F FOR FAKE

(1974) Director: Orson Welles

DVD
NETFLIX

SUMMARY:

Trickery. Deceit. Magic. In Orson Welles’s free-form documentary F for Fake, the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully engages the central preoccupation of his career—the tenuous line between truth and illusion, art and lies. Beginning with portraits of world-renowned art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally devious biographer, Clifford Irving, Welles embarks on a dizzying cinematic journey that simultaneously exposes and revels in fakery and fakers of all stripes—not the least of whom is Welles himself. Charming and inventive, F for Fake is an inspired prank and a searching examination of the essential duplicity of cinema.

VIDEO: FULL FEATURE



REVIEWS, INTERVIEWS, CREDITS:

• 'F for Fake' Is an Illusionist's Trick With Bogus Heroes and Expert Villains (NY Times article)
• F for Fake: The Ultimate Mirror of Orson Welles (Robert Castle)
• A Retrospective by Peter Bogdanovich (VIDEO)
• Review from AV Club
• Review from Not Coming To A Theater Near You

NOTES:

• The last major film completed by Orson Welles
• F for Fake faced widespread popular rejection in the director's home country upon its release, though it fared better commercially in Europe.[citation needed] Critical reaction ranged from praise to confusion and hostility, with many finding the work to be indulgent or incoherent. F for Fake has, however, grown in stature over the years and is now often considered not only a film classic, but a precursor to modern editing techniques as well as a popularizer of more avant-garde methods.[citation needed] As the film embraces everything from self-conscious notation of the film process, to ironic employment of '50s-era B-movie footage, Welles in essence was creating not so much a documentary as a "new kind of film," as he once told writer Jonathan Rosenbaum. - Wikipedia
• An excerpt of Welles' 1930s War of the Worlds broadcast was recreated for this film, however none of the dialogue heard in the film actually matches what was originally broadcast.
• Actress Oja Kodar, who appears in a muse-like fashion in this film, was Welles' real-life girlfriend at the time.
• Hidden within a montage of footage of Howard Hughes is one brief shot of a man disembarking from a ship who looks similar to Hughes, but is actually actor Don Ameche.
• Wells filmed a trailer that lasted for almost five minutes and featured several shots of a topless Oja Kodar. The trailer was rejected in the U.S. as it was deemed to long and over-indulgent. - IMDB