In 1962, Orson Welles directed The Trial, a film based on Franz Kafka’s last and perhaps best-known novel. (Read it online here, or find it in our collection of Free eBooks.) Shot in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Rome, Milan and Paris, the film starred Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider and Welles himself. And while critics had mixed feelings about the film (some loved it, some didn’t), Welles’ feelings were unambivalent. A few years later, Welles told the BBC, “Say what you will, but The Trial is the best film I have ever made. One repeats oneself only when one is fatigued. Well, I wasn’t fatigued. I have never been so happy as when I made that film.”
The Trial starts with Welles narrating an animated version of “Before the Law,” a parable from The Trial. And then the action begins. Find the parable above, and the film right here. And many more great Free Movies in our collection.
Related Content:
Franz Kafka: The Short Animated Film
Orson Welles’ The Stranger: The Full Movie
Freedom River: A Parable Told by Orson Welles
Orson Welles Narrates Animation of Plato’s Cave Allegory
That video is not available anymore, that’s a shame.