The Trial

Abstract

In Orson Wellesʼs film of The Trial, Joseph Kʼs nightmare unfolds to the strains of Albinoniʼs Adagio. Itʼs as if the soundtrack is already in mourning for K. The fable of the man who waits all his life at the gate seeking access to the law, which Kafka locates in the middle of his novel, serves Welles as prologue. It contributes to a sense that everything weʼre about to see might already have been done.