Trickery. Deceit. Magic. In F for Fake, a free-form sort-of documentary by Orson Welles, the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully re-engages 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 both an inspired prank and a clever examination of the essential duplicity of cinema.
Extras
SPECIAL FEATURES
New, high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
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 (Blu-ray only)
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
