HELP! enlighten me

You're not alone. I didn't get it either. I found it weird beyond Twilight Zone standards. I couldn't even finish it as I found it confusing and generally "goofy" especially after laughing out-loud at that kooky police in the closet scene. I have to wonder if many of these reviewers are using mind altering substances while "enjoying" this avant-garde piece! As someone who doesn't use such mind expanding substances, I guess I'm just not enlightened enough to enjoy such a .... "masterpiece"!!! ;^) lol

Rule #1 - Remember... it's a movie & NOT reality
Rule #2 - If you can't remember #1... Get a life!!

I'm watching this now and think it's rather slow. Will definitely rewatch...looks great if nothing else. Just beautiful!

Martha
Austin, Texas

I'd try to explain it but I quit watching after 20 minutes. Kafka's story has long since been distilled to one word, "Kafkaesque," making this film seem like one, long joke to which 21st Century viewers already know the punchline. Watch it if you dig cool cinematography, I guess.

The fact that your feeling the ambiguity of the film is the exact intention. Welles was trying to encapsulate the essence of Kafka's novel: namely, the loss of self and identity in the increasing beuracracy of the times. Much of Kafka's work centers around this. His settings are often surreal with no clarity about them, and his protagonists are increasingly lost and their character diminished within them. As in The Trial, there's really no true enemy or antagonist, as the confusion of the surroundings prevent a single source of danger or hindrance. Kafka was a Jew in the German speaking Prague in pre WW2, a lawyer by training, and his work speaks to his own lack of identity. Hope this helps!