Orson Welles

Sir Alexander Korda, one of the world's most flamboyant movie tycoons, rose from obscurity in rural Hungary to become a legendary filmmaker. With him were his brothers, Zoltan and Vincent, all living charmed lives in circles that included Vivien Leigh, Sir Laurence Olivier, Marlene Dietrich, H.G. Wells and Merle Oberon, who was soon to be Alex's wife. But along with Alex's flair for success lies an equally powerful impulse for destruction.

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Collage film built upon the audio of The War of the Worlds, directed and narrated by Orson Welles. Originally broadcast in October 1938 as a Halloween prank, the program famously triggered mass panic across the United States, as its format—presented as a series of live news bulletins—proved uncannily convincing. Absorbing the visual language of the contemporary media environment, W:A:R:O:F:T:H:E:W:O:R:L:D:S constructs a peculiar media-archaeological artifact. AI-generated videos, drone footage, feature films, video games, and online fragments converge with the original radio broadcast, creating a layered and unstable field of perception.

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A documentary about making a film, shot over a week.

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"Proust Palimpsesto: Pastiches e Misturas" (2026) is a Brazilian film essay directed by Carlos Adriano. The film, which explores the impossibility of filming Marcel Proust's "In Search of Time That Flew", is presented as a collage of archival images and theories.

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A small disillusioned creature searches for meaning in an increasingly weird world.

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For seven decades after its tragic sinking, the Titanic lay undiscovered on the ocean floor. This compelling two-part documentary tracks the search for the wreck across the depths of the Atlantic.

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Short vignettes explore different facets of human behavior and social issues.

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A frog agrees to help a scorpion cross a river despite the frog's suspicions.

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A beautifully told story using archival footage to explore the life of Grande Otelo, a groundbreaking Black Brazilian actor. Overcoming poverty and racism, he built a stellar career, facing controversy yet using it to challenge prejudice.

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An aspiring journalist faces the unimaginable when news of a nearby crash site comes over the radio. Based on “The War of the Worlds” by H.G. Wells and the Orson Welles / Mercury Theatre on the Air radio play of the same name.

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During the 70s, top scientists and astronomers sent coded messages into space with the hopes of getting a response from an extraterrestrial civilization; what they didn't anticipate was a speedy reply and an uptick in sightings around the world.

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Featuring unprecedented access to Jim Henson's personal archives, filmmaker Ron Howard brings us a fascinating and insightful look at a complex man whose boundless imagination inspired the world.

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A strobing deconstruction of Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight.

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As Orson Welles, I might say: Art is the grand illusion, a mirror reflecting the complexities of the human soul. It's a symphony of ideas, emotions, and truths, played on the canvas of our shared humanity.

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A collection of memories from a tumultuous time at University.

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The portrait of the last cowboy Hollywood legend dives into the 65 years of an extraordinary career in Hollywood, highlighted iconic films like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, as well as Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River and Gran Torino all the way to Cry Macho in 2021. It is no small task to cover more than 60 years of cinema history, especially when it is trying to surveyed with such breadth and diversity: TV star, international star, controversial icon, contested director, filmmaker with a capital F, Eastwood has been through it all, experienced it all, and it is first of all this romantic trajectory, this true American pastoral that the documentary wants to tell with all the passion it possibly can.

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In the early 1930s, Orson Welles ascends to unprecedented stardom while President Franklin Delano Roosevelt navigates a nation in crisis. As WWII begins, an American boy visits abroad, and an American soldier enlists in the army.

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Never-before-heard personal recordings and archival footage tell the story of Louis Armstrong's life from his perspective. From musical phenom to civil rights activist to world-renowned artist, this illuminating film shows sides of Armstrong few have seen.

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The raft man Manuel Jacaré was swallowed by the sea when Orson Welles was filming It's All True in 1942. The fact evokes memories of the dictatorship of the Estado Novo, of World War II, of Ceará fishermen's struggle for labor rights and housing in their traditional space - target of real estate speculation.

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This is a collection of Welles’ TV appearances from the 70s and 80s, including the one he did with Merv Griffin just hours before he died. Included on the Criterion release of Citizen Kane

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A look at the life and work of Charlie Chaplin in his own words featuring an in-depth interview he gave to Life magazine in 1966.

