Le procès (1962)

Director:

Orson Welles

Writers:

Franz Kafka (novel)
Orson Welles (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

30 March 1963 (Italy)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

An unassuming office worker is arrested and stands trial, but he is never made aware of his charges.

Plot Keywords:

Big Brother | Surrealism | Courtroom | Paranoia | Guilt Complex

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Anthony Perkins	...	Josef K.
Jeanne Moreau	...	Marika Burstner
Romy Schneider	...	Leni
Elsa Martinelli	...	Hilda
Suzanne Flon	...	Miss Pittl
Orson Welles	...	Albert Hastler (The Advocate)
Akim Tamiroff	...	Bloch
Madeleine Robinson	...	Mrs. Grubach
Arnoldo Foà	...	Inspector A
Fernand Ledoux	...	Chief Clerk of the Law Court
Michael Lonsdale	...	Priest
Max Buchsbaum	...	Examining Magistrate
Max Haufler	...	Uncle Max
Maurice Teynac	...	Deputy Manager
Wolfgang Reichmann	...	Courtroom Guard
Thomas Holtzmann	...	Bert the law student
Billy Kearns	...	First Assistant Inspector
Jess Hahn	...	Second Assistant Inspector
Naydra Shore	...	Irmie, Joseph K.'s cousin
Carl Studer	...	Man in Leather
Jean-Claude Rémoleux	...	Policeman
Raoul Delfosse	...	Policeman
William Chappell	...	Titorelli
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Guy Grosso	...	K's colleague (uncredited)
Paola Mori	...	Court archivist (uncredited)

Directed by
Orson Welles

Writing credits
Franz Kafka		(novel)
Orson Welles		(screenplay)
Pierre Cholot		(French dialogue adaptation) uncredited

Produced by
Michael Salkind	....	executive producer
Alexander Salkind	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Jean Ledrut

Cinematography by
Edmond Richard

Film Editing by
Yvonne Martin
Frederick Muller		(as Fritz H. Muller)
Orson Welles		(uncredited)

Art Direction by
Jean Mandaroux

Costume Design by
Helen Thibault		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
Louis Dor	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Robert Florat	....	production manager
Emile Blondé	....	unit manager (uncredited)
Philippe Dubail	....	unit manager (uncredited)
Jacques Pignier	....	unit production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Marc Maurette	....	assistant director
Sophie Becker	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Paul Seban	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Jean Bourlier	....	assistant art director (uncredited)
Jacques Brizzio	....	assistant art director (uncredited)
Madame Brunet	....	dresser (uncredited)
Jean Charpentier	....	upholsterer (uncredited)
Francine Coureau	....	upholsterer (uncredited)
Jacques D'Ovidio	....	assistant art director (uncredited)
André Labussière	....	set dresser (uncredited)
Claudie Thary	....	dresser (uncredited)
Pierre Tyberghein	....	assistant art director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Jacques Lebreton	....	sound mixer
Guy Villette	....	sound
Julien Coutelier	....	sound (uncredited)
Urbain Loiseau	....	assistant sound (uncredited)
Guy Maillet	....	assistant sound (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Denise Baby	....	special effects editor (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Adolphe Charlet	....	camera operator
Roger Corbeau	....	still photographer
Max Dulac	....	assistant camera
Robert Fraisse	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Gargano Andrea	....	final colorist (uncredited)
Gérard Pollicand	....	associate editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Jean Ledrut	....	music arranger

Other crew
Alexander Alexeieff	....	prologue scenes
Paul Laffargue	....	assistant to director of production
Yves Laplanche	....	promoter
Claire Parker	....	prologue scenes
Jacques Pignier	....	administrator
Pierre Bénichou	....	press attache (uncredited)
Jacques Brua	....	accountant (uncredited)
Sonia Bunodiere	....	production secretary (uncredited)
Henry Dutrannoy	....	production administrator (uncredited)
Marie-José Kling	....	script supervisor (uncredited)
Florence Malraux	....	press attache (uncredited)
Guy Maugin	....	location manager (uncredited)
André Nicard	....	publicist (uncredited)
Gisèle Pellet-Collet	....	production secretary (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Paris-Europa Productions
• Hisa-Film
• Fl. C. It

