Pink Floyd - The Trial (Pink Floyd: The Wall) 1982

Pink Floyd - The Trial (Pink Floyd: The Wall) ©1982 Artist: Pink Floyd Song: The Trial Pink Floyd: The Wall Pink Floyd: The Wall is a 1982 British live-action/animated psychological drama musical film directed by Alan Parker, based on Pink Floyd’s 1979 album of the same name. Director: Alan Parker Screenplay by Roger Waters The segment in the film version is a full-length animated sequence of vivid colour and disturbing visuals; the animation was originally designed for the album’s concert performances, before being reworked for the film adaptation. Political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe directed the design for the segment. The film segment relies not only on visuals, but also on the themes, music, and lyrics of the original song. Pink, himself, is portrayed as an almost inanimate rag doll throughout the sequence. Pink’s schoolmaster, wife and mother and the prosecutor and judge are depicted as large and grotesque caricatures and are known individually by their role: The prosecutor is a caricature of a Victorian barrister. He is short and rotund, wearing a long navy gown which trails behind him, at points above his own head, such as when he leaps onto the wall (depicted as being composed of white bricks, as in the album’s cover). His facial features are occasionally greatly exaggerated; depending on what he is saying. For instance, when he describes Pink’s charges, during saying that Pink has experienced “feelings of an almost human nature,“ his face moves close to the camera and assumes a grotesque expression of disgust and contempt. The schoolmaster is brought down like a marionette on strings, controlled by his overbearing wife, referring to the earlier song “The Happiest Days of Our Lives.“ He has a long face with grey skin and two pointy tufts of hair on top, making his head somewhat resemble a hammer. The wife comes out from underneath the wall, represented as the scorpion/praying mantis that previously appeared during “Don’t Leave Me Now.“[5] The mother comes in as an abstract, morphing image of an airplane (referencing the plane which killed Pink’s father, and also the plane which Pink was playing with in “Another Brick in the Wall (Part I)“), and then transforms into a talking vagina, which then encircles Pink before morphing into a caricature of the archetypal mid-20th century British mother. As her verse ends, she transforms into the wall that Pink continues to be trapped behind. The judge is portrayed as a giant pair of buttocks — complete with two backwards facing legs, an anus for a mouth (with a monstrous voice), and a scrotum for a chin — wearing a judge’s wig. The judge reaches the final verdict to tear down the wall and vomits out a montage of clips from the movie shown before were played, following this is a long moment of silence before the wall begins to burst apart, accompanied by a scream of agony and terror from Pink. The animated sequence was used in the 1980/81 concert versions of The Wall with Waters singing the song in front of The Wall as “The Trial“’s animation played behind him on the wall. It was then used again in the 2010-13 touring concert version, albeit with the “crazy“ interludes modified to incorporate CGI (most prominently the replacement of the floating leaf sequence with one of a deformed humanoid lashing out towards the audience, surrounded by graffiti of hateful messages). Runtime: 6 min 30 sek Country: UK Language: English Release dates: 14 July 1982 (UK) Production Co: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Tin Blue Productions/Goldcrest Films International