The Trial (1962) (b/w, Criterion Collection)

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A feverishly inspired take on Franz Kafka’s novel, Orson Welles’s The Trial casts Anthony Perkins as the bewildered office drone Josef K., whose arrest for an unspecified crime plunges him into a menacing bureaucratic labyrinth of guilt, corruption, and paranoia. Exiled from Hollywood and creatively unchained, Welles poured his ire at the studio system, the blacklist, and all forms of totalitarian oppression into this cinematic statement—a bold, personal film that he himself considered one of his greatest. Dizzying camera angles, expressionistic lighting, increasingly surreal locations—Welles unleashed the full force of his visual brilliance to convey the nightmarish disorientation of a world gone mad.

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
New audio commentary featuring film historian Joseph McBride
Filming “The Trial,” a 1981 documentary about the film’s production
Archival interviews with Welles, actor Jeanne Moreau, and director of photography Edmond Richard
Trailer
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by author Jonathan Lethem

New cover by Nessim Higson