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Anyone a fan of this film?

Does anyone have any background on its status? Has it fallen into the Public Domain? I think I have seen 3 different DVD versions from companies I have never heard of and they are all awful. Even below VHS standards. Is there a great version out there that has been remastered?

aox wrote: Tue Dec 02, 2008 3:16 pm Anyone a fan of this film?

Does anyone have any background on its status? Has it fallen into the Public Domain? I think I have seen 3 different DVD versions from companies I have never heard of and they are all awful. Even below VHS standards. Is there a great version out there that has been remastered?

I believe it's fallen into "Beatrice Welles domain".

The Studio Canal disc is great, though it may be out of print.

cinemartin wrote:The Studio Canal disc is great, though it may be out of print.

I believe the UK R2 Optimum Releasing disc uses that same Studio Canal transfer and is generally very good all round. I've posted screencaptures here including the bonus features menu capture (as Optimum failed to mention on the cover that this release carried a 30 minute Documentary and a 23 minute Interview with the DOP). As far as the film goes, the Optimum disc is apparently missing the short 'Parable of Law' opening sequence, so in that sense, this disc may turn away a few. Despite this, i'd still say this is definately worth picking up, for a great looking transfer, the excellent features and the low price (Amazon have this for under £7 at the moment).

bigP wrote:

cinemartin wrote: As far as the film goes, the Optimum disc is apparently missing the short 'Parable of Law' opening sequence

thanks for the info; however, this would be a deal breaker for me.

Yea, I believe the Optimum disc uses the same transfer as the Studio Canal. The same version was released by Universal here in Norway a month ago. Cheap disc, with a good transfer and terrific extras. The film opens with the Studio Canal logo. The French edition includes both versions though, doesn´t it? Only the version without the "Parable of Law" opening sequence was on the disc I rented. I´ve noticed several films being released by Universal in Norway and Optimum in the UK using Studio Canal transfers. Eventually they tend to be released by Lions Gate in the US (such as several Godard titles). I wouldn´t be surprised if they announce a region 1 release of The Trial in the near future. Hopefully including both versions...

Although it would be a narrow margin one way or the other, this is probably my favorite Welles film. I'm not sure what the DVD offerings are, but if it's true that few are good, that's a pity. I saw it on TCM, where, as I remember, it had a pretty solid image. This is one of those films I've absolutely resolved to see projected in 35mm, though, no matter what the cost.

Reading up on it, I came across a lot of comparisons to the novel, more than usual in adaptations, probably because of Kafka's stature. I haven't read Kafka's novel, the only work of his that I've read is The Castle and a few short pieces. But I came across a lot of talk about the changes in the work, what Welles did differently and how effective it is.
It seems to me that, while they follow roughly the same narrative and have similar atmospheres, there is a subtle but fundamental difference between the cinematic grammar of Welles and Kafka's prose, something which doesn't seem evident on the surface but which affects the work profoundly (mind you, I'm basing my knowledge largely on having read The Castle, and what I've heard about The Trial). I can't put my finger on what it is, though. It may just be the difference between prose and cinema, but that seems too simple an answer.

More on this later, once I think more about it. But for now: I love the film, it astounds me. The space, the excess, the decadence, the shadows and lights, the whole urban mess (these may have to do with that aforementioned difference).

To muddy the waters further, the UK Studio Canal release, from 2004, has the prologue and presumably the same transfer, but not the extras, damn and blast it. This one was being sold VERY cheaply in FOPP before their untimely demise but is now commanding higher prices on Amazon UK.

Felix, FOPP is still going, at least in Cambridge. I believe they were taken over by HMV, and certainly some of their shops are still trading. The Cambridge branch still had "The Trial" for £6 last Saturday (though I believe it was the Optimum one).

I really love this film. The direction is spectacular, and Perkins really shines in his paranoia.

I believe Welles said something to the effect of "Fuck everyone. This is the best picture I ever made." I paraphrase, of course.

I believe the UK R2 Optimum Releasing disc uses that same Studio Canal transfer and is generally very good all round. I've posted screencaptures here including the bonus features menu capture (as Optimum failed to mention on the cover that this release carried a 30 minute Documentary and a 23 minute Interview with the DOP).

I never realised the Optimum had bonus features and a good transfer....I searched for the French release after reading the Beaver reviews..and paid quite a lot but would have been happy with the Optimum...as there are no subs on the bonus material...and the "Play" logo stays on in the corner of the screen as well for some blooming reason !

Oh well you live and learn..

tojoed wrote:Felix, FOPP is still going, at least in Cambridge. I believe they were taken over by HMV, and certainly some of their shops are still trading. The Cambridge branch still had "The Trial" for £6 last Saturday (though I believe it was the Optimum one).

You are of course correct, the Glasgow shop is still there as well, though I am not sure if they are really FOPP any more or whether the spirit is gone. Damn shame anyway, best retailers ever, pity they got greedy...

bigP wrote:the Optimum disc is apparently missing the short 'Parable of Law' opening sequence

How disgusting, it's the best sequence of the entire movie!

