— Ch. 1 · Adaptation And Screenplay Choices —
The Trial (1962 film).
~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
Orson Welles declared immediately after finishing the project that The Trial was the best film he had ever made. He began writing the screenplay in 1960 and spent six months rearranging Franz Kafka's original chapters into a new sequence. The final order read 1, 4, 2, 5, 6, 3, 8, 7, 9, 10 instead of the literary executor Max Brod's arrangement. Welles modernized several elements to fit a 1960s audience while keeping the core absurdity intact. He introduced computer technology into the plot and changed Miss Bürstner from a typist to a cabaret performer. The opening scene features Welles narrating Kafka's parable Before the Law over pin screen animation created by Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker. These artists used thousands of pins to create animated prints for the prologue. Welles also altered the manner of Josef K.'s death from the book's dignified suicide to a fatal stabbing in the heart. In the film version, Josef K. refuses the knife offered by executioners and yells You'll have to do it before dying like a dog.
Production Logistics And Locations
Welles started filming in Yugoslavia during 1961 with a budget of 650 million French francs provided by producer Alexander Salkind. He constructed an office set inside an exposition hall just outside Zagreb where 850 secretaries banged typewriters at 850 desks simultaneously. Communist restrictions prevented shooting in Prague so the production moved sequences to Dubrovnik Rome Milan and Paris instead. Salkind struggled to collect promised capital which forced Welles to use the Gare d'Orsay abandoned railway station for interior scenes. The director defended this choice stating that everything was improvised at the last moment due to the absence of traditional sets. He edited the film while technically on vacation commuting from Málaga Spain to oversee post-production work. Welles filmed additional sequences in Paris including the prologue and epilogue for his self-financed Don Quixote adaptation. The production faced constant financial pressure as investors withheld funds throughout the shoot.