The easiest thing to do when writing a review for a movie like this, I guess, is to lie... Lie about how I was mesmerized by the intelligence of the screenplay, lie about how a such a film stimulates all my senses simultaneously, and lie about how it was - hands down - one of the greatest cinematic experiences of my entire life. The honest truth, however, is that watching "The Trial" meant surviving the most frustrating and infuriating two hours of my life! I hate when a film makes me feel dumb, and "The Trial" made me feel utterly stupid! I'm not the world's biggest intellectual, but I don't consider myself dumb, neither, and certainly not when it comes to film. There were reasons enough for me to watch "The Trial". I'm a giant admirer of German expressionist cinema, to which the film brings tribute. I have a weakness for several people in the cast, including Anthony Perkins (who did so much more in his career than star in "Psycho") and Romy Schneider (who truly was one of the most versatile actresses in contemporary Europe). Most of all, I have tremendous and endless respect for Orson Welles, who directed and/or starred in many of the most influential and original movies in history. I actually can't write anything negative about the film itself. The performances are impeccable, the direction is tight, and the sets & scenery are often stunning. What I most definitely can say, though, is that the oeuvre of the notorious Franz Kafka isn't for me... You can state that it's abstract, intellectually challenging and surreal, but for 99% of this planet's population, it's just impossible, implausible and incomprehensible nonsense.

Kafka's book is simply marvellous, though difficult to adapt to film. Orson Welles' 1962 film does so laudably, and should be applauded for trying, even if it didn't quite come off (though it did do so, brilliantly).

It is not as faithful as the 1993 version, which did follow the book closely while Welles' at times is more Welles than Kafka, but in terms of momentum, emotional power and atmosphere Welles' is significantly better. For the record, while to me the 1962 film was brilliant the 1993 one was a big let down and an example of being faithful not being a good thing. 'The Trial' may not be one of Welles' greatest, being not as important, innovative or influential as 'Citizen Kane' and 'A Touch of Evil', but it's still among Welles' better films and one of his more accessible in some ways.

As always with Welles, 'The Trial' is extremely well made. The cinematography is wonderfully nightmarish and sometimes with an eerie and surreal quality, and Welles' use of locations is spell-binding, some of the best use of locations seen by me from any film viewed this year. The music is suitably ominous, and Welles lives up to his reputation as one of the greatest and important directors there was.

The atmosphere created has a lot of power, a dark nightmarish labyrinth that is wonderfully weird, often audacious and sometimes surprisingly impish. 'The Trial' is grippingly and thoughtfully written, and the story is powerful and atmosphere, the tension never slipping.

Performances are top notch. Anthony Perkins is excellent, conveying his character's paranoia extremely convincingly. Jeanne Moreau and Romy Schneider are mysterious and exotic.

In conclusion, marvellous film and while a less faithful adaptation of Kafka's book it's vastly superior too. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I think filming Franz Kafka is probably more difficult than filming Ernest Hemingway. Getting all the meaning out of Hemingway's sparse prose has certainly been a challenge. But with Kafka and The Trial, how do you film inside a man's mind in an unnamed existential world?

Well Orson Welles certainly gave it a try. The first time I watched The Trial I started a few times and gave up. I was determined to see it through and did this time. I did see it through and came away still not sure of what I saw.

Anthony Perkins is the protagonist Jozef K. He's a nameless toiler in what Kafka correctly sees as a future age of information. Had the film been done today you would see Perkins as a nameless drone chained to a computer. But he's done something that has whatever authority there is most upset. He's under arrest though for a moment free on some futuristic version of bail on an unnamed charge.

Civil liberties have certainly gone out the window. Kafka was not writing about an Anglo-Saxon society where one's innocent until proved guilty. Guilty as charged with little or no chance of proving yourself innocent.

I'm not sure Welles had any fixed notions about filming this in the way he firmly knew his mind with his other and better films. He was experimenting here with some stream of consciousness type technique and I think he was attempting the impossible. He wrote some interesting vignettes for people Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, and Akim Tamiroff who offer varying degrees of sympathy for Perkins's plight, but all can really do nothing.

The Trial is an interesting experiment, but it doesn't make it in my book.