Franz Kafka is a writer that does not lend himself easily to film adaptation. True, Michael Haneke, Rudolf Noelte, and Orson Welles have all succeeded to some degree. However, Konstantin Seliverstov's 2014 adaptation of The Trial is not amongst the successes.
First, this film adaptation is surprisingly faithful to the novel's story. Episodes are condensed of course, but the structure of the novel is pretty closely followed. Josef K.'s somewhat unreliability as a narrator is understandably dropped, but that is no huge loss for a film. However, the adaptation stumbles with the novel's moods. The novel can be darkly humorous, dreamlike, sad, and even scary.
The first problem is that the filmmakers do not have the needed resources to adequately do the novel justice. Take for instance the bank that Josef K. Works at. The viewer is only shown K's office, which looks a lot more like a home office than a bank office. This adaptation of The Trial spends a lot of time indoors, in cramped rooms and dark corridors. When it does go outside, the exteriors seem too modern for the material, too everyday. Maybe that was the point the (Russian) filmmakers were trying to highlight, that the novel's themes are very much alive in the 21st Century of today. That is a fair argument, but something about the film's look pulls the viewer out of the story (this is not helped by the flat digital video cinematography that renders too much of the film a dull gray).
Finally, the film annoyingly tries to highlight the filmmaker's influence. Opening on the Hieronymus Bosch painting worked, but the clip from Nosferatu felt out of place, as did the picture of Franz Kafka himself appearing in a photo album in the film's opening "arrest" sequence.
The viewer is just not convinced by this adaptation of The Trial. Well-meaning amateurs sincerely try to bring Kafka's novel to life. They get the story, yet somehow miss the novel's mood.
First, this film adaptation is surprisingly faithful to the novel's story. Episodes are condensed of course, but the structure of the novel is pretty closely followed. Josef K.'s somewhat unreliability as a narrator is understandably dropped, but that is no huge loss for a film. However, the adaptation stumbles with the novel's moods. The novel can be darkly humorous, dreamlike, sad, and even scary.
The first problem is that the filmmakers do not have the needed resources to adequately do the novel justice. Take for instance the bank that Josef K. Works at. The viewer is only shown K's office, which looks a lot more like a home office than a bank office. This adaptation of The Trial spends a lot of time indoors, in cramped rooms and dark corridors. When it does go outside, the exteriors seem too modern for the material, too everyday. Maybe that was the point the (Russian) filmmakers were trying to highlight, that the novel's themes are very much alive in the 21st Century of today. That is a fair argument, but something about the film's look pulls the viewer out of the story (this is not helped by the flat digital video cinematography that renders too much of the film a dull gray).
Finally, the film annoyingly tries to highlight the filmmaker's influence. Opening on the Hieronymus Bosch painting worked, but the clip from Nosferatu felt out of place, as did the picture of Franz Kafka himself appearing in a photo album in the film's opening "arrest" sequence.
The viewer is just not convinced by this adaptation of The Trial. Well-meaning amateurs sincerely try to bring Kafka's novel to life. They get the story, yet somehow miss the novel's mood.