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The story of famous actor and director Orson Welles is told through his two visits to the Republic of Ireland; first in his youth as a promising young actor and finally in later years as a washed up icon of the silver screen.

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Sir Michael Parkinson looks back over his 50 years as a broadcaster, revealing some tricks of the interview trade and remembering some of his favourite encounters.

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We thought we'd seen, read, and heard everything there was to see about the Cannes Film Festival, from the glitz and gossip to the scandals and censorship. And yet, Emmanuel Barnault's "Morceaux de Cannes" (Pieces of Cannes), by this leading expert on Italian and French cinema, convinces us otherwise. The third largest event in the world (after the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup) reveals its secrets only sparingly, as this film attests. The result of passionate research in the INA archives, these 52 minutes, without interviews or voice-over narration, string together rare and sometimes previously unseen footage. Taken together, they tell a surprising, original, and heartwarming story of the Festival. On the beach, on a street corner, in a restaurant, or in the privacy of a hotel room, these forgotten archives summon the greatest filmmakers, actors, and actresses of the last seventy years, from Jean Cocteau to David Lynch, for an anthology of the Festival's history.

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Take a stroll down Sesame Street and witness the birth of the most influential children's show in television history. From the iconic furry characters to the classic songs you know by heart, learn how a gang of visionary creators changed the world.

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In 1946, Isaac Woodard, a Black army sergeant on his way home to South Carolina after serving in WWII, was pulled from a bus for arguing with the driver. The local chief of police savagely beat him, leaving him unconscious and permanently blind. The shocking incident made national headlines and, when the police chief was acquitted by an all-white jury, the blatant injustice would change the course of American history. Based on Richard Gergel’s book Unexampled Courage, the film details how the crime led to the racial awakening of President Harry Truman, who desegregated federal offices and the military two years later. The event also ultimately set the stage for the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which finally outlawed segregation in public schools and jumpstarted the modern civil rights movement.

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A restored 1970 cinéma vérité conversation between Orson Welles and Dennis Hopper, filmed during the production of "The Other Side of the Wind" and released in 2020 as a standalone documentary capturing their wide-ranging dialogue on cinema, politics, art, and fame in the early New Hollywood era.

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Explore the personal and professional triumphs and challenges of actor Natalie Wood, which have often been overshadowed by her premature death.

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Life Beyond explores humanity's future, the evolution of technology, and the mysteries of the universe. From AI and space exploration to philosophical reflections on existence, each chapter combines stunning visuals with emotional music, creating an immersive experience.

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An essay on how could Welles' Touch of Evil and his story about the border between USA and Mexico influence Trump's imagination.

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At a media-swamped party to celebrate his seventieth birthday and screen his avant-garde film-in-progress, a legendary but jaded Hollywood director is faced both with voracious fans and unsettling questions about what became of his lead actor.

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As his life comes to its end, famous Hollywood director Orson Welles puts it all on the line at the chance for renewed success with the film The Other Side of the Wind.

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A poetic journey into the visual world of the legendary filmmaker and actor Orson Welles (1915-85) that reveals a new portrait of a unique genius, both of his life and of his monumental work: through his own eyes, drawn by his own hand, painted with his own brush.

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An account of the life of actress Jeanne Moreau (1928-2017), a true icon of the New Wave and one of the most idolized French movie stars.

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The Magic History Of Cinema is an international documentary showcasing magic and movies long continued history and explores how the origins of cinema are closely linked to the conjurors and illusionists of the early 20th century and how those ties continue with todays top filmmakers and magicians.

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Embers and Dust focuses on the perspective of a young farm boy and his family, and how the night of Orson Welles' dramatic broadcast of War of The Worlds unfolded for them.

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At a media-swamped party to celebrate his seventieth birthday and screen his avant-garde film-in-progress, a legendary but jaded Hollywood director is faced both with voracious fans and unsettling questions about what became of his lead actor.

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This film was not intended to stand by itself, but was designed as the cinematic aspect of Welles' Mercury Theatre stage presentation of William Gillette's 1894 comedy about a New York playboy who flees from the violent husband of his mistress and borrows the identity of a plantation owner in Cuba who is expecting the arrival of a mail order bride. The film component of the performance was ultimately never screened due to the absence of projection facilities at the venue. Long-believed to be lost, a workprint was discovered in 2008 and the film had its premiere in 2013.

