f for fake

F for Fake has grown somewhat in stature over the years. The story about Kodar, her grandfather, and Picasso and some forger paintings that the grandfather supposedly made is presented at the end of the film before Welles reminds the viewer that he only promised to tell the truth for an hour and that "for the last 17 minutes, I've been lying my head off." He admits the entire story of Kodar, her grandfather, and Picasso was made up. 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. Welles thought he was creating a new form of cinema. Genre. A mixture of documentary footage shot by others (some of it featuring Welles himself), archive footage, photos, and footage Welles shot specifically for the film, F for Fake offers as its ostensible subject a scandalous case concerning dubious authorship: Clifford Irving’s allegedly bogus biography of his friend Elmyr de Hory, himself best known as a forger reputedly responsible for many of the world’s most … "[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. On the way, Welles plays a few tricks of his own on the audience. The trailer has subsequently been restored in colour, and is included as an extra on some DVD versions of the film. 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. 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. F for fake As technology becomes more sophisticated, it is likely to involve a more insidious erosion of facts, rather than grand deceptions in the style of War of the Worlds . 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. 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. A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in a Mexican border town. Aliens invaded America on October 30, 1938. 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). Tweet. 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. F for Fake is a minor work in some ways, but there is fascination and poignancy in seeing Welles's elegant retreat into this hall of mirrors. Countries. All the while Orson Welles narrates about the profundities of playing tricks on the mind and how we are so easily fooled by tricks that lay right under our noses. The films quick pace never lets up and Welles never ceases to narrate the film with the utmost spite and poignancy. When writer Jonathan Rosenbaum asked Welles if he was creating a documentary, he replied, “No, not a documentary — a new kind of film. This FAQ is empty. He even plays a few tricks of his own on his audience so that the film accumulates into one big allegorical maze. 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. 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. Kodar is then shown strolling around a street in a miniskirt while being ogled by the men on the street. 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. 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. 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). If you are expecting a Citizen Kane type Welles film you will be disappointed. Welles recounts his own past use of fakery: how he got a job in Ireland by falsely claiming to be a famous New York actor, and how his broadcast of War of the Worlds made deliberate use of fake news to enhance the story. Based on an existing documentary by François Reichenbach , it included new material with Oja Kodar, Joseph Cotten, Paul Stewart and William Alland . Elmyr insists he never signed any forgery, and Welles wonders whether, given the fact that all art eventually falls away to ruin, a signature truly matters to any art work. 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. Fascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot. F for Fake playfully poses intriguing questions while proving that even Orson Welles' minor works contain their share of masterful moments. It's post-mass communication, but pre-internet, pre-CGI. Add the first question. “ Perhaps the prime example of the post-modernist artwork, F for Fake is a somewhat faked film about the possibly fake biography of a truly great art faker- or a man who claims to be a truly great art maker.” F for Fake is the most unconventional and fascinating documentary I've ever seen. He also notes the coincidence that his first film Citizen Kane was originally going to be a fictionalized version of Howard Hughes.[2]. His biographer is in on the hoax as well, documenting his life as if he were really a painter. Welles does do a fantastic job at putting the film together though and his meticulous nature in editing becomes very evident after the first ten minutes of the film. Irving's original part in F for Fake was as de Hory's biographer, but his part grew unexpectedly at some point during production. 1975. [11] More likely, Welles was influenced by those that came before, such as the French New Wave director Jean Luc Godard and Dadaist filmmakers like René Clair who used editing to alternately build and deconstruct. Elmyr is shown throwing a dinner party at his home in Ibiza and being feted by European society, although he dances around the question of whether he is guilty or not. Film details. He then sells them as if they were originals. On the way, Welles plays a few tricks of his own on the audience. In introducing this chapter of his life, Welles declares his uncertainty as to his own authenticity, as he believes he too has engaged in fraud. He illustrates the point by shots of the cathedral of Chartres, pointing out that the names of the men who created the magnificent building and the sculptures which adorn it are unknown. There has not always been agreement among commentators over just how that production unfolded, but the now-accepted story[5] is that the director François Reichenbach shot a documentary about de Hory and Irving before giving his footage to Welles, who then shot additional footage with Reichenbach as his cinematographer. She also claims credit for the movie's opening sequence, which consists of shots of a miniskirt-clad Kodar walking down streets while rubbernecking male admirers (unaware that they are being filmed) stop and openly stare. Welles says her story will continue later in the film, and then narrates the story of Elmyr de Hory, an art forger who sold many fake paintings to museums and collectors all over the world. [8] The film embraces ideas from the self-conscious notation of the film process to the ironic employment of 1950s-era B movie footage (Earth vs. the Flying Saucers). F for Fake is a 1974 film, released in 1975 in the United States. 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