Review of F for Fake (1973) by Martin T — 27 Jun 2008
Orson Welles' last completed film, and one which could be one of his finest ones, is a playfully, playform experimental quasai-documentary about forgery, and he uses two examples, art-forger Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving, who wrote the supposed "authorized biography" of Howard Hughes.
Welles lectures the audience that a forgery is a form of art, and that he himself used forgery to get into theatre. The whole film is a deception, a piece where Welles tells us the truth for an hour, and then, for the last 17 mins, tells us a very convincing story about Picasso, which is all false.
Alot of this was from an abandoned documentary by François Reichenbach, but Welles makes it his own, using some clever tricks to deceive his audience and it does put in a good case for forgery, no matter how wrong it is.
This review of F for Fake (1973) was written by Martin T on 27 Jun 2008.
F for Fake has generally received very positive reviews.
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