It was precisely right to spawn the revolution in narrative layering. Pretending to quote a conversation between herself and Picasso, Who Is Q? Was this review helpful to you? This project is the next best thing. I'm puzzled to find that there is no mention in this article of the theory proposed by Robert Anton Wilson that F for Fake is largely itself a fake. (De Hory would commit suicide two years after the initial release of Welles's film, on hearing that Spain had agreed to turn him over to the French authorities.). Magic, forgery, fraud, everything false is covered and dissected in this short but very real documentary. For those who don't know, the Kane experiment was initiated not by Welles but Mankiewicz. An unassuming office worker is arrested and stands trial, but he is never made aware of his charges. F for Fake (French: Vérités et mensonges, "Truths and lies") is a 1973 docudrama film co-written, directed by, and starring Orson Welles who worked on the film alongside François Reichenbach, Oja Kodar, and Gary Graver. Film, Documentaries. Some very clever editing is used to merge the layers, even though nearly all the camera-work is mundane. This discovery prompted the shooting of still more footage, which then got woven into F for Fake. Secondly, many of the interviews in the film were with people who were themselves directly involved with forgery in one way or another, often making statements that would have been known by the filmmakers to be false, but which were allowed to pass without comment in the film. Kodar is then shown strolling around a street in a miniskirt while being ogled by the men on the street. (This remark, incidentally, is what triggered Scorcese's interest.) Principal photography took place between 1957 and 1969. In one sense, it all comes down to style. Reichenbach is shown telling how Elmyr provided him with several paintings of questionable authenticity, but the art dealers he gave them to were willfully blind to it. Similarly, Welles himself made numerous false statements about Oja Kodar in the film. Welles begins F for Fake by performing several magic tricks and claiming that filmmaking is prestidigitation and tricks the viewer into seeing something that the viewer willfully accepts. 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). Director. Genre. Keith Woodward explains: "following Irving’s hoax, Welles and his cinematographer, Gary Graver, shifted gears, scrambling to keep up with the Hughes affair, adding new shots, re-thinking the narrative, re-editing, re-combining different themes, incorporating emerging material. Time Out says. He wonders if believing such stories makes a person credulous or not, and questions the true wisdom of so-called experts, who verified Irving's forgery as authentic. Welles presents more of Irving's story of having had secret contact with Hughes, and the odd stories of Hughes's behavior that may or may not have been true. Exhilarating, hilarious, and marvelously idiosyncratic, F for Fake comes to us from that late period of Orson Welles' cinema which, although perhaps less widely known than his Hollywood years, nevertheless found one of the movies' greatest masters at the top of his powers. Which Film Has the Most Diabolical Con Artist(s)? This sequence is described by Kodar as inspired by her feminism; in his narration, Welles claims the footage was originally shot for an unrelated production. The film grew over time to encompass de Hory, as well as de Hory's biographer Clifford Irving, who was revealed to be a forger himself. (You should know that in the lore of folded narrative (which goes through cabala to Finnigans Wake), there are exactly 22 folds you can make and no more.) I f Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil, The Trial and Chimes at Midnight are Orson Welles’ hearty and substantial cinematic plats principaux, then F for Fake is his devilish little after dinner digestif whose flavours are no less intense, complex and robust. F for Fake is part documentary about art forgery, and part a forgery itself - but a forgery that doesn't take itself seriously, and is completely forthright about being one. In addition to the 88-minute film, in 1976 Welles also shot and edited a self-contained 9-minute short film as a "trailer", almost entirely composed of original material not found in the main film itself. Orson Welles uses a fractured narrative combined with dazzling illusions and intricate interviews to weave a complex tale of blurring the lines. In F for Fake, a free-form sort-of documentary by Orson Welles, the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully reengages with the central preoccupation of his career: the tenuous lines between illusion and truth, art and lies. 1975. Especially haunting were all the types of layers he discovered after Kane. This contradicts published accounts that the film was inspired by the life of, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Orson Welles box office information in France, "Hanky-Panky Men: Orson Welles' F for Fake", "Orson Welles's: "Complicitous Critique: Postmodern Paradox in, "Video: 'F for Fake' Joins Orson Welles Rarities", It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles, Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=F_for_Fake&oldid=1014344730, American avant-garde and experimental films, Articles needing additional references from July 2014, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Alexander Welles – Special Participant (as Sasa Devcic), 1995 Home Vision Cinema, Janus Films VHS (FAK 010), 25 July 1995, 2010 Eureka Video: Masters of Cinema, Region 2 DVD (Spine #31) – Special features include audio commentary by cinematographer, This page was last edited on 26 March 2021, at 15:34. About de Hory, we learn that he was a struggling artist who turned to forgery out of desperation, only to see the greater share of the profits from his deceptions go to doubly unscrupulous art dealers. It's a film about fakes and frauds, including the art forger Elmyr de Hory, the biography forger Clifford Irving, the mystery man Howard Hughes and even the young Orson Welles of the famous " War of the Worlds " hoax. [7], F for Fake faced widespread popular rejection. He apologizes, quotes Picasso's statement that art is a lie that makes us see the truth, and bids the audience good evening. Select media. It is unclear where Welles's participation stops and his lesser-known collaborators begins, as the film employs multiple editors, multiple directors, multiple cross cuttings of unrelated footage and the often erratic use of creative geography as well as multiple voice-overs. "[3] Welles used these circumstances to produce a meditation on the nature of fakery, which he called " a new kind of movie … it’s a form, in other words, the essay, the personal essay, as opposed to the documentary. He admits the entire story of Kodar, her grandfather, and Picasso was made up. They did not sign their work, but it has endured. A couple's honeymoon trip aboard a yacht leads to a claustrophobic drama when another vessel runs into their voyage, apparently drifting. Based on an existing documentary by François Reichenbach , it included new material with Oja Kodar, Joseph Cotten, Paul Stewart and William Alland . (The number and type would be later exceeded by "Annie Hall," but no one would consider it a triggering idea by then.) "[9], On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 7.79/10. One of those filmed is Clifford Irving, who had published a biography of Elmyr called Fake, and later in a notorious scandal was revealed to have been the forger of a fake "authorized biography" of Howard Hughes. Author Robert Anton Wilson, a great fan of the film, argued in Cosmic Trigger III: My Life After Death that the film was itself largely an intentional effort at fakery by Welles in support of the film's themes. HBO’s QAnon Docuseries May Have The Answer, Grammys Live Stream: How to Watch the 2021 Grammy Awards Online Free, Kimmel Looks Back on What People Thought About Covid Just Before the Pandemic (Video), Sight & Sound: Greatest Documentaries of All Time. But he doesn't stop there. Welles reveals the footage is taken from another experiment about girl-watching, where Kodar deliberately drew attention to herself and the men were unaware they were being filmed. "[10], According to some reviews, the F for Fake mash-up has possibly paved the way for the modern "attention-deficit" style of editing. In F For Fake the very nature of filmmaking is under the microscope, Welles illustrates how, through the process of editing, footage can be manipulated to suggest connections, deceive and add humour. Welles promises that for the next hour everything in the film will be based on solid fact. Title: (A story about a storyman.) Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching. Use the HTML below. But it is also an essay film, a candid-camera lark, an autobiography, and a straight-up master class in narrative filmmaking on a shoestring. Answer Cut: A frenetic and tense zigzagging. Initially released in 1974, it focuses on Elmyr de Hory's recounting of his career as a professional art forger; de Hory's story serves as the backdrop for a meandering investigation of the natures of authorship and authenticity, as well as the basis of the value of art. 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