#288: WELLES, Orson: F For Fake (1975)

WELLES, Orson (United States)
F For Fake [1975]
Spine #288
DVD


Trickery. Deceit. Magic. In Orson Welle'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.

88 minutes
Color
Monaural
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2005
Director/Writers


Written by Orson Welles and Oja Kodar.

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Sixteen-page booklet featuring an essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum.

Commentary

By star and co-writer Kodar and DP Gary Graver.

Introduction

By director Peter Bogdanovich.

Orson Welles: One-Man Band (1995)

An 88-minute documentary about Welles’s unfinished projects.

Almost True: The Noble Art of Forgery (1997)

A 52-minute documentary about art forger Elmyr de Hory.

Interview

From 60 Minutes with Clifford Irving, from 2000, about his Howard Hughes autobiography hoax.

Press conference

From 1972 with Hughes exposing Irving’s hoax.

Extended 9-minute trailer


Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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