F for Fake
Directed by Orson Welles • 1975 • France, Iran, Germany
Trickery. Deceit. Magic. 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. Beginning with portraits of the world-renowned art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally devious biographer, Clifford Irving, Welles embarks on a dizzying 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 clever examination of the essential duplicity of cinema.
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F for Fake
Directed by Orson Welles • 1975 • France, Iran, Germany
Trickery. Deceit. Magic. 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 illu...
Extras
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F FOR FAKE Commentary
Recorded in 2004 and 2005, this audio commentary features F FOR FAKE star and coauthor Oja Kodar and director of photography Gary Graver.
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Morgan Neville on F FOR FAKE
The documentary filmmaker on Orson Welles’s magic trick of an essay film
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Jonathan Lethem on F FOR FAKE
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Alan Cumming on F FOR FAKE
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Rian Johnson on F FOR FAKE
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Peter Bogdanovich on F FOR FAKE
This introduction by filmmaker and writer Peter Bogdanovich was recorded in 2005.
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Orson Welles: One-Man Band
Orson Welles completed eleven feature films as a director and left behind countless fragments of his work in front of and behind the camera. He gave these bits and pieces to his companion, Oja Kodar, who joined with filmmakers Vassili Silovic and Roland Zag to create this remarkable 1995 film, mo...
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Almost True: The Noble Art of Forgery
This documentary, made in 1997 by Yellow Cottage Productions for the Norwegian Film Institute, is the film F FOR FAKE might have been had director Orson Welles played it straight. With investigative zeal, it tracks the career and claims of art forger Elmyr de Hory, from the cloudy circumstances o...
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Howard Hughes Press Conference
In F FOR FAKE, director Orson Welles uses excerpts from a 1972 press conference that Howard Hughes conducted, by telephone, in order to discredit the Clifford Irving “autobiography” of him. In the following piece, audio of Hughes’s answers is accompanied by text of the reporters’ questions.
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Orson Welles: On the Nose
Learn how a master storyteller shaped his characters from their noses down.
