Orson Welles

F for Fake

F for Fake

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.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1975
  • 88 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.66:1
  • English
  • Spine #288

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Audio commentary from 2005 by cowriter and star Oja Kodar and director of photography Gary Graver
  • Introduction from 2005 by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
  • Episode of the talk show Tomorrow from 1975 featuring an extensive interview with Welles
  • Orson Welles: One-Man Band, a documentary from 1995 about Welles’s unfinished projects
  • Almost True: The Noble Art of Forgery, a fifty-two-minute documentary from 1997 about art forger Elmyr de Hory
  • 60 Minutes interview from 2000 with Clifford Irving about his Howard Hughes autobiography hoax
  • Audio recording of Hughes’s 1972 press conference exposing Irving’s hoax
  • Extended, nine-minute trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum

New cover by Neil Kellerhouse

Purchase Options

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Audio commentary from 2005 by cowriter and star Oja Kodar and director of photography Gary Graver
  • Introduction from 2005 by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
  • Episode of the talk show Tomorrow from 1975 featuring an extensive interview with Welles
  • Orson Welles: One-Man Band, a documentary from 1995 about Welles’s unfinished projects
  • Almost True: The Noble Art of Forgery, a fifty-two-minute documentary from 1997 about art forger Elmyr de Hory
  • 60 Minutes interview from 2000 with Clifford Irving about his Howard Hughes autobiography hoax
  • Audio recording of Hughes’s 1972 press conference exposing Irving’s hoax
  • Extended, nine-minute trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum

New cover by Neil Kellerhouse

F for Fake
Cast
Orson Welles
Oja Kodar
Elmyr de Hory
Clifford Irving
François Reichenbach
Gary Graver
Pablo Picasso?
Credits
Director
Orson Welles
Written by
Orson Welles
Written by
Oja Kodar
Photography
Gary Graver
Music
Michel Legrand
Edited by
Marie-Sophie Dubus
Edited by
Dominique Engerer

Current

Peter Bogdanovich on F for Fake
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In this excerpt from a 2005 Criterion interview, filmmaker and writer Peter Bogdanovich offers a lucid introduction to Orson Welles’s cryptic F for Fake, the delightful sort-of documentary that takes as its subjects art forger Elmyr de Hory, Howard…
F for Fake: Orson Welles’s Purloined Letter
F for Fake: Orson Welles’s Purloined Letter
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