Orson Welles was a magician. Every aspect of his career, from his Voodoo Macbeth on Broadway to the technical wizardry of Citizen Kane and to his final film, F For Fake, made that clear. F For Fake was released in 1975 to no acclaim whatsoever. Today, the film is considered a classic. It is literally an 88 minute lesson in how to edit a film and how to play with an audience. We could call it a documentary, but part of it is fiction. You could call it a fiction, but the film involves all real people using their real names. It is, in fact, a film essay.
Welles tells the story of Elmyr de Hory, an infamous art forger. De Hory’s biographer, who also appears in the film, is Clifford Irving, another infamous forger. Irving wrote a fake autobiography on Howard Hughes (Irving was played by Richard Gere in the 2007 film, The Hoax). Here Welles explores the connections between the two fakers. Welles even pokes fun at ‘experts.’ Some would confirm that de Hory’s works were real and Irving’s Hughes biography was real, but others would say they were outright frauds. What is real? What someone ‘says’ is true or what actually is? This part of the film, is ,of course, true, but like Welles reminds the audience, he did only promise that the first hour would be true.
The next half hour of the film is taken up by the story of Pablo Picasso and his relationship with Oja Kodar, a woman Welles was involved with in the latter part of his life. This is all fake, though. “For the last 15 minutes, I’ve been lying my head off,” he bluntly tells the audience, laughing in our faces.
F For Fake was, unfortunately, the last film Welles was able to complete before his death in 1985. Welles edited the film tirelessly for a year, packing on the layers of information to a point where you even question whether or not the first hour has any truth in it too. The film questions what it means to be an artist, who exactly is an expert and what makes reality real. When you watch the film, it isn’t such a stretch to see that while Citizen Kane may be the best film Welles ever made, F For Fake is the most fun.