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An unfinished feature film directed by Orson Welles and based on Charles Williams’s Dead Calm (1963), filmed between 1966 and 1969 off the Yugoslav coast. Starring Welles, Jeanne Moreau, and Laurence Harvey, the project follows a newlywed couple whose yacht voyage becomes a psychological thriller after encountering a drifting vessel. The film remains incomplete, with missing scenes, unfinished sound, and surviving only in workprint form.

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An unfinished 1981 essay-documentary project by Orson Welles, based on a filmed Q&A session at USC following a screening of The Trial, intended as a reflective companion piece to the film but never edited or completed during his lifetime. The film was edited and screened in the 2000s by the Munich Filmmuseum.

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One Man Band (1999) is a posthumous archival reconstruction created by the Munich Film Museum from unfinished footage shot by Orson Welles between 1968 and 1971. The film assembles five comic vignettes—Churchill, Swinging London, Four Clubmen, Stately Homes, and Tailors—originally produced for Welles’s abandoned television project Orson’s Bag. Edited into a 29-minute composite short for festival exhibition, the film represents a curatorial reconstruction rather than a completed work authored or released by Welles. (Note: This is a posthumous archival assembly. The original unfinished project exists separately under the working titles London / Swinging London and was never completed or released by Orson Welles.)

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Blake Pellarin is on the campaign trail to become president of the United States. While making a stop in St. Louis, a chance encounter brings his past back to haunt him.

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An Englishman with amnesia tries to discover why he is at the center of a Latin American coup.

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George Hickenlooper filmed five pages (two scenes) from Orson Welles' screenplay of "The Big Brass Ring" in 1997 in the hope of attracting interest in the project. The feature film version was released in 1999.

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A posthumous 1992 reconstruction of Orson Welles’s long-unfinished Don Quixote project, edited by Jesús Franco from footage shot between 1957 and 1972, following Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as they wander modern Spain in pursuit of chivalric ideals. (Note: This version represents a later editorial assembly, not a film completed by Welles.)

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A dramatization of the heroic jangada voyage, from Fortaleza to Rio de Janeiro, undertaken by four impoverished fishermen to file grievances in person to their President.

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Suspense anthology series hosted by Orson Welles who asks the audience to solve the crime presented in the first part of each episode. The second part is a separate horror or thriller story with a twist.

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The Dreamers (1985) is a posthumous short film assembled by Oja Kodar from unfinished footage directed by Orson Welles in 1982. Edited after Welles’s death, the film derives from fragmentary material intended for an uncompleted adaptation of stories by Isak Dinesen. The 1985 version represents an editorial assembly rather than a completed work authored by Welles, presenting selected footage in a reconstructed form for archival circulation. (Note: This is a posthumous editorial reconstruction. The original 1982 project exists separately as an unfinished Welles work and was never completed or released by him.)

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Welles had a lifelong interest in magic, having been taught his first magic tricks by Harry Houdini in the 1920s, when Welles was still a boy. In this unfinished television special, filmed between 1976 and 1985, Welles performs various magic tricks for the camera, promising that no trick photography is used.

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Filming Othello is a 1978 documentary film directed by and starring Orson Welles about the making of his award-winning 1952 production Othello. The film, which was produced for West German television, was the last completed feature film directed by Welles.

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An unsold 1979 television talk-show pilot hosted by Orson Welles, blending interviews, audience interaction, staged segments, and magic performances, filmed between 1978 and 1979 but never broadcast or developed into a series.

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Our host (surreptitiously played by Abb Dickson in disguise) introduces us outside the castle and describes what - and who - are allowed in it, followed by the opening title. Orson enters the building where strange things are happening, and Abb Dickson (in fez) explains about, and demonstrates, the Indian rope trick. He then turns the program over to Abb who introduces a variety of guests.

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A celebration of 50 years of NBC broadcasting in radio and television, since first going on the airwaves on 15 November 1926.

