There is no other place where fact and fiction become more indistinguishable from one another than at the cinema. What you see isn’t always what you get: a manufactured image might feel genuine, while an image that feels inauthentic might be the real thing. The finest stories can often be found somewhere in the middle. As Pablo Picasso once said, “Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.”
Kate Plays Christine, the latest film from Actress and Fake It So Real director Robert Greene, caught a great deal of attention at Sundance — we gave it the highest grade at the festival — and is now in limited release. It’s a documentary that follows actress Kate Lyn Sheil (House of Cards) as she prepares for the role of Christine Chubbuck, a real-life news reporter who committed suicide via handgun on live television in 1974, and the...
Kate Plays Christine, the latest film from Actress and Fake It So Real director Robert Greene, caught a great deal of attention at Sundance — we gave it the highest grade at the festival — and is now in limited release. It’s a documentary that follows actress Kate Lyn Sheil (House of Cards) as she prepares for the role of Christine Chubbuck, a real-life news reporter who committed suicide via handgun on live television in 1974, and the...
- 8/31/2016
- by Tony Hinds
- The Film Stage
F for Fake
Written and directed by Orson Welles
France/Iran/West Germany, 1973
The most enjoyable thing about F for Fake is that Orson Welles seems to be having such fun with it. It’s rare to see a filmmaker displaying, though his actual presence and through the tools of his trade, such an unadulterated delight in expression. In fiction films, this sort of exuberance has to be limited, or at least contained to the degree of being still in the service of the narrative. Documentary films usually have their agenda or message, so there shouldn’t be too much to distract from these larger aims. Experimental films revel in the technique of filmmaking like Welles does here, but they are commonly done with such strained seriousness that they don’t necessarily feel, for lack of a better word, fun. Perhaps the reason F for Fake defies these general tendencies...
Written and directed by Orson Welles
France/Iran/West Germany, 1973
The most enjoyable thing about F for Fake is that Orson Welles seems to be having such fun with it. It’s rare to see a filmmaker displaying, though his actual presence and through the tools of his trade, such an unadulterated delight in expression. In fiction films, this sort of exuberance has to be limited, or at least contained to the degree of being still in the service of the narrative. Documentary films usually have their agenda or message, so there shouldn’t be too much to distract from these larger aims. Experimental films revel in the technique of filmmaking like Welles does here, but they are commonly done with such strained seriousness that they don’t necessarily feel, for lack of a better word, fun. Perhaps the reason F for Fake defies these general tendencies...
- 11/3/2014
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Documentary cinema has a lot of stories about the art world. It’s not surprising, really. Readings or lectures about art can be tedious to the average viewer, and fiction film often has trouble jazzing up the subject, but the standard model of doc filmmaking is ideal for conveying facts and concepts while keeping the audience engaged. Still, such films usually struggle to attract an audience, and it’s not hard to figure out why — art is usually seen as a stodgy field, fit only for snobs. And given how deep the ties run between fine art and the whims of the upper class, this is not an entirely unreasonable stereotype. This makes it particularly funny when someone comes along to upset the fruit cart. Sam Cullman and Jennifer Grausman‘s new film, Art and Craft, demonstrates what happened when museums discovered one forger who only donated and never sold his fakes. In...
- 9/23/2014
- by Nonfics.com
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Blu-ray Release Date: Oct. 21, 2014
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Orson Welles in his 1975 free-form documentary F for Fake
In 1975’s F for Fake, a free-form documentary by Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, The Stranger), the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully reengages with the central preoccupation of his career: the tenuous line 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.
Criterion previously issued F for Fake on DVD in 2005. This new Blu-ray edition ports over the bonus materials from that release, in addition to a handful of new features.
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Orson Welles in his 1975 free-form documentary F for Fake
In 1975’s F for Fake, a free-form documentary by Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, The Stranger), the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully reengages with the central preoccupation of his career: the tenuous line 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.
Criterion previously issued F for Fake on DVD in 2005. This new Blu-ray edition ports over the bonus materials from that release, in addition to a handful of new features.
- 7/25/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Great “auteur” filmmakers are known for having a style that carries throughout their films: Hitchcock had his trademark suspense, Godard has his knowing self-reflexivity, Romero has his zombies. These preferences unite the works in their filmography, but even master directors are susceptible to making bad films.
Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull lacked the verve of his other efforts, Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood was a definite misfire, and Wim Wenders’s The Million Dollar Hotel is just boring. This list is not about bad movies by good directors, rather it is a compilation of great films by great filmmakers that (for whatever reason) have been generally overlooked.
Without further ado, here is the list…
10. F For Fake (Orson Welles)
When your first picture is widely considered to be the greatest film of all time seventy years after its release, it can be difficult...
Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull lacked the verve of his other efforts, Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood was a definite misfire, and Wim Wenders’s The Million Dollar Hotel is just boring. This list is not about bad movies by good directors, rather it is a compilation of great films by great filmmakers that (for whatever reason) have been generally overlooked.
Without further ado, here is the list…
10. F For Fake (Orson Welles)
When your first picture is widely considered to be the greatest film of all time seventy years after its release, it can be difficult...
- 8/9/2013
- by Bryan Hickman
- Obsessed with Film
Made in 1973, this was Welles's last completed film as writer-director, though he lived for a further 12 years, appearing in mostly embarrassing movies. It's a documentary essay about fraud and fakes, making extensive use of footage from François Reichenbach's unfinished study of the art forger Elmyr de Hory, a tedious poseur. Reichenbach's film took on especial significance because it featured De Hory's friend Clifford Irving, the novelist who in 1972 became world famous for forging Howard Hughes's autobiography, a story later filmed by Lasse Hallström as The Hoax with Richard Gere as Irving.
