F for Fake
Composite Score: 82.5
Featuring: Orson Welles, Oja Kodar, François Reichenbach, Elmyr de Hory, Clifford Irving, Laurence Harvey, Edith Irving, and Howard Hughes
Directors: Orson Welles, Gary Graver, and Oja Kodar
Writers: Orson Welles and Oja Kodar
Genres: Documentary, History, Biography, Drama
MPAA Rating: PG
Box Office: $10,206 worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
F for Fake is Orson Welles’s documentary/video essay on the practice of fakery and fraud, focusing on the stories of art forger Elmyr de Hory, false biographer Clifford Irving, and his own escapades in falsehood. It’s a fascinating watch unlike anything else I’ve seen. Welles crafts a gripping commentary on authenticity, fakes, experts, illusions, and storytelling all at once. Its blend of documentary filmmaking, dramatic reenactments, and archive footage all narrated by Welles is sure to leave its audience thinking hard about a lot of things once the credits roll and Mr. Welles bids them all, “Good evening.”
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
While it’s often better to go into films totally blind, this particular documentary is not particularly kind to an uneducated audience. The focus of the film revolves around a famous art forger whose biographer tried to publish a fake autobiography of the billionaire Howard Hughes, and it also contains references to the start of Welles’s own career. Altogether, there’s a lot of information that gets thrown at the audience in the first thirty minutes of the film, and it can become overwhelming if you have no prior knowledge of anything going on. This is not to say that knowing about these things would make the film any easier to follow, as it is intentionally muddled to play into its theme of fakes. However, having some understanding going into the film will make its first thirty minutes feel less like drinking from a fire hydrant and more like drinking from a shower head.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
One thing that good documentaries tend to do really well is their film editing, and F for Fake has that in spades. The way that Welles and his team spliced together footage of his own monologuing with b-footage of Oja Kodar walking the streets in a mini-skirt, archive footage of Howard Hughes, shots from 1950s alien invasion films, and documentary interviews with Irving and de Hory equally baffles and entertains the audience as they are bombarded with information both real and fake. The film’s very design sets its audience up to fail as they determine whether anything they are hearing and seeing is authentic or if the film itself is also a fake, and the editing makes this sensation possible.
I also see Orson Welles as a personality worth watching. This particular film essay is so aggressively on brand with Welles as both an actor and director, featuring his voiceovers, magician-esque outfits, and a wealth of his opinions stated as facts. Welles’s in-your-face, grandiose style might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s certainly mine, and in the context of F for Fake, it adds to the feel of being a part of some fakery. Welles delivers a performance in a documentary that allows his audience to feel that he, as a filmmaker, is a magician who is bringing them along as part of his show. It adds so much to the broader themes and entertainment factor of the film. Say what you will about Orson Welles, but he knows how to make a wildly fun film.
With the personality of its writer/director/narrator Welles coming through in every meticulously edited moment, F for Fake delivers a shining example of what documentaries/film essays can be – worth watching, entertaining, and informative all at once – making its place among the Greatest Films of All Time make perfect sense. Though unfamiliarity with the film’s subject matter might be a stumbling block in the film’s early minutes, the payoffs in the back half and overall thought-provoking nature of the film more than make up for some early confusion. This film is currently available to stream on HBO Max, and I highly recommend you check it out when you have 90 minutes to spare.
