F for Fake (1973) Vérités et mensonges (original title)

Director:

Orson Welles

Writer:

Orson Welles (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

12 March 1975 (France)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

A documentary about fraud and fakery.

Plot Keywords:

Biographer | Fraud | Nonlinear Timeline | Magician | Film Essay

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Orson Welles	...	Himself
Oja Kodar	...	The Girl
Joseph Cotten	...	Special Participant
François Reichenbach	...	Special Participant
Richard Wilson	...	Special Participant
Paul Stewart	...	Special Participant
Alexander Welles	...	Special Participant (as Sasa Devcic)
Gary Graver	...	Special Participant
Andrés Vicente Gómez	...	Special Participant (as Andres Vincente Gomez)
Julio Palinkas	...	Special Participant
Christian Odasso	...	Special Participant
Françoise Widhoff	...	Special Participant (as Françoise Widoff)
Peter Bogdanovich	...	Special Participant (voice)
William Alland	...	Special Participant (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jean-Pierre Aumont	...	Himself (uncredited)
Elmyr de Hory	...	Himself (uncredited)
Laurence Harvey	...	Himself (uncredited)
Clifford Irving	...	Himself (uncredited)
Nina Van Pallandt	...	Herself (uncredited)

Directed by
Orson Welles

Writing credits
Orson Welles		(writer)
Oja Kodar		uncredited

Produced by
François Reichenbach	....	executive producer
Dominique Antoine	....	producer (uncredited)
Richard Drewitt	....	associate producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Michel Legrand

Cinematography by
François Reichenbach

Film Editing by
Marie-Sophie Dubus
Dominique Engerer
Orson Welles		(uncredited)

Sound Department
Paul Bertault	....	sound mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Gary Graver	....	photographer: USA and Toussaint
Christian Odasso	....	photographer: France and Ibiza
Georges Pierre	....	still photographer (uncredited)
R. Michael Stringer	....	gaffer (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Dominique Boischot	....	assistant editor
Anne-Marie Engerer	....	assistant editor
Elisabeth Moulinier	....	assistant editor

Production Companies

• Janus Film
• SACI

Distributors

• Specialty Films (1977) (USA) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Ripley's Home Video (2005) (Italy) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Auditel  sound recording
• LAX Lab.  titles
• Roger Beaulieu  furs
• S.I.S.  sound recording
• Sonoparc Antegor  editing unit

Also Known As:

"Vérités et mensonges" - France (original title)
"About Fakes" - International (English title) (copyright title)
"Truths and Lies" - International (English title) (literal title)

Runtime:

USA:89 min

Country:

France | Iran | West Germany

Language:

English | French | Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:PG | Finland:K-12 | Netherlands:12 | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Aéroport d'Orly Sud, Val-de-Marne, France

Company:

Janus Film

Trivia:

Hidden within a montage of footage of Howard Hughes is one brief shot of a man disembarking from a ship who looks similar to Hughes, but is actually actor Don Ameche.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The word "practitioners" is misspelled "practioners" in the opening credits.

Quotes:

Orson Welles:Ladies and gentleman, by way of introduction, this is a film about trickery, fraud, about lies. Tell it by the fireside or in a marketplace or in a movie, almost any story is almost certainly some kind of lie. But not this time. This is a promise. For the next hour, everything you hear from us is really true and based on solid fact.

Movie Connections:

Version of The Hoax (2006)

The masterful legacy of the man who changed the history of modern cinema

"F for fake" stands for the last movie Orson Welles really directed and, as for many artistic legacies it's the final demonstration of the genius of the artist, becoming some kind of briefing of his entire career.

It's hard to explain this movie and why I really enjoyed because, as many other Welles's movies, it's full of surprises and twists.

Filmed as a Documentary, this film introduces us the personae of Elmyr, a painter who lives out of painting copies of famous pictures of Van Gogh, Picasso, Vlaminck and many others and making them look like they're the original one. Welles also introduces to us two more people; an actress and a biographer.

With many resemblances to Welles's own life, the director of such wonderful pieces as "Citizen Kane" and "Touch of Evil" plays with the audience some sort of magical trickery. What is real and what is not? If Elmyr is able to paint a perfect copy of a famous picture and fool the world greatest experts, is he as good artist as the originals he's copying?

Working as a perfect metaphore of Welles own experiences in art (he's not only been movie director but radio speaker and even painter) "F for Fake" remains as a perfect legacy of the ideas of one of the greatest and most gifted cinema artists. Don't miss it!