banned as subversive) the film is visually strong, and the picture quality in this version is superb for a film that is nearly fifty years old. The famous pin-screen animation sequence that opens the film is inspired, and lends a gravitas that is often lost when adapting `serious' classics for the big screen. In some parts the movie comes across as a black comedy, while in others it is more dramatic and occasionally stagey - although the latter could be said for the majority of films made in that era. In many ways Kafka's story works better as a stage play and Welles, in his wisdom, undoubtedly knew this and created his version accordingly.
While the film has been decried in some quarters as dry and dull, it came across to me as a well-crafted and conscientious piece of work, and a worthy adaptation of a novel that deserves its status as a modern classic.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Flawed but rivetting
If ever one could nominate a film-maker who could be characterised as being a colossus with feet of clay, it would probably be Orson Welles. Read more
Published 1 month ago by J. Rottweiller Swinburne
I Missed The Point.
Although the production values were great I found the film to be just awful and very talky. My wife and I struggled through to the end to see what happened. Read more
Published 9 months ago by G> Jordon
Might Try Harder
This DVD was bought to replace a DVD "lent" to a friend, who liked it so much that she still has it. Read more
Published 14 months ago by H. C. Merritt
dark, comic, nightmarish, brilliant
It might have thought it impossible to bring Kafka's work effectively to the screen, but Welles achieved that wondrous transformation here. Read more
Published on 27 Nov 2009 by Robin Parmar
The Trial
This DVD of the classic film "The Trial" has the opening illustrated introduction by Orson Wells missing; also,(after the first meeting with his advocate), the scenes where he is... Read more
Published on 26 Aug 2009 by Nick
The Trial
The Trial [DVD] [1963]
This was a piece of work given to me to perform for my A level Drama the DVD helped enormously it gave me an insight to the characters and the roles... Read more
This was a piece of work given to me to perform for my A level Drama the DVD helped enormously it gave me an insight to the characters and the roles... Read more
Published on 20 Mar 2009 by C. Chichester
A work of art , a must for the true officinado of serious movies.
This movie based on the classic book by Kafka draws the viewer into the surreal world of Joseph K, a young man sucked into a whirlpool of insanity thrust upon him by an opaque... Read more
Published on 7 May 2008 by M. Walker
A good movie like this is worth a better DVD version.
This DVD probably has the worst quality i've ever seen, spend a couple of extra £ and by the Warner/Studio canal version. Read more
Published on 13 Jan 2008 by Stian Modin Rismyhr
Visually astonishing--but the nightmare's still real enough
This DVD can be picked up extremely cheaply, and that shows in the quality of the restoration, in particular the chopping of the ratio at the edges. At the same time.... Read more
Published on 6 April 2007 by David Hughes
One of the greats
This film is a dramatisation of Kafka's novel 'Der Prozess' (The Trial). Consequently, the viewer is drawn into Kafka's nightmarish vision of the world in which a person can find... Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2006 by Mrs. S. K. Goffin
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