ABSTRACT
Even though Franz Kafka (1883-1924) is better known as a modernist writer of the highest caliber, he was also fond of popular culture, especially the cinema. While some artists and intellectuals seemed almost to fear the new medium, Kafka was virtually obsessed with it.1 In time, going to the movies became the escapist activity for this notably ascetic writer. Film was able to tear him away from his desk, from the fever of literature, from writing as “a form of prayer.” 2 Kafka even incorporated film images in his fiction. Preferring the cinema to the legitimate drama, Kafka moved from Prague to Berlin in the final years of his life, referring to the latter’s “easy life, great opportunities [and] pleasurable diversions.”3
