“An astonishing work,
and a revelation of the man.”
— David Thomson
France/West Germany/Italy, 1962
Director: Orson Welles
Producer: Alexander Salkind, Michael Salkind, Robert Florat
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Orson Welles
Screenwriter: Orson Welles, Pierre Cholot
Based on the novel by Franz Kafka
Cinematography: Edmond Richard
Music: Jean Ledrut
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Black & White
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Language: English
Running Time: 119 minutes
Synopsis:
Josef K. (Anthony Perkins) is accused of an unspecified crime and shambles through a series of bizarre encounters in an attempt to clear his name in the face of a hellish bureaucracy.
Awards and Recognition:
Best Film (French Syndicate of Cinema Critics, 1964)
“ABOVE ALL A VISUAL ACHIEVEMENT,
an exuberant use of camera placement
and movement and inventive lighting.”
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“A frenzy of Expressionistic images…
burst through the screen to evoke an oppressively incomprehensible system of edicts and constraints. And who better to reveal the system’s evil genius than Welles, the golden boy turned
Hollywood martyr?”
— Richard Brody, The New Yorker
“The blackest of Welles’ comedies, an apocalyptic version of Kafka that renders the grisly farce of K’s labyrinthine entrapment in the mechanisms of guilt and responsibility as the most fragmented of expressionist films noirs.”
— Paul Taylor, Time Out London
