Movie Description
Orson Welles has a ball examining the nature of what is real and what is fake in the funny, bizarre F FOR FAKE. Four people stand at the center of this documentary: Elmyr de Hory, who some believe forged more than a thousand masterpieces, many of which hang in some of the world's most famous museums; Clifford Irving, who is not only out to prove what a fake Elmyr is but also wrote a fake biography of Howard Hughes; Oja Kodar, who claims that Pablo Picasso painted 22 canvases of her that no one has ever seen; and Welles himself, who harks back to his days creating the havoc-causing THE WAR OF THE WORLDS for radio. But the true star of the film is the editing; from absurd stock footage to shots of Welles smirking into the camera from different locations to scenes with a monkey scurrying about, the film is vastly entertaining to watch. F FOR FAKE is an underrated, underappreciated work of comic genius about the nature of reality, celebrity, and art, by a master filmmaker showing a surprisingly wicked sense of humor.
| Credits | | Producer: | Dominique Antoine, Francois Reichenbach | | Cast: | Laurence Harvey, Oja Kodar |
Notes
The film premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September 1974.
Shot on location in the United States, France, Toussaint, and Ibiza.
Among the other titles considered for the film were VÉRITÉS ET MENSONGES (TRUTH OR LIES), ?, QUESTION MARK, and HOAX.
Director Orson Welles used footage that François Reichenbach had already shot for the original documentary.
Welles connects himself to Clifford Irving by stating that Howard Hughes (the subject of Irving's hoax) was the initial basis for CITIZEN KANE.
Welles and Oja Kodar were close friends and associates in the latter years of Welles's life.
The opening credits, which humorously appear on film canisters, contain a misspelling of the word "practitioners" ("practioners").
Christian Odasso shot the scenes in France and Ibiza; Gary Graver shot the scenes in the U.S. and Toussaint.
Near the end of the film there is a shot of Welles, against a dark background, that perfectly mimics the famous first shot of Welles as Harry Lime in THE THIRD MAN, one of the greatest shots in film history.
The film took about a year to edit; interestingly, much of the film contains shots of filmstrips and editing rooms.
This was one of Orson Welles's last films.
Editorial Reviews
"...A charming, witty meditation....If it is a fake, it's a marvelous one..."
New York Times - Vincent Canby (02/26/1977)
"...[An] artfully assembled essay about forgery, swindling and living the good life on modest resources..."
USA Today - Mike Clark (07/28/1995)
"Welles splices together a nonlinear meditation on fraud with a jump-cut, call-and-response style that predates MTV and other imitators."
Entertainment Weekly - Gregory Kirschling (04/29/2005)
"[The film] celebrates magic and sleight of hand, a skill Welles possessed from a young age and which he returns to with brio..."
Premiere - Andy Webster (05/01/2006)
4 stars out of 5 -- "Playful one moment, contemplative the next, it's prankster radicalism....A masterpiece of deceit..."
Uncut - Damien Love (02/01/2007)
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] definition-defying examination of trickery itself."
Total Film - Jonathan Crocker (03/01/2007)
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