Count me in on the Orson Welles' The Trial fanclub. Yes, Kane might be better but I find this so much fun to watch, like a David Lynch film made two decades early.

It probably upset purists but I think it was a brave decision to play Joseph K as an officious, hypocritical little prig. It must come from the same part of Welles that had the framed suspect in Touch of Evil turn out to be guilty.

Then there's the humor. "Pornograph?" And the "spot the Welles' voice" dubbing. Not to mention the best ever introduction of Welles' character, his head shrouded in steam like a devil from the pit!

Throw in Akim Tamiroff, Jeanne Moreau, Elsa Martinelli and Romy Schneider (with webbed fingers!) and what's not to love?

I love this film too. Maybe my favourite Welles, and it's an inspiring example of visual creativity on a non-existent budget. Far more effective and eerie than its opulent stepchild Brazil, in my opinion.

As for the jokes, one of my favourite lines comes at the start from Jeanne Moreau who, when Josef K informs her that he has just found out that he's been arrested, is nonplussed: "It's not something you just notice, like bleeding gums," she insists. That out-of-nowhere comparison is genius (how many other conceivable ways is 'being arrested' not like 'bleeding gums'?)

Consider me a fan. I also love that Welles entrance with the steaming pate, but perhaps my favorite image is Romy Schneider, lying amid the stacks of legal briefs(?), displaying her peculiarly webbed appendages.
My favorite "Trial"-related exchange, however, is on the Bogdanovich interview tapes (and in the This is Orson Welles text).

Captain Ascot: Yes, you start off the picture by saying the story has "the logic of a dream, a nightmare--"
OW: That was intended for people like you to jot down and remember.
CA: I'm liking the picture better.
OW: Keep on trying.
CA: But I think I always understood that about the film--
OW: That's probably why you don't like it. If only I'd mystified you a bit! (Laughs.)
CA: I told you I liked it better the second time I saw it.
OW: See it a third time!
CA: And I never actively disliked it, I just--
OW: Never mind all that.
CA: --didn't like it as much as your others.
OW: Well, you know why I defend it--I suppose because it's my own picture, unspoiled in the cutting or in anything else. That's why I hate to hear that it is not as good, because I can't blame anybody for it (laughs).

Every now and again, it seems I’ll come across another blighted version of this, the last in some Walmart bargin bin which only makes me dream of a release with the clarity of the one TCM aired when I was a kid. All of that chiaroscuro does something to you when you see it at an early age that’s destined to haunt you ever after. In some ways, I’d like to think it’s shaped a large part of my love for a well-executed nocturnal ambience in a film that’ll draw me to a Naked, or an After Hours, or this or that Slasher movie.

Was this not, along with Chimes at Midnight, the film that Welles considered his favorite?

Okay, so this isn't quite relevant, but I had to post it someplace where it would be appreciated and this thread popped into my head.

I was reading something online earlier (an article about Suspiria) and it referenced a parable by Franz Kafka, and provided a link to the story in the footnotes. I followed the link and it brought me to a "site not found" page.

That is all.

karmajuice wrote:Okay, so this isn't quite relevant, but I had to post it someplace where it would be appreciated and this thread popped into my head.

I was reading something online earlier (an article about Suspiria) and it referenced a parable by Franz Kafka, and provided a link to the story in the footnotes. I followed the link and it brought me to a "site not found" page.

That is all.

Would have been a lot more Kafkaesque if the link had taken you to another link which then took you to another link, and another link, and another, until you've spent your whole life clicking links in the promise of getting to the parable.

You mean other people don't have that experience? I'm still trying to download the manual for my IBM XT, and my Atari Pong game.

Maybe I should disable pop-ups. :-k

BrianInAtlanta wrote:It probably upset purists but I think it was a brave decision to play Joseph K as an officious, hypocritical little prig. It must come from the same part of Welles that had the framed suspect in Touch of Evil turn out to be guilty.

I don't know how much of it was Orson's sense of humor and how much of it was him being serious, but I've seen Perkins say in at least one interview that Orson said to him, in full Wellesean bluster, "He's guilty as hell!"

Has anyone ever e-mailed Mulvaney about this movie getting a Criterion release? Do you suppose there's a chance?

I asked about any possibility of more Welles (including The Trial), but no response. Great candidate for BluRay.

I asked them too and got no response.
Everyone should try, Mulvaney is bound to answer to someone.

I love this movie, probably the best Welles' movie with Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil. We should ask Criterion to release this on blu-ray, The Trial is probably best candidate for blu-ray, since at least Studio Canal's print for DVD had probably the best picture quality from Welles' movies, maybe even better than Criterion's Mr. Arkadin.

I'm actually surprised that Criterion haven't released The Trial on DVD since Studio Canal have master/print in great condition, The Trial is public domain and they have been co-operating in the past.