Overview
A man finds himself ensnared in a bewildering legal nightmare with no clear charges against him.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Dense
- Violence
- Mild
- surreal
- oppressive
- paranoid
- serious movie night
- arthouse film night
What critics said
Critics broadly regard Welles's adaptation as visually inventive, gripping, and intellectually powerful, though its deliberate confusion and polarizing abstraction limit its accessibility.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Josef K is arrested and tried without being told what he has done, while his attempts to establish his supposed offense repeatedly fail.
The judicial system permits Josef K to move through its structures yet withholds the information and agency needed to defend himself.
Welles uses inventive camera placement, movement, lighting, and oppressive institutional spaces to visualize an irrational legal system.
Josef K's search for the reason behind his trial motivates his encounters with officials, lawyers, and intermediaries, but the charge remains elusive.
Films like The Trial, and why
Brazil
shared Kafkaesque bureaucracy, surreal institutional power, paranoid atmosphere, and existential dread
1984
shared dystopian bureaucracy, alienated protagonist, absurdist social control, and oppressive visual design
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
shared expressionist spaces, existential entrapment, and nightmarish confrontation with opaque authority
The Lobster
shared surreal legal absurdity, paranoia, and darkly comic bureaucratic oppression
Movie Details
- Director
- Orson Welles
- Release Date
- 1962-08-25
- Runtime
- 119 min
- Rating
- 7.4 / 10 (591)
Cast
- Anthony Perkins
- Romy Schneider
- Orson Welles
- Akim Tamiroff
- Jeanne Moreau
- Elsa Martinelli
- Suzanne Flon
- Madeleine Robinson
- Max Haufler
- Max Buchsbaum
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Night Flight Plus, Artiflix
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is The Trial about?
- A respectable clerk is swallowed by a surreal legal machine that condemns him without ever naming his crime.
- What is The Trial like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Trial as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as dense.
- Is The Trial violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in The Trial as mild.
- What did critics think of The Trial?
- Critics broadly regard Welles's adaptation as visually inventive, gripping, and intellectually powerful, though its deliberate confusion and polarizing abstraction limit its accessibility.
- Which films are like The Trial?
- Films with a similar feel include Brazil, 1984, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and The Lobster.
- How long is The Trial?
- The Trial runs 119 minutes.
- Where can I watch The Trial?
- In United States, The Trial streams on Night Flight Plus, Artiflix.
