F for Fake | Vérités et mensonges (1975)

Synopsis

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. –The Criterion Collection

Cast: Orson Welles, Oja Kodar, Elmyr de Hory, Clifford Irving, François Reichenbach, Gary Graver, Pablo Picasso, Joseph Cotten, Peter Bogdanovich

San Sebastián, New York, Melbourne (Retrospecta)

Orson Welles' free-form documentary about fakery focusses on the notorious art forger Elmyr de Hory and Elmyr's biographer, Clifford Irving, who also wrote the celebrated fraudulent Howard Hughes autobiography, then touches on the reclusive Hughes and Welles' own career (which started with a faked resume and a phony Martian invasion). On the way, Welles plays a few tricks of his own on the audience.

Read about this film

Country: Iran | West Germany | France
Language: French | Spanish | English
Color: Color
Runtime: 87 min.