Josef K. and the countryman before the law: Orson Welles recreates The Trial, by Franz Kafka

Abstract

In 1962, Orson Welles brought the novel The Trial, by Franz Kafka, to the cinema. This filmic recreation with the same title proposes some reconfigurations and displacements that reinforce and mimic the interpretative complexity of the Kafkaesque novel. One of the shifts that draws the most attention is related to the reading of the parable “Before the law” (“Vor dem Gesetz”) in the film’s prologue, which, in the novel, is part of “Chapter nine – In the cathedral”. This choice to advance the reading of the parable to the beginning of the film does not seem to be merely fortuitous as the prologue is precisely the text responsible for synthesizing, for the reader/spectator, the universe of a story. Thus, this essay intends to emphasize the transformative operations that the film The trial (1962), directed by Orson Welles, performs in the novel Der process (1925), by Franz Kafka, specifically with regard to the use of the parable “Before the law” .