/film/ - FILM★

I first saw it last year. So many great visual ideas – the camera pan across the large room of bureaucratic functionaries, the kids surrounding artist's room, the fight in the closet with the swinging lamp (I wonder which film was first to have a scene like that).
And if you ever wondered if Anthony Perkins was gay, watch him try to kiss a woman…
Welles can be hit and miss as an independent filmmaker (Mr. Arkadin and The Immortal Story are both a little uneven) but I think this is one of his best European efforts.
I don't recall the story you mention though. What was it about?

>>3436
The film begins with a narrated tale about a man who waits at a door to be let into the law but the guard doesn't allow him through, and eventually he dies of old age, then the narrator is revealed to be the inspector that wakes Josef up. Later when Josef is in the cathedral he makes reference to it again. Also forgot to mention a weird thing I noticed was that occasionally lines appeared to have been dubbed into the film - you can see their lips don't move at all when they speak.

>>3443
> lines appeared to have been dubbed into the film - you can see their lips don't move at all when they speak.

Yeah dubbing is a quirk of most Orson Welles films for whatever reason. Maybe he wanted to have more control for himself, or to speed up the production, or to avoid accents of European actors. Welles would often dub several characters himself, relying on his radio skills to disguise his voice. In this particular film the dubbing makes things seem disconnected from reality, but sometimes the practice can be a little distracting.

I remember that story now. It's a Kafka parable called "Before the Law" depicting some type of bureaucratic hell. I can't claim to have the fullest interpretation myself, but here are some interesting observations:

https://kpulawandsociety.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/before-the-law-an-interpretation/

> There are implications to this parable. It is inaccessible; individuals are subject to the law even if they do not know the foundations of it. The man however, has the option of disobeying the gatekeeper and just going in. However, he chose not to, this shows the relationship between authority and law. We can also see how the man does not enter even though the gatekeeper is not stopping him. This shows the method of legal positivism, which focuses on facts and not the values. There is also a social contract which can be seen. The man has given all his trust to the authority figure (the gatekeeper) and abides what he says as he believes the gatekeeper is trustworthy. As bad as the man wants to go in, he believes that the gatekeeper will eventually let him in (Kafka, 2013). At the same time this parable shows a relationship, which is lifelong and constant.

> Maybe [it means] life itself is above the law, that sometimes laws can and should be broken, that he wasted his whole life being subservient to a law (the law) he didnt even understand or know anything about, instead of potentially doing what is truly right, at least from our perspective, which would be being more assertive to achieve the knowledge he wants.

It's a good movie, but Welles did not capture Kafka's humor very well.

The Trial always reminds me of this installment of Orson Welles' sketchbook
http://www.wellesnet.com/Sketchbook%20episode3.htm