F for Fake Reviews

5/5 ⭐️

Today in my film class, we discussed Orson Welles. Welles is my favorite director, although I’m still working my way through his films as both a director and an actor.

With this documentary, Welles returned to Hollywood after years of self-imposed exile, during which he worked extensively in Europe before coming back to his native United States. This “fake” documentary uses excerpts from an interview that Clifford Irving conducted with Elmyr de Hory, a notorious art forger who specialized in creating counterfeit paintings in the style of Pablo Picasso.

Everyone appearing in the documentary plays themselves rather than fictional characters, with the exception of The Girl, portrayed by Oja Kodar. The narrative is highly engaging, and the camerawork is excellent, making great use of medium shots and close-ups.

In my personal opinion, this is an exceptionally well-made documentary and yet another example of Welles’ brilliance as a cinematic artist.

A true story about forgery and the art of fake… or is it?

Holy crap you need to know SO much background info to understand anything that’s going on here. I had 7 Wikipedia’s tabs open by the end of this movie

watched for WRI101. very interesting!!