F for Fake
Trickery. Deceit. Magic. In Orson Welles's free-form documentary F FOR FAKE, the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully engages the central preoccupation of his career -- the tenuous line between truth and illusion, art and lies. Beginning with portraits of world-renowned art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally devious biographer, Clifford Irving, Welles embarks on a dizzying cinematic 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 searching examination of the essential duplicity of cinema.
Running Time
89 mins
Year
1973
Kanopy ID
1113001
Filmmakers
Features
Languages
Subjects
Show More
Related videos
Sans Soleil
Chris Marker, filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor, and now videographer and digital multimedia artist, has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his complex queries about time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet. SANS SOLEIL is his mind-bending free-form travelogue that journeys from Africa…
London Orbital
'Maverick British director Chris Petit has produced one of this year's eeriest and most haunting films, London Orbital, a threnody to the M25.' Sunday Telegraph
'It is a mediation on the M25 and gives an intriguing history of the occult archaeology of London that the ring-road discloses ... Petit has…
Burden of Dreams
For nearly five years, acclaimed German filmmaker Werner Herzog desperately tried to complete one of the most ambitious and difficult films of his career, Fitzcarraldo, the story of one man's attempt to build an opera house deep in the Amazon jungle. Documentary filmmaker Les Blank captured the unfolding of this…
The Thoughts That Once We Had - A Personal History of Cinema
Described in an opening text as a "personal history of cinema, partially inspired by Gilles Deleuze," THE THOUGHTS THAT ONCE WE HAD from master cinematic essayist Thom Andersen (Los Angeles Plays Itself, Red Hollywood) is a richly digressive journey through cinema.
A found-footage film composed entirely of unidentified, yet often…
Stride, Soviet!
STRIDE, SOVIET! is a film intended to publicize, in the run-up to local elections, the work and accomplishments of the Moscow municipal council or "soviet." Dziga Vertov attempts a different kind of lecture film, one that disposes of staid commentary in favor of sharp visual conflicts that mimic the impact…
Unrequited Love - On Stalking & Being Stalked
A story of obsessive passion. Based on an English academic's memoir on stalking and being stalked, Unrequited Love is a dazzling digital film essay on cinema and absence, on Hitchcock and Antonioni, on cinema and cities. It is a story of waiting, self-delusion, panic, fear of violence, and of modern…
Five Obstructions
Lars von Trier now enters the world of documentary filmmaking alongside his idol, Danish filmmaker Jorgen Leth. In 1967, Leth made a 12 minute feature film called The Perfect Human. In the year 2000, von Trier challenged Jorgen Leth to remake his film five times, each time with a new…
Messages
Messages collects the personal and lyrical films of Guy Sherwin, one of the pre-eminent British film artists of the past forty years. This playlist features one of Sherwin's major film works 'Messages' (1981-4) a meditation on childhood and language inspired by the work of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and Sherwin's…
Guy Sherwin's Short Film Series 1975-2014
Guy Sherwin's acclaimed Short Film Series is a unique collection of interconnected 16mm 3 minute films started in 1975. The series is held together by certain formal considerations: each film is three minutes long, i.e. the length of a roll of 16mm film, all films are b/w and silent, and…
A Train Arrives at the Station - A Celebration of Film History's Most Famous Train Arrivals
Beginning with Ozu's The Only Son, Thom Andersen's latest cinematic treat, a documentary short, is an anthology of train arrivals, comprising 26 scenes from different films made between 1904 and 2015.
Official Selection at the Locarno International Film Festival.
Juke - Passages from the Films of Spencer Williams
In JUKE, Thom Andersen, director of cinematic masterworks like Los Angeles Plays Itself and The Thoughts That Once We Had reconsiders the films of Spencer Williams, the pioneering African American screenwriter, director, and actor whose 1940s melodramas centered on sinners and saints who are tempted by jazz and sex and…
Kino-Eye
A cinematographic poem in which Vertov lays the foundation of his Kino-Eye principles, the film shows the incredible force of his theories, but also the beauty and energy of a society fresh from revolution, ready to face the challenges of a difficult future.
Kino-Eye feature musical accompaniments by Alloy Orchestra…
Comments (2)
A wacky and informative sorta-documentary that has me really wanting to learn more about this story. I had no idea Welles could be so jovial, but he makes a perfect host. Loved the wild editing style and the zany characters on display.
Far too many folks treat Orson Welles’ works as museum pieces rather than inventive films worthy of enjoyment. Of course, he isn’t the only exceptional filmmaker to suffer such a fate. For anyone that finds his Shakespeare adaptations a chore (and they shouldn't), I highly recommend this ...Read more
Far too many folks treat Orson Welles’ works as museum pieces rather than inventive films worthy of enjoyment. Of course, he isn’t the only exceptional filmmaker to suffer such a fate. For anyone that finds his Shakespeare adaptations a chore (and they shouldn't), I highly recommend this remarkable quasi-documentary, the last theatrical feature completed in his lifetime (and before the cinephiles comment to correct me, FILMING OTHELLO was made for television).
Read less