Essentially, the amusing, gossamer-thin F for Fake is the old magician's apologia pro vita sua, suggesting everything is a fake and an illusion. At his most suave and mellifluous, the talkshow Prospero is here doing a Rumpelstiltskin act, trying to turn rough horsehair padding into gold. This is especially the case with the two long, pointless sections featuring Oja Kodar,...
Essentially, the amusing, gossamer-thin F for Fake is the old magician's apologia pro vita sua, suggesting everything is a fake and an illusion. At his most suave and mellifluous, the talkshow Prospero is here doing a Rumpelstiltskin act, trying to turn rough horsehair padding into gold. This is especially the case with the two long, pointless sections featuring Oja Kodar,...
- 8/25/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Orson Welles's penultimate film is a twinkly-eyed meditation on fake, front and movie make-believe
Orson Welles's penultimate film, from 1975, is a playful, personal essay, full of worldly cynicism and twinkly-eyed charm, a film about illusions with apparently no illusions of its own,but one that conceals a wintry sadness about Welles's life in the make-believe and trickery of the movies. Speaking direct to camera, as he edits and re-edits movie footage – other people's footage and his own – Welles presents the remarkable story of the notorious art forger Elmyr de Hory, who was living in some style in Ibiza, and whose biography was being written by the American author and journalist Clifford Irving. Irving, apparently intoxicated by the occult fabrication of talent and identity, went on himself to be a faker, scamming the American publishing world with what purported to be Howard Hughes's diaries. Welles meditates on fake...
Orson Welles's penultimate film, from 1975, is a playful, personal essay, full of worldly cynicism and twinkly-eyed charm, a film about illusions with apparently no illusions of its own,but one that conceals a wintry sadness about Welles's life in the make-believe and trickery of the movies. Speaking direct to camera, as he edits and re-edits movie footage – other people's footage and his own – Welles presents the remarkable story of the notorious art forger Elmyr de Hory, who was living in some style in Ibiza, and whose biography was being written by the American author and journalist Clifford Irving. Irving, apparently intoxicated by the occult fabrication of talent and identity, went on himself to be a faker, scamming the American publishing world with what purported to be Howard Hughes's diaries. Welles meditates on fake...
- 8/23/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★★ The final completed picture by the great enigmatic raconteur Orson Welles, F for Fake (1973) is a rarely seen but essential exploration of the world of art forgery, cinematic illusion and good old-fashioned fraud. Yet the film's conception was just as strange and mysterious as its content. Director François Reichenbach made a documentary about the famous Picasso forger Elmyr de Hory and his biographer Clifford Irving, but for some unknown reason turned his footage over to Welles who shot additional material.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 8/23/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Robert here, with my series Distant Relatives, where we look at two films, (one classic, one modern) related through a common theme and ask what their similarities and differences can tell us about the evolution of cinema. There's a mixed response on the internet in terms of how much of Exit Through the Gift Shop to reveal. Some people will tell you nothing, some will give you a smattering of plot. I'll do the latter, though I won't give away any secrets (for I know none) but I will discuss some of the mysteries.
F for Film
When Orson Welles made F for Fake in the mid-70's his reputation was somewhere between visionary director of the greatest movie ever (he'd won his honorary Oscar a few years earlier) and washed up, indecisive, expatriate. Far removed from the War of the Worlds episode, it's unclear how many people saw him...
F for Film
When Orson Welles made F for Fake in the mid-70's his reputation was somewhere between visionary director of the greatest movie ever (he'd won his honorary Oscar a few years earlier) and washed up, indecisive, expatriate. Far removed from the War of the Worlds episode, it's unclear how many people saw him...
- 1/13/2011
- by Robert
- FilmExperience
Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? As part of our monthly Ioncinephile profile (read here), we ask the filmmaker the incredibly arduous task of identifying their top ten list of favorite films. We cap off the year with Ry Russo-Young, whose Sundance Film Festival selected and Gotham Award winner You Wont Miss Me finally receives a December 10th release followed by a nationwide roll out. Here are Ry's Top 10 Films. Close-Up - Abbas Kiarostami (1990) "This film articulates the complex dialogue between art and life. Part documentary, part staged re-enactment with real subjects, it’s about the trial of a man who impersonates the filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf." The Conversation - Francis Ford Coppola (1974) "The way sound is used, the paranoia and the incredible use of Gene Hackman’s grey raincoat." Days of Heaven - Terrence Malick (1978) "I know a lot of...
- 12/4/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
Well folks, it’s been a while, but Netflix has finally added several more Criterion Collection films to their Watch Instantly streaming options. Back in December we saw a rather large group of films added, with each following month adding fewer and fewer Criterion films. This past week has seen the addition of 8 films (one on April 1st, and 7 on the 3rd), all of which you should add to your Queue.
We recently reported that Jean Luc Godard’s Breathless would be re-released in theaters with a new transfer this month as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival, with a general release at the end of May in New York, and a national roll out afterwards. You can now see the film that made our writer James McCormick’s Top Ten Jean Paul Belmondo Film list, via Watch Instantly. It will be interesting to see if this print of...
We recently reported that Jean Luc Godard’s Breathless would be re-released in theaters with a new transfer this month as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival, with a general release at the end of May in New York, and a national roll out afterwards. You can now see the film that made our writer James McCormick’s Top Ten Jean Paul Belmondo Film list, via Watch Instantly. It will be interesting to see if this print of...
- 4/3/2010
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.