NR | 1h 59 min | Drama | 1962
Orson Welles’s formidable baritone introduces his masterpiece, “The Trial” (1962), with a parable.
A man shows up at the seemingly beckoning doorway of The Law. A guard stops him and warns that each new threshold of the edifice is more zealously guarded than the first. The man slumps down to wait there and ends up waiting for years. As he ages, loses his strength, and lies dying, he is dimly reminded that the law ought to be accessible to everyone.
The film’s protagonist, Josef K. (Anthony Perkins), represents an anonymous citizen, or more simply, a struggling soul. Other characters heighten his sense of anonymity by calling him Mr. K, or just K….