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Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries is a British television anthology series produced by Anglia Television for the ITV network and broadcast between 1973 and 1974. The series presents standalone adaptations of classic mystery, crime, and supernatural stories drawn from literary sources including Dickens, Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, Balzac, Maugham, O. Henry, and others. Each episode is framed by original introductory and closing sequences performed by Orson Welles, who serves as the series’ host and sole recurring on-screen presence. These segments, written and directed by Welles (uncredited), function as stylized narrative framing devices rather than dramatic participation in the stories themselves. The dramatic content of each episode is performed by separate casts and directors, with no continuing characters or serialized narrative, establishing the series as a unified television anthology rather than a collection of standalone films.

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Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works of art by painters like Picasso and Matisse. Irving was infamous for writing a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles moves between documentary and fiction as he examines the fundamental elements of fraud and the people who commit fraud at the expense of others.

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Young Jim Hawkins finds himself serving with pirate captain Long John Silver in search of a buccaneer's treasure, in this short adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale.

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Uplifting modern day parable about mankind getting along together. Narrated by Orson Welles. Animation directed by Sam Weiss.

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A half-hour studio reading in which Orson Welles performs Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince, created for Sears’ Cartrivision home-video system.

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A half-hour Cartrivision program in which Orson Welles performs material attributed to Clarence Darrow, produced for Sears as part of the American Heritage home-video series.

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A half-hour studio performance in which Orson Welles reads Ring Lardner’s story The Golden Honeymoon, produced for Sears’ Cartrivision home-video catalog.

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A half-hour Cartrivision program in which Orson Welles performs literary selections associated with American writers George Ade, Thomas Wolfe, and Mark Twain, produced for Sears’ home-video catalog.

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A half-hour Cartrivision studio performance by Orson Welles titled My Little Boy, produced for exclusive distribution through Sears’ home-video system as part of Welles’s six-film Cartrivision set.

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A half-hour Cartrivision program featuring two studio performances by Orson Welles on the figures of Socrates and Noah, produced for Sears’ home-video distribution.

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An unreleased 1969 made-for-TV short adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, produced, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. Originally part of the abandoned CBS special Orson’s Bag, the completed film later became partially lost due to missing workprints and sound elements, surviving only in fragmentary form until a reconstructed restoration premiered in 2015.

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An aged, wealthy trader plots with his servant to recreate a maritime tall tale, using a local woman and an unknown sailor as actors.

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Orson Welles talks fantasy and magic in this short Vienna travelogue.

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Henry IV usurps the English throne, sets in motion the factious War of the Roses and now faces a rebellion led by Northumberland scion Hotspur. Henry's heir, Prince Hal, is a ne'er-do-well carouser who drinks and causes mischief with his low-class friends, especially his rotund father figure, John Falstaff. To redeem his title, Hal may have to choose between allegiance to his real father and loyalty to his friend.

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Filmed during Orson Welles’s travels through Spain while preparing his unfinished Don Quixote project, this nine-part travelogue documents the country’s landscapes, cities, and cultural traditions—from Andalusia to Pamplona—through an intimate, observational lens. Shot as a series of personal, narration-free travel films, the material was later broadcast by Italian television (RAI) with added voiceover, making the series both a poetic portrait of Spain and a rare glimpse into Welles’s working life, family, and creative process.

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Arrested for an unnamed crime, Josef K. is trapped in a surreal bureaucratic maze where justice is unknowable and guilt is assumed.

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A long-running ITV arts and culture series that aired from 1961 to 1968, Tempo was a landmark British television programme dedicated to the performing and visual arts. With a flexible magazine format and an open editorial remit, the series explored cinema, music, dance, photography, literature, theatre, and contemporary cultural life. Combining intellectual ambition with accessible presentation, Tempo established a model for serious arts broadcasting on commercial television and laid the groundwork for later landmark programmes such as Aquarius and The South Bank Show.

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A darkly comic fable about vanity and desire, "The Fountain of Youth" follows a newly married couple whose relationship is destabilized by the arrival of a potion that promises centuries of youth and beauty—but in a quantity sufficient for only one person. As temptation and resentment grow, the gift becomes a catalyst for moral and emotional collapse. Written, directed, and narrated by Orson Welles and based on John Collier’s short story “Youth from Vienna,” the film uses stylized narration and experimental visual techniques to construct a compact essay on human vanity. (Note: Originally produced in 1956 as a television pilot and broadcast once in 1958 as part of NBC’s Colgate Theatre anthology series (S1E5); it later achieved independent archival and cultural status, including a 1958 Peabody Award.)

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