Joseph K seems perpetually panicked. He squeaks, shouts, cowers, and crows. He feels very guilty about something, but he can't imagine what it could be.

And, under the circumstances, who could fault him for acting so jittery? Men in trench coats have broken into his room, while he slept, to question him about, well, nothing at all. He is, it seems, under arrest, but that needn't keep him from going about his business. It's just one of those things that happens around here, and the judicial system wouldn't want it to keep him from his work.

Orson Welles' rendition of _The Trial_ is, like Kafka's novel, a comedy. But it's a comedy so dark, disquieting, and surreal that you might not be able to manage more than a few nervous chuckles or snorts while you're watching it. It's just not the sort of comedy that makes you want to laugh.

Welles tells us, at the beginning of the film, that the story he's going to tell is much like a dream. Time passes in a disjointed manner. Characters tell us that things are moving slowly, but, honestly, we have no way of telling. It's even tough for us to tell whether it's day or night outside because, in _The Trial,_ even daylight is dark.

Things seem familiar, but, somehow, distorted. Joseph K is dwarfed by churches, courthouses, and corporate offices, but might hit his head on the ceiling of his apartment. He finds himself engulfed by books and records meant to provide people with information, but, clearly, no one has read any of them. He's been accused of something, but no one, not even the court, seems to know what it might be. Infinitely long lines of people stand around awaiting trial just out of sight of an infinitely large formation of convicts waiting for an appeal. Cases cascade back and forth through the courts without ever reaching a meaningful decision.

Remind you of anything? Like Joseph K, many of us have woken up one day to notice that we've been overwhelmed by social institutions that seem to exist only to perpetuate their own existence and step on us while they're at it. As absurd as it might seem on that day, there's really nothing very funny about it.

_The Trial_ is about our waking nightmares. It is, as expressed by Kafka and Welles, a comedy without laughs.