F for Fake
Orson Welles' historical reputation as a cinema innovator notwithstanding, his career took a turn from the brilliant to the absurd and back again in his later life. Welles directed two masterpieces in his time—one at the very beginning of his film career (Citizen Kane), and one when he was thought to be washed up (Touch of Evil) after a series of misunderstood box-office duds led to a self-imposed exile in Europe. So it's no surprise when watching F for Fake to find Welles turning the documentary format on its head with a labyrinthine tale of forgery, fraud and fakery.
It's not quite a documentary, really, but it's certainly not fiction either; though fiction is the topic at hand. It's a blended story of a pair of real fakers and the filmmaker telling their tale, whose job it is to fool his audience into believing the usually fictional narratives he spins. Using editing techniques 25 years ahead of their time, Welles arranges a dazzling collision of verisimilitude and flat-out canards: fact (the forged art work of Elmyr de Hory and fraudulent writing Clifford Irving) and fiction (de Hory's life story and Welles' own history of fooling the public). But which is which and who is telling the truth? It's a brilliant tapestry of fact, half-truths and downright fabrications which intentionally misdirect the viewer as to what is real and what is fake and leaves behind the distinct pleasure of having been simultaneously entertained and duped. Should we expect anything less from a master magician like Orson Welles?
- November 17, 2008
DVD Extras
The main disc includes a very informative introduction by director Peter Bogdanovich, who was also a close friend and biographer of Welles. There is also an audio commentary track from director of photography Gary Graver. The bonus disc contains a bittersweet film about Welles' unfinished projects and a more linear version of F for Fake, as if it had been a straight-up documentary about art forger Elmyr de Hory. There is also a 60 Minutes interview with Clifford Irving and audio tracks of Howard Hughes' telephone interview in which he confirms Irving's biography as a hoax.