The Trial (1962)
Orson Welles: Albert Hastler - The Advocate, Narrator
Photos
Quotes
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[first lines]
Narrator : Before the law, there stands a guard. A man comes from the country, begging admittance to the law. But the guard cannot admit him. May he hope to enter at a later time? That is possible, said the guard. The man tries to peer through the entrance. He'd been taught that the law was to be accessible to every man. "Do not attempt to enter without my permission", says the guard. I am very powerful. Yet I am the least of all the guards. From hall to hall, door after door, each guard is more powerful than the last. By the guard's permission, the man sits by the side of the door, and there he waits. For years, he waits. Everything he has, he gives away in the hope of bribing the guard, who never fails to say to him "I take what you give me only so that you will not feel that you left something undone." Keeping his watch during the long years, the man has come to know even the fleas on the guard's fur collar. Growing childish in old age, he begs the fleas to persuade the guard to change his mind and allow him to enter. His sight has dimmed, but in the darkness he perceives a radiance streaming immortally from the door of the law. And now, before he dies, all he's experienced condenses into one question, a question he's never asked. He beckons the guard. Says the guard, "You are insatiable! What is it now?" Says the man, "Every man strives to attain the law. How is it then that in all these years, no one else has ever come here, seeking admittance?" His hearing has failed, so the guard yells into his ear. "Nobody else but you could ever have obtained admittance. No one else could enter this door! This door was intended only for you! And now, I'm going to close it." This tale is told during the story called "The Trial". It's been said that the logic of this story is the logic of a dream... a nightmare.
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Hastler : To be in chains is sometimes safer than to be free.
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Joseph K. : I don't pretend to be a martyr, no.
Hastler : Not even a victim of society?
Joseph K. : I am a member of society.
Hastler : Do you think you can persuade the court that you're not responsible by reason of lunacy?
Joseph K. : I think that's what the court wants me to believe. Yes, that's the conspiracy: to persuade us all that the whole world is crazy, formless, meaningless, absurd. That's the dirty game. So I've lost my case. What of it? You, you're losing too. It's all lost, lost. So what? Does that sentence the entire universe to lunacy?
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Hastler : It's true, you know. Accused men are attractive. Not that being accused makes any immediate change in a man's personal appearance. But if you've got the right eye for these things, you can pick out an accused man in the largest crowd. It's just something about them, something attractive. It can't be a sense of guilt. You can't all be - guilty. Hmm?
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Hastler : We needn't accept everything as true, only what's necessary.
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Hastler : Leave him alone, Leni! Has she been pestering you again?
Joseph K. : Pestering me?
Hastler : She finds all accused men attractive. It's a - peculiarity of hers. She makes up to all of them, makes love to all of them. And when I allow her to, she tells me about these affairs to amuse me. *All* about them.