Distributors

• UFA-Cormacico (1962) (France) (theatrical)
• Astor Pictures Corporation (1963) (USA) (theatrical)
• Roan Group, The (1997) (USA) (VHS)
• Roan Group, The (1997) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Hollywood Classics (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• Milestone Film & Video (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• Take 2 Video (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• VCI Home Video (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• Fox Lorber (1999) (USA) (VHS)
• Delta Expedition (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Image Entertainment (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• FOCUSfilm Entertainment (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• FOCUSfilm Entertainment (2001) (USA) (VHS)
• Madman Entertainment (2002) (Australia) (DVD)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2004) (USA) (VHS)
• Passport International Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Suomi-Filmi (1963) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Astor
• Connoisseur Video (????) (UK) (VHS)
• DNC Home Entertainment (2007) (Italy) (DVD)
• Mainostelevisio (MTV) (1984) (Finland) (TV)
• Reel Media International (2007) (USA) (all media)
• Sandrew Metronome Distribution (2008) (Finland) (DVD)
• Studiocanal Vidéo (????) (France) (DVD)
• TV3 (1989) (Finland) (TV)
• Union Générale Cinématographique (UGC)
• YLE Teema (2006) (Finland) (TV)

Other Companies

• Chappell  music editing
• LAX Lab.  optical effects
• Philips  soundtrack
• Screen Time Images  audio restoration
• Screen Time Images  film restoration
• Studios de Boulogne  studios

Also Known As:

Der Prozess (West Germany)
Il processo (Italy)
The Trial (USA)

Runtime:

118 min | USA:107 min (TV version : 1984)

Country:

France | Italy | West Germany | Yugoslavia

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Optiphone) (source format)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Finland:K-12 (re-rating: 1981) | Finland:K-16 (original rating: 1963) | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | New Zealand:PG | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | West Germany:16 (bw)

Filming Locations:

Gare d'Orsay, Paris 7, Paris, France

Company:

Paris-Europa Productions

Trivia:

Orson Welles originally wanted Jackie Gleason to play the advocate. Welles was going to play the priest, which would have made the fable in the beginning be further justified.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: Before the law, there stands a guard. A man comes from the country, begging admittance to the law. But the guard cannot admit him. May he hope to enter at a later time? That is possible, said the guard. The man tries to peer through the entrance. He'd been taught that the law was to be accessible to every man...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "What's My Line?: (1963-02-17)" (1963)

Soundtrack:

Adagio in G

Aptly Ambiguously Layered 7 1/2

Spoilers herein.

Welles is one of the three primary inventors of cinema. And when he says this film is his best -- and autobiographical to boot -- one should sit up and take notice.

It is a remarkable experience, this film. Here are some elements I found interesting that are not yet noted here.

The impressive interiors are in a then abandoned train station. Today, that building houses the world's greatest collection of impressionist and postmodern art. One can walk around that museum and locate many of the locations used. It is an unhappy building now: it has many objects as important as this film or the book it is based on -- and their intent is as iconoclastic as Welles and Kafka, but it is run as a heavyhanded, relatively totalitarian institution. One gets much the same feeling of trapped artists now walking around it as one gets from this film.

Here's a puzzle for you: what black and white film was made in Europe by a master filmmaker; released in 1963; is a surreal depiction of an artist's angst; uses the device of many lovers or potential lovers in an imaginary array of sexual partners; arranged according to stereotype; is autobiographical and considered by the filmmaker his best. Both this and 8 1/2. Too many similarities for this to be accidental, including some stylistic touches (the painter). Both are films about film-making.

Welles uses actors in a then unusual way. It had long been the practice to take actors of ordinary skill and fit them to characters that more or less match their personality. But that practice simply took advantage of what the actor could do and was as much a matter of the actor exploiting the system as anything else. Welles here exploits Perkins, an actor who hasn't a clue about what is going on and so never finds the character. Clearly Welles wanted the effect of utter disorientation and knew Perkins could not consciously produce it.

Others have since used this technique (the Coens come to mind), sometimes with celebrities who will be really ticked when they emerge from their fogs.

A final interesting element: the framing. Welles is a master of mixing and conflating narrative methods. 'Kane' surely holds the record. Here, he is constrained by the pre-existing text: it is important that there be few narrative threads: Perkins' confusion and denial; the 'state's version; and the whole thing may be a dream or paranoid vision. Welles for instance cannot imply that the whole thing is one of the painter's paintings for instance, something he would have included in a flash if he could. So he extends his narrative layers offscreen by explicitly referencing it as a play he is doing, as a book (a 'dirty' book), and most creatively as an illustrated parable. He frames the film with drawings that are halfway between book illustrations and theatrical set designs. And he narrates them in a manner halfway between a drama and a reading. Very, very clever use of framing to increase the narrative layers by reference beyond what you see.

Ted's Evaluation: 3 of 4 -- Worth watching.