Shifting Registers: A Cinematic Awakening In Orson Welles's The Trial

Orson Welles's transposition to film of Franz Kafka's novel, The Trial, generates questions of the efficacy of the director's efforts. In The Trial as a film, one wonders how Welles succeeds in evoking the Kafkaesque, that mood and subjective mode of the uncanny that literature has come to credit with the famed author. Here, the governing thesis is that along with the cinematic situation, which allows, of course, the utility of lighting, sets, and material props specific to film, Welles also uses the contextual presentation of the film to his viewers. By leaving certain meanings unclear, Welles recreates the uncanny for the viewers. Moreover, in failing to identify with Josef K., the viewers must 'settle their place in the film' elsewhere. However, what must they conclude, finally, about their place of identification, given that it is precisely the uncanny that brings about subjectivity's awakening in Josef K? If the viewers are not to identify with Josef K., does it imply that they are still asleep, that is, unconscious and uncritical of the forces that shape and conform them? The viewers' distance means that the uncanny evoked in Josef K.'s experiences is for the viewers a Sublime experience. Transitioning from Josef K. to the viewers constitutes the shifting registers from the uncanny to the aesthetic of Beauty and the Sublime. Welles's genius lies in the peculiarity of such a surprising aptitude for transitioning between these registers. Neither can be chosen at the expense of the other.

關鍵字

Kafka ； Welles ； Freud ； Lacan ； Uncanny ； Sublime ； Beauty ； Subjectivity

並列摘要

美國知名導演、編劇及演員奧森．威爾斯，將法蘭茲．卡夫卡的著名長篇小說「審判」改編成電影搬上銀幕。在「審判」一片中，導演的努力產生了效果上的爭議。我們好奇的是，威爾斯竟能夠激發出卡夫卡式的風格，也就是一種深不可測的情境及主觀意識，因而襯托出卡夫卡這位著名作家的文學成就。影片中，指標性的主題，隨著電影情節的發展而循序呈現。當然，也包含了燈光、佈景等電影道具的運用，威爾斯還使用了電影的背景和觀眾互動，藉著某些含義深奧，隱晦的方式，為觀眾再創不可思議的感受。除此之外，由於未能認同Josef K.，觀眾就必須確認他們在影片中的主場，然而正因“不可思議”的發展帶給Josef K.主觀性的覺醒，以致他們最終要對自己所認同的主場做出甚麼結論呢？如果，觀眾不認同Josef K.，這是否意味著，他們仍在沉睡，也就是說對塑造和順應他們的力量，缺乏意識感及批判力。觀眾的距離意味著在Josef K.的經歷中所喚起的不可思議，正是觀眾生命中崇高的體驗。從Josef K.過渡到觀眾，這其中形成了從不可思議到崇高美學的過程。威爾斯的才情，在於他對語言的情境及特殊性，拿捏合宜，不輕易犧牲任何文學生的瑰寶。

並列關鍵字

卡夫卡；威爾斯；弗洛依德；拉岡；不可思議；崇高境界；美學；主觀

參考文獻

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